This year’s Microsoft and SAP ANZ hackathon revolved around the theme “The Evolution of Work”, showcasing new innovative solutions that address real-world challenges that go beyond the pandemic.
Microsoft and SAP’s synergistic partnership has witnessed increasing longevity even during disruptive times. Their deep integration, both in technology and alliance, has been providing solutions that support their common customers’ mission-critical systems, accelerate digital transformation, and drive customer success.
Furthermore, the two software giants’ cross-brand partnership extends to the Microsoft and SAP developers’ community with the launch of the first ANZ hackathon in 2020. Aside from the goal of supporting and uniting the developers, the hackathon aims to go beyond infrastructure and test the possibilities of SAP Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure– steering away from the traditional SAP on Azure message of computing storage, big data, networks, and automation.
Over a year into the pandemic, this year’s SAP and Microsoft ANZ hackathon enabled the developers from around the APJ region to collaborate, connect, and innovate for real-world solutions in a post-pandemic world leveraging robust and intelligent technologies from the two tech enterprises.
2021 Microsoft and SAP ANZ Hackathon Winners
13 teams, most of them from Australia and New Zealand, as well as India, Japan, and Indonesia, have competed for this year’s hackathon to create intelligent yet practical solutions for today’s challenges faced by SAP and Microsoft customers. Collaborating digitally for two weeks, the teams were tasked to build solutions focused on the changing working landscape, utilising technology such as AI, ML, and automation.
This year’s top three hackathon winners are:
1st Place: Team Aztecs from Capgemini
Team Aztecs from India led the competition for its digital Upskilling Kiosk that leveraged an AI chatbot. The innovation is designed to assist those whose jobs were lost or rendered obsolete during the pandemic. The team shifted the focus on the opportunity to provide more resources and support to vulnerable workers by upskilling and reskilling staff instead of rehiring.
The Team Aztecs was able to recognise and bridge the gap between upskilling and training through intelligent technology such as an AI chatbot. By answering a series of questions, users receive a recommendation of a relevant learning journey as well as internal job options they can apply for in the future. The Upskilling Kiosk’s AI-chatbot acts like a program manager, calculating utilisations, booking meetings, and offering guidance to trainees. Team Aztecs’ innovation is not only a remarkable opportunity for reskilling people but also for training and development.
2nd Place: Team BourneHack from Bourne Digital
Team BourneHack’s innovation TakeOff is focused on providing guidance and support to new workers through a digital onboarding process practical for today’s remote working challenges. The onboarding system is demonstrated through a video of the animated character ‘Holly’ starting her first day at a hybrid workplace.
The video shows how onboarding can be seamless and mobile through a company device with all software downloaded and ready for use, which included all account logins autogenerated by Azure. Through the mobile app, a new company member gets access to an interactive organisation chart as well as answers to queries via a support centre and chatbot.
3rd Place: Team Still Viral from DXC Technology
Team Still Viral leveraged artificial intelligence and machine learning in their innovation Parkman to help drivers park more efficiently while assisting parking rangers in their work.
The solution utilises the technologies Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Event Grid, Azure Block Storage, Azure Functions, SAP Business Technology Platform, and SAP HANA Cloud to detect differences and issues (such as over parking). Aside from the capability to connect with other public services, such as finding a license plate being looked for by Crime Stoppers, it also offers assistance for parking rangers through voice activation supported by SAP Conversational AI.
