Following weeks of anevaluation process, Accenture and partners – Transunion and The Da Vinci Institute – announced winners of the Innovation Index 2017 at the Accenture Innovation Conference that took place in Johannesburg today.  The awards ceremony honoured businesses of all sizes for championing innovation in their own industries.

“All participants were assessed based on their level of advancements in innovation – from the ability to modernise their products and solutions, to how they take them to market,” said Ntombi Mhangwani, Africa Director for Integrated Marketing & Communications at Accenture. “We paid special attention to their concepts, product developments, process and system designs, as well as how they delivered and commercialised their offerings. We also looked at their commitment to projects across the organisation, including senior management; and ability to make use of ever evolving technology in all its forms as a way of improving value to customers and operational procedures.”

The 2017 Accenture Innovation Index winners are:

Overall Innovation Master (turnover in excess of R35m): First National Bank (FNB)

1. FNB is one of South Africa's "big four" banks. It is a division of First Rand Limited, a large financial services corporation, which trades on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), under the symbol: FSR. FNB is also listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange under the symbol FNBB and is a constituent of the BSE Domestic Company Index.

Overall Innovation Master (turnover less than R35m): Bramhope Group

• Bramhope Group is a leading supplier of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) and corporate workwear. The company provides a wide range of health & safety-related products as well as outdoor and leisure goods. 

Large Enterprise (joint winners) Concept category: InterGreatMe and FNB

• InterGreatMe’s Know Your Customer (KYC) and remote client onboarding solution is an innovative identity platform that revolutionises how users manage and share their personal information. Their streamlined and user-friendly app keeps users’ information secure, while making their life easier by removing the hassle of repeatedly filling out and submitting the same material for applications, purchases and contract applications. InterGreatMe boasts incredible usability with a simple interface for easy use, quick interaction, and unmatched time-saving.
• FNB Connect - FNB became the first bank in South Africa to launch a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) branded as FNB Connect that is fully integrated into their core banking systems and digital customer facing channels. It is the first in the South African industry to break away from the traditional 24-month contract norm by launching an innovative SIM plan that is billed on a month to month basis with no fixed term commitment (Connect Flexi). 

Medium Enterprises Concept category: KEY360 App

• SSG Consulting’s KEY360 is a revolutionary cloud-based business and project management solution with exceptional capabilities to handle workflow, data, documents, dashboards, KPIs, business and staff optimisation together with upskilling.

Small Enterprises Concept category: HearScreen TX concept

• The hearX Group launched a world first clinical smartphone hearing test solution, HearScreen, with the aim to provide healthy hearing for everyone, everywhere. It provides an entirely new solution for traditional barriers to the detection of disabling hearing loss by using low cost, commercially available hardware, together with a custom developed software application.

Emerging Enterprises Concept category: ColonyLive

• ColonyLive is a software-as-a-service messaging platform created and engineered by a small team of developers and interaction specialists. The ColonyLive concept assists radio and TV stations to better engage with their audience through a world-class engagement cross-platform. The platform allows stations to accurately understand their audience and how to engage with them through its real-time analytical capability.

All winners will receive a customised innovation diagnostic that identifies innovation gaps and strengths, provides a benchmark by turnover and sector, and includes strategies that may help them to improve their businesses and gain competitive advantage.

The Accenture Innovation Index measures, recognises and rewards innovation and systems of innovation in organisations of all sizes in the South African public and private sectors every year. The Index is designed to provide a national benchmark for innovation, providing businesses and policymakers with an authoritative and objective snapshot of the state of innovation within their organisations and in South Africa.