In 2018, Ohridska Banka Societe Generale (OBSG) proposed Solveo to support their continuous efforts to improve the quality of the performance of banking services and its commitment to meet the needs of its customers.
At the time of our collaboration, OBSG was a retail bank that was part of one of the largest financial groups in the world – the Societe Generale Group. As such, the bank operated according to the high standards of Societe Generale, respecting the four central values of the Group: team spirit, innovation, commitment, and responsibility.
For this purpose, we created the OBSG BUZZ hackathon – a 54-hour event placed over one weekend. The aim was to build a mobile banking solution and offer ambitious and creative people the opportunity to show their skills and knowledge, increase their network of contacts, and enrich their portfolio with projects.
Fifty inventive and enthusiastic young people took part in the Hackathon. Divided into nine multidisciplinary teams: design, marketing, finance, data analysts, e-business and development. They competed in producing an innovative but also a practical solution that will improve the way OBSG client are using the mobile banking applications.
With the help of the mentors from OBSG and Asseco, who gave them valuable banking insights and specific directions, the participants reconsidered the existing functionalities of the current application.
Then, they researched and brainstormed new possibilities to create goods desired by the younger generations. The facilitators from Solveo guided the teams using the Design Thinking methodology. Finally, they tested and validated their ideas to make sure their solutions are possible and viable.
All teams worked hard and dedicated over the three days to present and explain their solutions before the expert jury. The jury consisted of executive directors from both OBSG and Aseeco. In addition, a team representative had to explain the features and why they chose them, the unique values of the solution, and why the users would pay for their product.
The winning team offered a mobile banking application named “My bank, my friend.” The application provided many innovative traits such as the easy login feature, customizing options, and smart savings. This idea received a prize fund of 1,500 euros from Ohridska Banka Societe Generale.
“For me as a student, the OBSG BUZZ Hackathon was a great and unforgettable experience. My team and I managed to create a new application for Ohridska Banka, which in our opinion, will lead to a better future for banking in Macedonia. And of course, we are delighted that we won,” said one of the winners, Stefan Despotovski.