Case Study: KONE modernizes elevators and reduces downtime with HackerEarth Sprint

Modernizing elevators through open innovation

KONE, a global leader in elevators and escalators, wanted to accelerate innovation to modernize elevators around trends like smart systems, safety, and energy efficiency. Facing the dual challenge of running a comprehensive open-innovation program and reaching a broad developer community, KONE partnered with HackerEarth (using the HackerEarth Sprint platform) and IBM (providing the Bluemix platform) to structure themes, problem statements, and a hackathon-based campaign.

HackerEarth ran the ideation and 48-hour hackathon, leveraging its 1M+ developer community and tools to manage submissions, judging, and shortlisting; the effort attracted 686 teams and produced 52 applications, with the top 10 advancing to KONE’s Chennai R&D for hands-on development. The winning solution—Ainstein’s cloud-based, ML-driven elevator health-monitoring system—promises less downtime and smarter maintenance; winners received a $10,000 prize, and HackerEarth’s platform enabled measurable progress from idea to real-world testing.

KONE

Jayaprakash B.

Deputy General Manager