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Celebrating Our First Hackathon: From Our Team Wins to Yours!

Melissa McMillen

September 27, 2022

On September 16th, we hosted our first Hackathon with resounding success! Powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), in collaboration with QSRSoft’s leadership team, this was a chance for our bright-minded employees to collaborate on team projects, get creative, and win prizes in the process. Original ideas were flowing, and teammates were connecting, creating the perfect environment for innovation (stay tuned for how these projects are being translated into our newest products!). Here’s the event’s play-by-play:   But First: What is a Hackathon?  In simple terms, a hackathon is an event where individuals or teams compete in software or hardware development projects. The goal is typically to see who can create a solution that solves common problems in the most innovative, efficient way. These events are typically run internally by an organization or business, though they can also employ outside entities (like AWS) to help run the event.    The Goal  Since we have a strong partnership with AWS, our teams were tasked with developing a new app for their Alexa voice service technology that added business value to QsrSoft customers. Each team was to demo their product in a final presentation, which would be judged by our panel.   The Rules  The teams had 24 hours to complete their project. At 12pm on Friday, we hosted the presentations, followed by the judging.  The Judging  Our judges included QSRSoft’s extended leadership team and two members from the AWS team. There were four judging categories, and each judge gave a rating of 1-10 (10 being the best). The judging categories were as follows:  
  • Business Value: Is this a valuable idea that is relevant for QSRSoft’s business? 
  • Creativity: Is this a unique idea that doesn’t already exist in the marketplace? 
  • Technical Excellence: Did the team have to solve the real technical challenges to arrive at the solution? 
  • Execution: Is the project functional? Did the demo go successfully without any obvious bugs? 
The Winners  All our teams did an incredible job, and we are so proud to see what our employees were able to invent. From this talented pool, we chose our winner, and runner ups:   1st place team: team_Five-js  Highest scores (in order): Biz Dev, Creativity, and Execution  Prize won: Full paid tickets, hotel, and flights to AWS Re;Invent and a $250 Amazon gift card  2nd place team: incognito mode  Highest scores (in order): Creativity, Biz Dev and Technical Excellence  Prize won: $250 Amazon gift card  3rd place team: office_97_clippy  Highest scores (in order): Technical Excellence, Biz Dev, and Execution  Prize won: $100 Amazon gift card  How Our Wins Become Yours  Engaged employees are the ones who come up with the ideas that move the world forward. At QSRSoft, we believe in creating an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing new ideas without judgement, and finding strategic approaches to building those ideas in a team effort. We create this environment by running events like t-shirt design contests (shout out to our winner Nick Koerber!) and hackathons like these. How does this trickle down to you, our customer?  Simply put: our team wins become the products you love and come to depend on. It’s what has made us trusted by Fortune 500 companies nationwide and used in over 14,000 locations. It’s what makes us the go to for quick-service restaurants everywhere.   At QSRSoft, we make it easier to run great restaurants. To learn more, visit qsrsoft.com. 

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