10 April 2017

HackDay, innovation from the inside

We celebrate a very particular hackathon with the most technological and innovative employees in our staff with the aim of seeking and strengthening digital talent.

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Innovation and digitalisation don’t only come about courtesy of young entrepreneurs with revolutionary ideas, or because of international gurus with followers from all over the world. Our own employees are also a great potential source of innovation and this was demonstrated during the HackDay that took place in Madrid.

Between 4 and 5 April, the Palacio Municipal de Congresos in Madrid hosted HackDay 2017, a special hackathon carried out by the Endesa employees with the most technological and innovative profiles. This innovative profile was detected thanks to a test that was taken by all our employees to find out about their level of digitalisation, and from among them the so-called hackers or gurus were selected to participate.

The challenge for the employees who participated in this special hackathon, the seventh that Enel has organised around the world, was simple. There were 3 themes or categories, with 3 ideas for each and several groups working on these. These categories consisted of: new services and business models; solutions for the employees; and facilitating the day-to-day experience of the consumers.

“The environment and the energy paradigm are changing, and in the face of these challenges we must be agile and react in time. We want to create a culture and we want our employees to continue with their training. A problem has a solution and several opportunities.” These were the words chosen by Andrea Lo Faso, Director of Human Resources at Endesa Iberia, to address the participants at the beginning of the day.

Later, Enrique de las Morenas, General Manager of Renewable Energies, talked about the changing world of companies, and how the most innovative companies try to stay ahead in terms of innovation and digitalisation.

“The company intends to plant the seed of the digital world, identifying employees who can play a leading role and who can infect others with this digital curiosity, so that in the near future we have a company which has a much more fluid interaction with this digital world that has come to stay and to transform our reality.”

Enrique de las Morenas, General Manager of Renewable Energies

Alvaro Quiralte, General Manager of Energy Management, and Francesco Amadei, General Manager of Infrastructure and Networks, were also keen not to miss these sessions, and they offered attendees their views on digitalisation and innovation in large companies.

Starting up the internal machinery

All of the employees got down to work. One group after another began to generate ideas, to work on them and give them shape. With the help of canvas, sketches and mock-ups, each group began to crystallise their innovative idea into a viable project. During the first day, ideas were consolidated and steps were taken in the construction of the project.

Yago Uribe, an entrepreneur, consultant and trainer, offered us a lively and inspirational vision from the point of view of entrepreneurship, which motivated our participants to complete the different challenges.

“In innovation, how do you beat someone who never gives up? Try new things and learn from them. Perseverance always wins.”

Yago Uribe, an entrepreneur, consultant and trainer.

During the second day, the groups gave the final shape to their projects and also to the presentation to be given before the jury, made up of our managers and directors. The function of the jury was to select those projects that best reflected innovative spirit and the digitalisation of processes. Given the high standard of the projects presented, the selection of the winners in each category was far from easy.

The winning projects from HackDay 2017 are as follows:

Winner of the category New services and business models:

“Energy Everywhere. An app which includes a contract which can then be applied when recharging”.

Winner of the category Solutions for employees:

“An app repository for the recording of different process know-how with the aim of sharing this with employees around the world.”

Winner of the category Facilitating the day-to-day experience of the consumers:

“Kwhallet. Collection of generated energy for self-consumption and the obtaining of redeemable points.”