In 2016, Intesa Sanpaolo Group with its Innovation Center jointly launched an event called Novathon with the aim to develop cutting-edge application that would ultimately make the use of banking services and products easier. After the successful first edition of the event held in Budapest, the organizers decided to move this innovative competition to Croatia and to organize Novathon #withPBZ competition in collaboration with the Croatian subsidiary of the Group – Privredna Banka Zagreb. CROZ is a gold partner on the project thanks to its experience in organization of similar coding competitions, like CodeQuest, and the existing successful collaboration with PBZ.
This 24-hour, innovative competition is a chance for students and start-uppers to show off their skills and knowledge by developing banking applications for mobile and other devices or for the use at bank branches. The winning teams will be awarded money prize from the fond in the amount of 16,900 EUR. University and college students who are studying web design, application development or marketing, or similar subjects are invited to apply to participate in the competition, which will be held in Zagreb from September 23 to 24, 2017.
Entrants will be able to choose one of the following categories to compete for:
- Smart Payments
- Digital Wealth Management
- Smart Branch
- Bridge Solutions
- Outside-in Banking
- Big Financial Data
A development competition like this is a great chance for students to get to know real challenges and opportunities in the business environment and it helps them make a better decision on where to go with their career after they graduate. Novathon #withPBZ brings benefits not only to the entrants, organizers and event partners, but also to the whole industry. The event is oriented towards the innovations in the finance industry in which CROZ operates for numerous years and it is a great opportunity to create new market value, from which the whole industry will benefit from.
Ivan Krnić from CROZ has highlighted the great potential of the Novathon #withPBZ competition: “New EU regulations which are liberating the financial market also bring something else to table – a chance to develop new innovative software solutions. The real, radical, business changes only come out when we think outside of the box and when we analyse the current limitations. Such idea competitions provide a great environment which encourages experimenting, needed for those big changes.”
For more information about Novathon #withPBZ competition, please visit the official website: https://www.novathon.net/
