", Tom adds, In fast-moving customer-facing scenarios, development is never build-once-and-doneyoure always iterating to refine the customer experience. - Earn My WU points. What are the biggest lessons you learned? Blockchain is technology that uses an open, distributed ledger to permanently verify and record transactions between two parties. Mohua Das Gupta - Head of Marketing, Tata CliQ. Filipino workers abroad), they need to bring physical money somewhere, and most of the fintech companies in remittance space dont have their own channels (they often partner with local kiosks). The culture change has to be driven across teams to show how technology has enabled different and better outcomes. Western Union's Customer Journey Digital Transformation Fueled by NICE - Innovative NICE Nexidia Customer Journey Optimisation provides powerful analytics to enhance customer experience. Western Union operates in the increasingly competitive, rapidly changing payments sector, where new fintech players are changing how the market operates. How Western Union Became a Global Digital Front-Runner for Cross-Border Payments Money By Jay Jaffin, Head of Global Digital, Western Union May 24, 2021. Team members were drawn from different continents and operating on different time zones. [7]While cryptocurrencies are an obvious threat to Western Unions cross-border money transfers, Blockchain also can be used in a range of imaginative ways. As weve done that, everyone has started to speak the same language, whether its talking about going to huddles, doing process confirmations, conducting one-on-one coaching, or maybe doing floor walks. Media, Madison Square
Western Union is to shed its Business Solutions unit, with investment firms Goldfinch and Baupost set to acquire the business for $910 million in cash. While Singh and his team have been occupied with the technology transformation taking place at Western Union, the breakneck speed at which the financial services and payments industry is changing means they also have to be planning for the longer-term. Updated on. That created a need to act. The company wanted to improve the digital experiences offered to customers and build new digital bankingproducts to extend its relationship with customers. Western Union also opened franchise stores, which offer money transfer services as well as onsite currency exchanges. It requires a change in process and culture, the adoption of a common lingo, executive buy-in, and a center . Technology or Operations transformation . 35, No. s full anLearn more about the data lake, a repository for structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data that provided direct access to raw organizational data. By John Manning, International Banker. Commenting on the advantages of development on OutSystems, Tom says, We estimate that were getting new products to market at least twice as fast as competitors, and were probably using a tenth of the resources they are on front-end development. For example, in 2016 Western Union integrated money transfer options with messanging apps WeChat and Viber, allowing users to send small amounts of money through the apps. Cloud services such as cloud data platforms have become cost-efficient, high performance calling cards for any business that leverages big data. Divestiture Will Support Western Union's Strategic Focus on its Global Cross-Border Payments Platform and Digital Capabilities Western Union uses a central team to build new capabilities across the business. 2023 Snowflake Inc. All Rights Reserved | If youd rather not receive future emails from Snowflake, unsubscribe here or customize your communication preferences, Snowflake for Advertising, Media, & Entertainment, unsubscribe here or customize your communication preferences. The Western Union Way of digital transformation. In order to fund the investments, we decided that it was really important to do a transformation exercise, look for ways to gain efficiencies and effectiveness across our processes and procedures, and then use those efficiencies to fund the growth investments. Technology, Industrial
We go where our customers go, says Khalid Fellahi, senior vice president and general manager for Western Union Digital, based in San Francisco. Analytics, API Economy &
NICE have announced Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, has advanced customer experience through improved . . The Data Cloud is increasingly becoming a facilitator for digital transformation initiatives, and while there are many facets to that story, our customers often tell us how three critical elements play a central role: being able to access and share live data; being able to share data without having to move it; and the ability to securely access third-party data. Each quarter our research team identifies on-prem and cloud applications that are being used by the 11000 Western Union employees from the public (Press Releases, Customer References . So we had to figure out how to continue to show up for customers while also ensuring everyones health and safely. These are seismic factors currently redefining our world, earning their own epochal moniker: The Fourth Industrial Revolution. [3], Western Union operates in three segments, with most of its