Tesco hackathon announces European and India finalists

Tesco colleagues and suppliers from the Czech Republic, India, Poland and UK recently came together to compete in the retailer’s eighth annual hackathon.

The teams had 24 hours to come up with an innovative technology solution to one of these challenges:

How can Tesco use customers’ data to serve them better?
How can it simplify in-store operations/routines?
How can it help customers be more eco-friendly?
How can the retailer optimise its transport either for distribution or for grocery home shopping delivery?
Come up with an idea that will save the business over £10 million in year one
Come up with an idea that will generate over £20 million revenue in year one

Jo Hickson, Head of Tesco Labs, says: “The hackathon is a great way for us to pull in brilliant ideas from people across the business. Last year’s winning idea is now being trialled in a store in the Czech Republic and we can’t wait to explore the ideas from this year too.”

This year, two separate judging panels, which included Chief Technology Officer Guus Dekkers, CEO of Tesco Business Services Sumit Mitra and Managing Director in the Czech Republic Patrik Dojčinovič, selected the finalists. These will now compete to be crowned champion for their region.

Europe finalists

NutriScan – UK (William Powell, Mohamed Mamdouh, Lakshmi Madhavarao, Tim Volkov, George Sykes)

An application that helps in-store customers make the right choices based on dietary preference and shopping history – the app provides personalised recommendations if the original product selected is not suitable or is out of stock.

Tesco Magic – UK (Matt Bennett, Lawrence Rayner, Carl Knibbs, Ross Arnone, Adam Cohen-Rose)

A data visualisation tool that brings customer data to life so they can gain a better insight into their relationship with Tesco.

Wawel Dragons – Poland (Urszula Perry, Michał Nawilny, Michał Podskoczy, Artur Skowroński, Michał Fudała)

A system that enables customers to choose an eco-friendly delivery option for online shopping or enables an eco-friendly option for Click & Collect customers.

Waste Hunters – Czech Republic (Zuzana Radicova, Milan Zelenka, Ondrej Basler, Jaroslav Havelik, Lukas Duris)

An augmented reality application designed to help reduce food waste by enabling colleagues to quickly and easily identify products that are about to expire.

India finalists

Double – (Suryanarayan Raju, Gopal Krushna Pattanaik, Narendra Allampatti, Archit Saxena)

Save paper and time by using both sides of the shelf-edge label to display the promotion price on one side and standard price on the other side. Store colleagues will be notified via app when and where to flip the label.

mBill (Hanumath Mahankali, Balachandar Ramalingam, Ajith Srinath, Sourabh Joshi, PraveenKumar Patil)

Remove the need for a paper receipt at checkout by providing an option for customers to receive a digital receipt using a QR code.

Bugs Slayers (Devika Awasthi, Anurag Mishra, Sreenivas T, Shubham Chaturvedi, Manjunathan Raman)

Providing a braille catalogue of products for visually impaired customers and enabling them to add items to the basket using a mobile barcode scanner.

TechHack (Dheeraj Kysetti, Prashant Pandey, Rupasmite Devi)

Providing a virtual store where customers navigate aisles, click items to find out more and add items to their basket virtually.