Global analytics software leader FICO has announced that Tech Mahindra, a global provider of technology consulting and digital solutions to enterprises across industries, was named one of the winners of its second annual Global System Integrator (GSI) Partner Hackathon. The event was held at FICO’s Bengaluru campus and brought together leading GSI partners to compete in building real-world solutions to complex financial challenges using the FICO ® Platform, with one winning team selected from each participating partner.

The Tech Mahindra team developed a solution aimed at one of India’s most pressing e-commerce challenges: the financial losses caused by Cash-on-Delivery (COD) returns. According to industry reports, India’s e-commerce sector loses billions annually to COD returns, with Return-to-Origin (RTO) rates of 25-30% for COD orders, compared with 2-3% for prepaid orders. For retailers operating at scale, the issue affects more than refunds alone, since return rates can also shape fulfilment costs, delivery efficiency, and how payment options are offered to customers.

Built on the FICO Platform, the solution evaluates more than 70 risk signals across the cart-to-payment journey. It is designed to determine COD eligibility, prepaid incentive strategy, delivery partner selection, and dark store routing at the same time. FICO said the solution is intended to provide transparent, explainable, and audit-ready decisioning. Based on one million orders per month, the platform targets a 6-9% reduction in RTO rates, translating to ₹1 crore, or approximately $120,000 USD, in monthly loss reductions.

Tech Mahindra said it developed the solution using its expertise in AI, analytics, and enterprise platform engineering to help retailers address a major operational challenge in India’s fast-growing e-commerce ecosystem. The company said the solution is designed for enterprise-scale deployment and evaluates multiple risk and business parameters in real time to optimize payment eligibility, fulfilment, and logistics decisions. Its transparent and audit-ready architecture is intended to help organizations strengthen governance while reducing operational losses and supporting long-term business resilience.

Anil Venuturupalli, SVP, Global Head of the Banking \u0026 Products Group and Chief Product Officer for the Financial Services (FS) at Tech Mahindra, said, “As digital commerce continues to accelerate, retailers are increasingly looking beyond transaction processing to intelligent decision-making that can proactively reduce risk while delivering seamless customer experiences. Our award-winning solution demonstrates how intelligent decisioning can help enterprises make transparent, real-time decisions across the customer journey, enabling smarter fulfilment, optimized payment strategies, and improved operational outcomes. This recognition by FICO reinforces our commitment to developing scalable, data-driven innovations that address complex business challenges and create measurable value for enterprises.”

The Tech Mahindra solution was evaluated by a panel of five FICO judges based on alignment with the challenge, business impact, innovation, customer appeal, teamwork, and quality of presentation.

Recognition at FICO ® World 2026

The winning Tech Mahindra team presented its solution at FICO ® World 2026, which took place from May 19 to 22, 2026, at the Signia by Hilton in Orlando, Florida. The team presented in the Demo Theatre, where attendees received a closer look at how real-time decisioning is being used to reduce e-commerce losses at scale.

“The best solutions solve problems people have stopped trying to fix,” said Jason Andrew, Chief Revenue Officer at FICO. “Tech Mahindra looked at India’s COD returns crisis and saw an opportunity where others saw an inevitability. That is the power of FICO Platform in the hands of talented, motivated teams, and it is why we invest in partnerships like this one.”