RCG Global Services, Pitney Bowes and TAG Announce Financial Services Hackathon Winners

ISELIN, N.J., Nov. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- RCG Global Services today announced the winners of the 2018 FinServ/FinTech Hackathon, a week-long event attracting over 100 participants in the Atlanta area.

RCG Global Services partnered with Pitney Bowes and the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) to challenge aspiring technology developers to create solutions for retail banking and merchant financial services that address current market challenges, such as site selection, market optimization, and customer relationships and retention.

The event, which took place from November 3 to November 10, 2018, resulted in the submission of 11 new product ideas to resolve these market challenges. In a ceremony on Monday, November 12, the following winners were selected by a panel of Financial Services executives and industry experts:

First prize was awarded to Team Hackalytics who took on the challenge of identifying new markets in underserved populations. Leveraging location intelligence, demographic and socio-economic data they identified underbanked and unbanked market segments, developed profitable new products and services for new market segments and offered tailored online services leveraging Pitney Bowes data sets, APIs and location intelligence. Team members were Gbenga Arotiba, Huy Tran, Michael Lane, Hitesh Patel, and Waihong Leong.

Second prize went to Team Geo-Ninja.  The Geo-Ninjas built a solution for the acquisition of new customers for online banking by identifying high-potential target customers beyond the typical customer profile, ranking the conversion probabilities and developing a new customer cost-benefit model. Team members were Yi Cai, Mira Stefanova, Vijey Akkineni, Premchand Boyapati, and Alicia Dean.

Team Viotechnics took the third prize with a solution to Identify New ATM Services. They developed new programs to capitalize on 70% of total US transactions occurring via debit card and acquire new customers by waving ATM fees via securing potential customer phone numbers and linking potential customer back to Pitney Bowes data sets. Team members were Mike Reams, Darren Triplett, Peiwen Liu, Rajkiran Gaddati, Priyanka Gagneja, and Reina Lingle.

Mark Taylor, SVP Global Software Channels at Pitney Bowes said, "There's an incredible amount of FinTech companies and talent in Georgia. By partnering with RCG and TAG, we saw the FinTech Hackathon as a great opportunity to team this talent with our technology in a way that demonstrates innovation using location. The judges were impressed with how each team leveraged Pitney Bowes data and APIs to create solutions that could make a difference in their businesses."

The hackathon contestants were a mixture of local, full-time students and career professionals from universities and financial services institutions.  During the event, the hackers were armed with an understanding of retail banking and merchant financial services business challenges as well as with Pitney Bowes data sets, APIs and location intelligence to help solve them.

"The FinTech industry is under constant pressure to create solutions to challenges brought on by everything from regulatory mandates to financial institution's demand for modernized services for consumers," says Elizabeth Hoemeke, SVP, IT Strategy and Global Business at Elavon and hackathon judge. "I was impressed with each team's ability to grasp our challenges and quickly develop meaningful solutions."

As part of the hackathon event, a 24-hour full-service workshop was hosted by Pitney Bowes and RCG Global Services industry experts to enable and coach the teams during the entire period. In the final hours of the workshop, teams vied for finalist positions.  Hackathon finalists were selected by the panel from presentations exhibiting a combination of solution functionality, usability, impact, viability, innovation, and speed-to-market.

About RCG Global Services®

RCG has a rich history of enabling clients in the Global 1000 marketplace to realize their digital ambitions. RCG is a global provider of digital solutions across mobile, web, cloud, and legacy platforms, with a focus on actionable data and analytics. RCG serves clients across a range of markets, with special emphasis on financial services, insurance, healthcare, entertainment and hospitality, and retail. RCG is based in Iselin, New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, and an offshore delivery center in the Philippines. (http://www.rcgglobalservices.com/)

About Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) is a global technology company providing commerce solutions that power billions of transactions. Clients around the world, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500, rely on the accuracy and precision delivered by Pitney Bowes solutions, analytics, and APIs in the areas of ecommerce fulfillment, shipping and returns; cross-border ecommerce; presort services; office mailing and shipping; location data; and software. For nearly 100 years Pitney Bowes has been innovating and delivering technologies that remove the complexity of getting commerce transactions precisely right.  For additional information visit Pitney Bowes, the Craftsmen of Commerce, at https://www.pitneybowes.com.

More on Pitney Bowes Software & Data Marketplace, where developers can sample data sets instantly, visualize and layer data on maps, and explore the entire Pitney Bowes data portfolio.  Visit the Developer Hub for access to Pitney Bowes APIs.

About The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)

TAG is the leading technology industry association in the state, serving more than 35,000 members through regional chapters in Metro Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Macon/Middle Georgia, and Savannah. TAG's mission is to educate, promote, influence and unite Georgia's technology community to foster an innovative and connected marketplace that stimulates and enhances a tech-based economy.

Additionally, the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG's charitable arm) focuses on helping science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education initiatives thrive.

For more information visit the TAG website at www.tagonline.org or TAG's community website at http://www.hubga.com. To learn about the TAG-Ed Collaborative visit http://www.tagedonline.org/.

SOURCE RCG Global Services