revenues (79%) coming from the C2C segment: [4], Western Union became the dominant player in cross-border C2C money transfers through a platform strategyit connected people who wanted to send money across borders. We offer consumers the choices they want, both for sending and receiving money, he stresses. Prior to implementing Snowflake in 2021, Western Unions data spanned 34 on-premises data warehouses, resulting in latency and operational burdens. With OutSystems, we deploy twice every week. As a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, Western Union has to comply with a huge number of financial regulations. Western Union (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments and Zain Cash, the award-winning mobile financia . Governments pay close attention to cross-border money transfers, and heavily regulate these services to prevent fraud, tax evasion, and other criminal activities. Recently I talked to him about the companys rapid pivot to digital this past year, his biggest learnings, and what the future holds. In 2017 SEED supported 20 projects, impacting 5,000 children and youth; we hope to support event more in 2018.. Western Union. Beyond the public health crisis, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on personal finances, causing poverty levels and inequality to rise globally. Meeting the moment with solutions required Western Union to accelerate its own digital transformation. My Career Summary Anil Santhapuri is a values-based and results-oriented Talent professional, with 20 years of professional experience in the areas of talent management, learning & leadership development. Imagine what we can do if you let us work with your team as well.. & Publishing, Logistics
Markets are perpetually shifting and change is unavoidable, but to keep up with those shifting tides companies need to stay focused on digital transformation. There were definitely times I was looking at costs and thinking how I was going to explain to finance, or my CFO, he says. The central transformation team helps do the capability building in training those resources up, and then they run their own scaled-out deployment. . Chief Data and Innovation Officer, Western Union, Enterprise-grade scalability and security, Cloud-based IT architecture based on microservices. Africa, South
Companies like Venmo(PayPal) and Zelle(joint venture by several large U.S. banks) have deep pockets, but so far are mostly competing in domestic payment markets. The resulting report, How to Win in the Data Economy, includes anecdotes from dozens of customers, analysts, and influencers about how to succeed, all in addition to the survey itself, based on feedback from 1,000 senior business, technology, and data managers across five industries and from all over the world. Western Union reduced data warehousing costs by 50% and has saved millions through streamlined data engineering and administration after moving more than 30 data stores, including on-premises data, into Snowflake. Western Union launched its digital banking app in Germany and Romania in Spring 2022, following 11 months of iterative development. When people from different departments do these floor walks together, theyre realizing that they actually have a lot more in common with each other or notice areas where they can collaborate that they didnt realize before. Some want to go to a retail store and pay cash. Manager of a Team responsible for First Level Support, Event monitoring and Major Incident Management to internal and external clients that affects core processes and clients. Last year, the global-payment services giant completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, for a total of $80 billion. Here is Swamy Sivasubramaniyan, Head of Financial Services and Settlement Platform for Western Union, discussing the digital transformation experience with Infosys and Oracle. Reframe blockchain from a threat to an opportunity, by creating a new autonomous unit. We scored ourselves as an organization on these market-shaper practices when we started the transformation in 2016. We built the Western Union Way team, or the WU Way team as we call it, with ten high-potential individuals from around the company. I want to see those same results in my organization. I think thats an indication of how well its really working across the company. Our goal was to build a new Cloud-based IT architecture based on microservicesthat would allow us to integratemany different systems quicklyboth internal and external vendors, explains Tom. In the latest step in its digital journey, Western Union recently launched a bot that enables Facebook Messenger users in the United States to send money to more than 200 countries, across 130 currencies, from within the messaging app. (2013) Comparing Media Systems beyond the Western World. Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data Officer at Western Union together with Nick Halsey, CEO at Okera talk about the technology that Western Union has adopted to help build new products and Western Union, Chief Data Officer: Digital Transformation Initiatives (Part 3) | Cloud | cdomagazine.tech & Distribution, Media and
