Vanguard devs built an Uber-like platform for their campus shuttle

Tap a button, hail the company’s free shuttle.

That concept was one of three finalists in Vanguard’s iWish hackathon, a two-day gathering that brought together 70 devs from the financial services company to build products to boost efficiency and team morale. The internal hackathon is a common theme across tech startups and it seems like Vanguard is taking those cues.

Divvied up into 16 teams, the developers chose projects from a pool of 130 staff-made suggestions and got to work. Here are the three finalists:

• Transportation app: A mobile app to request Vanguard shuttle services and keep a ridesharing repository.
• Room Finder: A tool that lets employees interact with schedules of meeting rooms nearby and book rooms on the go.
• Room Service: Through the use of QR codes, staff can get access to information about meeting rooms.

The three projects will continue to be developed and then put into place at Vanguard’s Malvern campus.

“There was so much enthusiasm and excitement,” said Vanguard exec Lisa McCann, who sat in the judges’ panel, of the hackathon. “It’s great for team-building.”

McCann said hackathons will continue both at the suburban campus and the upcoming Vanguard Innovation Center, a research hub announced last November and slated to open in University City by 2017. Look out for partnerships with universities and local institutions, said the leader of Vanguard’s IT Enterprise Shared Services division.