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Second Place at the 2026 Sanlam Hackathon
At CyberPro Consulting, we are proud to celebrate the achievements of our consultants who continue to innovate and embrace emerging technologies. Congratulations to Clyde Smith, one of our talented Software Developers, and his team on securing Second Place at the recent Sanlam Hackathon.
Clyde has been part of the CyberPro family since 2021, where he has consistently delivered quality software solutions while continuously expanding his technical expertise. His latest achievement highlights not only his development skills but also his willingness to explore new ways of building software using artificial intelligence.
Reimagining Medical Underwriting
The Hackathon challenged participants to solve real business problems through innovation, with Clyde’s team selecting a challenge focused on modernising Sanlam Corporate’s medical underwriting process.
Today, when a member’s insurance cover exceeds the Free Cover Limit, they receive an email containing an initial medical requirements letter and a static Personal Health Statement (PHS) PDF. The process relies heavily on manual document completion, email correspondence, and administrative intervention, often resulting in missing information, repeated requests for documentation, lengthy turnaround times, and customer frustration.
The team’s vision was to replace this manual, paper-based experience with a dynamic, intelligent web portal that simplifies the entire customer journey.
A Smarter Customer Journey
The solution centred around a dynamic, rules-based medical underwriting portal that guides members through the application process based on their individual responses.
Instead of completing lengthy static forms, members are presented with an intelligent questionnaire that adapts in real time. As they progress through the journey, the system automatically determines which supporting medical documents are required, helping customers submit complete and accurate information the first time.
By digitising and automating the process, the solution significantly reduces manual administration, minimises missing documentation, improves communication, and enables underwriters to receive structured, decision-ready case packages.
The result is a faster, more efficient experience for both customers and underwriting teams.
Innovation Through AI
One of the reasons the solution stood out was its cloud-native architecture and its ability to integrate with multiple systems to deliver a complete end-to-end experience.
The diverse team combined expertise across business analysis, solution architecture, software development, DevOps, and data science to design a solution that balanced technical innovation with practical business value.
For Clyde, the Hackathon also marked a personal milestone.
It was the first time he had built a solution by embracing what is often referred to as “vibe coding”, using AI as an active development partner throughout the software development process. Leveraging GitHub Copilot and Claude, he was able to accelerate development significantly while maintaining focus on solving the business problem.
Reflecting on the experience, Clyde shared that one of his biggest takeaways was discovering just how powerful AI can be in software development. Tasks that would traditionally have taken much longer to complete were accomplished in just a few hours, demonstrating how AI can dramatically improve developer productivity.
Technologies Behind the Solution
The team built the solution using cloud technologies, including:
- AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS)
- AWS Bedrock
- AWS Lambda
- AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS)
- .NET for the web-based front end
- GitHub Copilot
- Claude AI
Together, these technologies enabled the team to deliver a scalable, intelligent solution capable of modernising an important business process while creating a better customer experience.
Hackathons provide an opportunity to challenge conventional thinking, experiment with new technologies, and solve meaningful business problems within a short period of time.
For Clyde, the experience reinforced the value of combining technical expertise with artificial intelligence to accelerate innovation without losing sight of the people ultimately benefiting from the solution.
As Clyde puts it: “AI amplifies what we know; human interaction defines why it matters. Together, they turn intelligence into impact.”
Congratulations once again to Clyde Smith and his team on their outstanding achievement. We are incredibly proud to have talented professionals like Clyde representing CyberPro Consulting and look forward to seeing what they build next.
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