50 innovators, 13 teams, a shark tank-themed pitching session. With the goal of fostering a culture of employee driven innovation, an exciting pitch competition was created – welcome to PSEG’s first ever Hackathon.
In a competition open to thousands of PSEG employees, teams were formed with the intent of building an innovative, functioning prototype based upon five themes: business process improvement, customer experience improvement, gas/electric/power operations improvement, decision-making improvement and growth/new revenue opportunity.
13 teams introduced 13 exceptional and innovative ideas ranging from enhancing the customer experience to enhancing business operations. The functioning prototypes were assembled in marathon sessions spanning over 1.5 days, exhibiting tremendous energy, camaraderie and a can-do attitude by all. Their hard work culminated with a demonstration of their solutions to four judges.
Topping the list at No. 1 were the Bar Coders with their inventory control system designed to manage the physical inventory process for gas meters both electronically and in real-time, with greater control.
“The PSEG Hackathon provided a great opportunity to get back in the office in-person again and work collaboratively,” said the Bar Coders. “The hackathon allowed us to pitch practical, creative and innovative ideas for senior leadership to consider that can help move the company forward. We look forward to the next one.”
The Bar Coders are in the process of implementing the solution for an immediate process improvement at our Burlington Gas District as we speak, with a tentative go-live date of February 2023.
Curious about some of the other innovative ideas?
In second place was the Smart Sellers with a customer experience solution that would enhance customers’ understanding of products and services relevant to them and ease the process of enrolling into those services.
“The Hackathon was an amazing opportunity to learn, grow and create new solutions. The competition was steep, as so many people came with really good tech solutions,” said the Smart Sellers.
The Solar Innovators slide into third, identifying a way to integrate the backend system of pole-top solar into an Amazon Web Services environment. The Solar Innovators, built a solution to ingest, transform, and visualize power data generated by pole attached solar panels, enabling calculation of associated revenue and Solar Revenue Energy Credits (SREC).
“It takes a lot of courage, initiative, tenacity and thought leadership to think beyond the status-quo and pursue your ideas. The 13 teams demonstrated these values in abundance.” said Bindu Tuli, director of enterprise integration-IT App Solutions and organizer of the Hackathon. “It was a pleasure to watch these groups of people gel into strong teams with a mutual bond and trust, a laser focus on a common goal, and a strong sense of ownership and pride.”
“PS: Hack was a shining example of our commitment to innovation and pushing boundaries. I was thrilled to see our team members come together to collaborate and create impactful solutions with positive business impact. The ability to leverage our collective imagination and determination is an important ingredient to our future success,” said Zeeshan Sheikh, chief information and digital officer and sponsor of the Hackathon.
The event highlighted the spirit of creativity and innovation that permeates all of us. As PSEG leads the way in building a cleaner, more sustainable future, and our employees’ creativity and spirit of innovation will be a key ingredient.
Kudos to all involved and the 13 teams who showed up and put innovation at the forefront.
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