He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. Furthermore, a chain of retail outlets is expensive. Western Union must adapt to an increasingly mobile world: if Western Union doesn't develop low-cost mobile money transfers, Western Union won't be able to compete . What does "digital transformation" mean to Western Union? The EU is helping to boost Europe's digital capacities and create new opportunities for businesses and consumers while safeguarding basic rights. Reliable for over 170 years. In just 11 months, we delivered a full-service digital banking experience that expands our relationship with customers.. The Transformation Story of Western Digital. Download the Western Union (WU) money transfer app and quickly start sending cash to Mexico and worldwide, 24/7! We recently delivered a similar requirement to a higher standard using one OutSystems developer in just 15 days. - Access cash back rewards at the WU store. The Baupost Group is a $31 billion Boston-based investment firm. Its been a great combination. The new generation of customers, especially Millennials, want to find us in the ecosystem of messaging apps.. The transition from legacy systems to Oracle Solutions was critical to the strategy's success. To ensure those approaches were safe and secure, we partnered with governmental organizations to find new and secure ways to verify customers. Finally, shareholders may punish Western Union for moving away from its higher margin core business to focus instead on simpler, lower-cost digital money transfers. Mazzaferro: Snowflake is enabling quite a bit around analytics, reporting, event triggers, and settlement across our card providers. Infosys accelerated Western Union's digital transformation by harmonizing agent operations, implementing billing and collection standards, enabling modular growth, accelerating new product launches, enabling digital on-demand procedures, designing global accounting solutions based on one single template, supporting highly complex pricing and multiple business models, and massive management processes as a strategic technology partner. When people send money to friends or family across the country or around the world, chances are good that Western Union is involved. But you say its about more than technology? People. Western Union is renowned for its unparalleled international network, with over 500,000 agent locations spanning 200 countries and territories. Services, Data
For example, helping African countries develop official land registers could eliminate a huge barrier to investment and capital inflows (e.g., by resolving uncertain and disputed land titles). Institute, Infosys Innovation
The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. Snowflake worked with Longitude to assess what it takes to lead in the data economy. Mazzaferro: In the past, the thinking in the industry has often been that applications are king, and that data flows through the applications. Technology powers the data economy. Dan Nordlander, senior vice president of Western Union Way Operations at Western Union, discusses his companys unique transformation journey with McKinseys Barr Seitz. In 1861 it sent the first transcontinental telegraph. After exceeding expectations in 2020 despite the outbreak of COVID-19, the world's largest currency exchange service Western Union looks set to exceed US$1 billion in total annual revenues for its digital business segment in 2021 a major milestone for the company and a first in the world of digital cross-border payments.. Western Union's shift toward digital shows little sign of relenting. We saw that our revenue and customer base didnt reflect the opportunity and size of the market.. The scale of change this represents for a business like Western Union is not to be underestimated; the company employs around 11,000 people and has more than 550,000 retail agents locations within . Western Union has the infrastructure to help make that a reality. And when you have that, it becomes easier to have a stronger level of influence than you might otherwise expect with a small team, because everyone in the organization is clear that, whether youre working directly with the WU Way team or not, your job is to find ways for continuous improvement. They essentially sponsor a team and loan the resources that are necessary. Digital transformation in the EU. From the CEO down through his executive team, you see a real commitment to this transformation exercise and a real commitment to finding ways to optimize our processes, to get efficiencies, and to fund those investments that will drive topline revenue growth. Created: 05-05-2021 - 17:15. [9]Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor,The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2003), Ch. We developed the whole front-end for the app in less than four months., Western Union uses OutSystems for customer-facing apps, back office, and workflow solutions. We are also launching new products into the market, including a pilot for digital banking services in select markets in Europe and a revamped loyalty programme, which require us to capture data from our central warehouses to drive decision making, marketing and customer acquisition. Data privacy and security practices . A large proportion of Western Unions infrastructure has been migrated to the