Seven French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce – CCFS member companies applied to participate in the competition, which had the objective of presenting innovative business solutions and the best examples of corporate social responsibility, while the vote was open to the general public on the website of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
Societe Generale Bank monitors the new demands of users in the digital age, the result of which is the establishment of strategic cooperation, the first of its kind in Serbia, with ICT hub.
The initial elements of cooperation were supporting the start-up ecosystem and building the FinTech community, which brings together experts from the fields of banking, finance and information technology. The second goal was to educate bank employees regarding new tools and methodologies that are used by technology start-ups, as well as creating innovative products and services.
“Societe Generale, thanks to this partnership, strengthened the internal innovative capacity of the bank and opened the doors to new partners from the start-up ecosystem. Through this cooperation we offered an example of good practice that can be applied by other companies in the financial and other sectors,” said Vuk Kosovac, Executive Director of Marketing at Societe Generale Bank.
Internal and external events were organised within the framework of this cooperation in order to promote the FinTech industry – the main event being the first hackathon in Serbia, which saw teams comprising IT professionals, web designers and other profiles develop innovative solutions for the improvement of banking services.
The same aim, albeit in the context of educating employees, applied for the first Open Innovation Challenge, a unique event which the bank organised in Serbia for the first time, with the aim of promoting innovation.
“This type of partnership is pioneering in Serbia, but in a short period it has shown how traditional and large companies can and should cooperate with the IT community, to learn from each other, work on joint innovative projects and create new products that meet the challenges of the digital times in which we live,” said ICT Hub’s Kosta Andrić.
This cooperation with start-ups led to the emergence of a unique package of products and services on the market – SINHRO, intended for bulk-taxpaying entrepreneurs.
The start-up companies that have in the meantime linked up with teams of the bank and gained the opportunity to work on the development of innovative solutions include, amongst others, 30 Hills, Cube, Clever Ltd., Smartwave etc.
Societe Generale Bank will continue to support the start-up ecosystem in Serbia in the future, as well as cooperating with them to work on innovations, strengthening the innovative spirit within the bank and the communities in which it operates, and developing innovative solutions and services in order to make it as easy as possible for clients to do business with the bank.