Komunitná inovácia zvíťazila v Intrumhack výzve

Intrumhack took place on April 11-12 in Espoo, Finland gathering participants from education institutions, startups, SMEs and other organisations. During the 32-hours long hackathon, the teams had the possibility to develop and demonstrate their concepts in a professional environment. They had access to real data from Intrum and the expertise of mentors from several partner organizations and international universities.

The 12 teams came up with unique ideas that utilized the visualization of data, cloud analytics and artificial intelligence technology, mobile apps, chat bots and other technologies. All of the teams used the data in a creative way and developed intuitive, customer-centric solutions.

The winning team IMMIT - a group of four international students and first-time hackathon winners - developed a concept around building a digital support community for people in the similar financial situation. The solution included features like personalized payment plan, financial advisory and a chat function. The team had representatives from three different nationalities: Dutch, Finnish and French.

"We realised that debt is more than money. It has impacts in every aspect of live, and most strikingly, makes one feel frustrated, and finally, depressed. Peers and support groups can have tangible difference in life quality, and hence getting back on track with financials. Our application has four key features that each has their own purpose. The possibility to get support from peers is what makes this one so special and so effective”, team IMMIT comments.

Two out of three additional prizes were collected by Team Phoenix, whose innovative concept demonstrated both advanced technical implementation and feasible business case. Tieto awarded the team with a EUR 2000 prize and IBM awarded the team with a coaching session in the IBM Cloud Garage in Copenhagen to take the concept further. Team Bite created a reward program-solution dedicated for youth and was awarded a prize by Nordic Capital - tickets to the exclusive Singularity University Summit in Stockholm later this year. Nordic Finance Innovation also gave all participants a copy of “Digital Human”, the latest book by Chris Skinner.

New solutions to develop consumer’s financial wellbeing
Intrum now plans to test and develop the concepts further, demonstrating how Intrumhack represents an important step in Intrum’s journey to become more customer-centric company. The hackathon is just one of many initiatives aimed at driving digitalisation and innovation at Intrum. As the market-leading credit management company, it has both the opportunity and responsibility to change the way people perceive credit management.

"We need new solutions and ideas to develop our business. This hackathon proved to be a great concept for bringing out and demonstrating new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking," said Louise Karlander, Head of Innovation, Intrum.

“Intrumhack is one of the best examples of open innovation events. It offered opportunities for rapid learning, building partnerships and boosting the digital transformation. We have also tested a new approach to facilitate ideas sharing and early validation - teams practiced pitching their ideas to fintech professionals and got feedback ahead of the final pitch to the jury during the second day.  This has challenged the teams to clearly indicate customer value in their concepts in addition to outlining the technological innovation they offered,“ comments Ksenia Avetisova, Strategic Innovation Lead, Tieto Experience Hub.

Intrum chose Finland to host its first hackathon, as the country’s strong startup and innovation community offers a fertile ground for new innovations.

For further information https://campaigns.tieto.com/intrumhack