cloud, and Singh reveals a timeline to complete the programme of work. Log in to help. The idea is to orient the company around improving these market-shaper practices, really getting the health of our organization strong, and becoming confident that if we can improve the health of the organization, the financial results will follow. He praises the vendor support and namechecks first AWS for enabling the organisation to quicken the pace of its procurement process and spin up workloads to the cloud faster than had originally been anticipated. The pandemic really accelerated the digital transformation journey; the plan was for it to be rolled out in three years but that timeframe became 18 months. Western Union International Bank's CEO Peter Bucher firmly believes you can drive successful, innovative business while creating a better world for the community you live in. [11] Western Unions footprint of retail locations gives it a worldwide laboratory for experimenting with blockchain applications. At its core is a migration from on-prem to a cloud-based infrastructure, which it believes is key to allowing the organisation to scale and evolve into a company with the clout of an established financial institution combined with the agility and flexibility of a modern FinTech. They can include creating strategy placemats (one-page strategy overviews that are easily shared), frequent team huddles, one-on-one coaching, and process confirmation. Singh describes the team he assembled as being super-powerful, and says he often refers to it as his three-in-box strategy, owing to the various areas for which he recruited. Meanwhile, innovators like Ant Financial(China) and M-Pesa(Kenya) are leveraging high mobile penetration rates in emerging markets, and are beginning to experiment with cross-border money transfers. We will expand our Messenger bot to other countries and add other languages, he adds. OutSystems High-Performance Low-Code Platform Powers Western Union Digital Banking Solution 2 min. [7]For a helpful overview of how Blockchain is being used in emerging markets, see Vinay Gupta & Rob Knight, How Blockchain Could Help Emerging Markets Leap Ahead, Harvard Business Review, May 17, 2017. The company, which has been in the money-transfer business since 1871, launched online transfers via WU.com in 2000 and got into mobile money transfers in 2007. The author approaches the problem using public. Every year or two we rescore ourselves in a company-wide exercise to see where were making progress and where were falling behind. It's a physical branding and marketing component that few money-transfer providers can match - but one that's of diminishing value in a digital world. Youre starting to see that happen culturally. The scale of change this represents for a business like Western Union is not to be underestimated; the company employs around 11,000 people and has more than 550,000 retail agents locations within its global financial network, as well as a global online presence. The center of excellence keeps things on track and makes sure we follow a framework and are tracking the results, so that we can measure the impact of the transformation across the whole organization. Western Union Uses AWS to Create Company-Wide Digital Transformation. A hugely significant piece of the transformation has come from rethinking how Western Union communicates with its vast customer base. As mobile payments and blockchain tech challenge the status quo of cross-border money transfers, Western Union must digitally transform itself at the right pace or risk going the way of the telegraph. The fusion of the digital and the physical, the irrepressible rise of new technologies. And the new business model may require a very different RPP (traditional money transfer process vs. transfer via blockchain). Meridian, Infosys
Second, we increased our use of digital media to reach customers and build a feedback loop. Three things were front-of-mind as we evaluated OutSystems, explains Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data and Innovation Officer at Western Union. Western Union's digital transformation efforts may fail to drive earnings growth, but they may be enough to keep earnings steady going forward. Western Union is doing that. Western Union's platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies . Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. Salesforce has been such an important part of the digital experience journey.. Business Unit Represents Approximately 7% of Company Revenue Divestiture Will Support Western Union's Strategic Focus on its Global Cross-Border Payments Platform and Digital Capabilities The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, together with Goldfinch Partners, LLC ("Goldfinch"), a private equity firm investing in . He reveals that Western Union was using multiple companies for each of its email, in-app and SMS communication channels. If you are a new customer: now you can transfer your FIRST money transfer for FREE*. Singh was given autonomy to mould his teams, combining the skills already at Western Union with external talent, many of which were from a consulting background, resulting in a diverse and varied team, which he says proved invaluable. Some