You've probably heard of companies having hackathons, hackfests, codefests, and datathons. These “marathons” enable people to step outside their day-to-day role and create new ideas, products, and integrations.
At SS&C Advent, it’s no different. In partnership with SS&C Eze, we recently hosted our 48-hour Innovation Challenge across both our product teams. Each group has a rich history of creating innovative solutions independently during their respective challenges; this year, combining efforts showcased our ability to work collaboratively. It is the epitome of our company-wide theme for 2023: “Extraordinary Together.” The 2023 challenge included developers from 74 teams across the globe, creating a new experience celebrating the merging of our product organizations.
Together, the teams shared ideas, collaborated, and most of all embraced their combined innovative spirits. Each team is given a total of 48 hours to create their projects, publish their code, and present their ideas. In the end, we had a total of:
- 540 participants
- 86 submissions
- 8 finalists
Rita Chiu, Managing Director, Product at SS&C Advent said, “I’m proud of our product development teams’ amazing collaboration during our Innovation Challenge. The teams showcased their innovative spirit, harnessing the power of technology to create an impressive range of projects. These teams were a melting pot of talent, with representatives from multiple solutions. This was an opportunity to allow our development teams to think outside the box and demonstrate how we are truly extraordinary together!”
Innovation Challenges are not only a great opportunity for employees to showcase their creativity and connect across the organization, but they are also beneficial for our clients. Following the event, we review all the ideas and assess their potential to integrate into our future solution and service roadmaps. SS&C Advent’s Managing Director of Solutions Management and R&D, Nick Nolan, commented, “It’s inspiring to see all the amazing initiatives our combined SS&C Advent and Eze teams worked on during the Innovation Challenge. Innovation and collaboration are the heart of our business and I love that this challenge gives our teams the freedom they need to creatively think through their ideas. It’s exciting to know that our next great solution or service is somewhere amongst all these incredible ideas.”
The judges also played a crucial role in the Innovation Challenge, as they thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewed each presentation. Nidhi Vashist, Senior Manager of Product Development for SS&C Advent, was thrilled to participate as a judge, explaining that “in a world of constant deliverables and deadlines, it is empowering and rejuvenating to singly focus on something you believe can make a dent (no matter how small) in the lives of our clients, colleagues, and products. That is the promise of the Innovation Challenge. Over the years, we have seen many of these ideas implemented in the products, thereby living up to that promise. As a judge this year, I was deeply inspired by the passion everyone (presenters, event runners, even the audience) brought to the table. Great work all around”.
We concluded our Innovation Challenge with two finalists from each region. Finalists will participate in the upcoming Battle of the Champions, which will crown a single winner for this year’s Innovation Challenge.
Stay tuned to hear about our Champion!
Want to learn more about the innovative spirit of product development teams? Contact us or request a demo.
