Barclays Africa has commenced work with eight teams to advance concepts generated during the Barclays Africa Global Data Hackathon held at Johannesburg’s Turbine Hall in late 2015. The 24-hour Global Data Hackathon was created to leverage the power of the bank’s Big Data to uncover insights and develop new solutions. Teams competed across ten different time zones, in ten cities and six countries to develop data-enabled solutions to challenges posed by the business.
The challenges were aimed at identifying and addressing new opportunities and improving existing processes. The challenges included:
1. Leveraging trends in consumer credit card usage data to create more tailored solutions for CIB retail sector clients and the bank
2. Analysing market data to optimise trading methods
3. Collecting and analysing data to identify the best date to issue debit orders to check accounts
4. Utilising human resources data to provide training, ensure optimal job placement and retain key talent
Pieter Vorster, Chief Analytics Officer Corporate and Investment Banking Africa, and host of the Global Data Hackathon, said “We were really pleased with the strength and variety of the solutions proposed during our first Global Data Hackathon. The next step in the process is to continue fleshing out the proposals in partnership with the top eight teams so that we can start rolling out the solutions across the business.”
These solutions will be implemented by the Barclays Africa Corporate and Investment Bank early this year, bringing tangible benefits to the bank’s collections, card spend, client banker relationships, trading processes and HR practices. Barclays will continue to invest in new approaches to product and solution development, leveraging the power of data and insights.
Temi Ofong, Chief Executive, Corporate & Investment Banking, Africa ex SA, Barclays Africa Group, said, “The success of this Hackathon proves that we can harness the power of the crowd to solve our greatest challenges as an industry and as society. We, at Barclays, are very proud to have hosted the event and we are very encouraged by the global participation and most importantly the innovative insights and solutions developed during the Hackathon.”
An online community is currently being established to allow participants in the first Global Data Hackathon, and those who take part in future hackathons, to collaborate on future projects that will be targeted at improving efficiency within the bank. Following the success of the first Global Data Hackathon, Barclays Africa will be hosting similar events to expand the community working on innovative approaches to overcoming challenges.
Staff writer