development teams suffer 100 percent attrition in two to three years., "OutSystems helps in many ways. Mazzaferro: Keep it simple. Start Time: 16:30 January 1, 0000 5:32 PM ETThe Western Union Company (NYSE:NYSE:WU)Q3 2022 Earnings Conference CallNovember 01, 2022, 16:30 PM ETCompany ParticipantsDevin McGranahan -. In the past five years, theres been a leveling across applications and data. This entails a leader or a manager being on the floor with people doing their day-to-day jobs, just observing the way they work. Reflecting on the transformation to-date, Singh is clear that it hasnt come without its challenges. Specifically,. If Western Union tries to grow its blockchain capabilities within current operations, internal resistors may directly or indirectly sabotage the initiatives. Everest Group Low-Code Application Development Platforms PEAK Matrix 2022. Today, our omnichannel platform places Western Union in a unique position where our physical network and our digital efforts combine to provide customers with a host of options to transfer money, whether in cash, card into billions of bank accounts, online, using our App or one of our 17 mobile wallet partners. Enterprise Technology Operations Center Manager. Consumers can 'Send Now, Pay Later' by borrowing up to AUD 2000 through Beforepay's wage-advance product on Western Union's digital channels. We embrace the white canvas and first principles design, breaking away from legacy systems to create smart . With a strong base of over 4 million customers and an established regional brand in the fast-growing digital wallet market, Western Union believes that stc pay is poised to experience strong growth in the future. The pilots help get buy-in across the organization, and then once we have that buy-in, it provides the resources necessary to scale. January 25, 2019 | Video. We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. When you see those people who are proactive and have aspirations, you are able to almost make them role models and build really effective ecosystems around them.. The Western Union Foundation is a separate charitable corporation that is tax-exempt under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, contributions to which are tax-deductible for US income tax purposes. In this video, Shelly Swanback, president of product and platform at Western Union, discusses the three key . Digital Transformation. Services, Public
Management, Digital Workplace
Western Union. Talends technology was used to bring various sources of data from different locations into a single place in rapid fashion, helping make decisions such as waiving fees for those sending funds to people caught up in the explosion. Manufacturing, Information Services
Society Updated: 01-06-2022 - 11:45. The organisation was looking for somebody with a fresh perspective who could challenge the norms, bring people together to show them the value of what were doing and basically create an environment thats a little bit different to your usual corporate set-up. Best practices were also key. Garden, The Economist
For more details about how Western Union went from 34 on-prem data warehouses to pursuing a multi-cloud strategy based on Snowflake, read our case study. Having to maintain two sets of procedures on-prem and cloud for 18 months to ensure business continuity is chief among them, while teams have had to escalate a company-wide transformation during a pandemic. Our technology platform is founded on a Hadoop big data technology cluster that is used for conversion analysis, risk statistical modeling, payments and risk data processing, Fellahi explains. [2] Westar 1, Wikipedia, accessed April 2018. Arab Emirates. Africa's largest payment gateway, MFS Africa, has partnered with Western Union to enable individuals and businesses across the continent to receive money be to drive digital transformation and . Navigating complex land title issues would also leverage Western Unions existing capabilities of dealing with a range of government regulations. A lot of our big data environment is still on-prem and the mission is to move that completely to the cloud by the end of the year. As an iconic brand for over 150 years, Western Union is constantly striving to innovate for their customers. Transformation, Cyber
Over the last two years, Singh has been accelerating Western Union's tech plan. In 2017, Western Union invested $200 million and 20% of its workforce on compliance functions. This will enable the company to maintain its high . You have to recognise that youre taking a massive journey as a company because it has always relied on data centres. Now we are on track to achieve those gains and benefits that come with being more agile and being able to grow at scale, we can really begin to look forward and reap the rewards of the transformation.. My team and I had thought of the future being digital, of course, but the pandemic really forced us to make it a reality for the business. Customers can send and receive money in a fast, reliable and convenient manner., We are proud to offer the same omnichannel choice in Austria. The reason for that is due to the huge increase in demand for our digital services as lockdowns were implemented across many different geographies.