western union digital transformation

To ensure those approaches were safe and secure, we partnered with governmental organizations to find new and secure ways to verify customers. Download the Western Union (WU) money transfer app and quickly start sending cash to Mexico and worldwide, 24/7! The development speedand deployment easeprovided by OutSystems accelerates change and feedback cycles, which paves the way for continuous innovation. Part of this agility drive involved Western Union migrating its legacy on-prem IT infrastructure to the Cloud. These initiatives will likely change Western Unions operating model, therefore they must be fully supported by CEO Hikmet Ersek and should occupy most of his time. Western Uniona global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and paymentsis driving a company-wide transformation, which includes migrating its infrastructure from on-prem to the Cloud. And that could be at an operation site or it could be more of a frontline thing like a sales executive. 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. Youre starting to see that happen culturally. Western Union will likely face internal resistance from three sources. The term is widely used in public-sector organizations to refer to modest initiatives such as putting services online or legacy modernization. Media, Madison Square In [] 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. Technology or Operations transformation . Rica, Hong Consumers can 'Send Now, Pay Later' by borrowing up to AUD 2000 through Beforepay's wage-advance product on Western Union's digital channels. The strategy is also to reduce costs; on-prem infrastructure and people running it is expensive and you need back-ups of everything, especially in financial services. Swanback said a . And, Fellahi points out, When you look at customer acquisition on our digital channel, 80 percent of the customers we acquired in the past 12 months are new to usnot migrated from our traditional customer base., He expects digital money transfer and mobile technology to be the major driver of overall growth in coming years, adding, In the U.S., over 65 percent of WU.com transactions are initiated on a mobile device, and globally it is nearly 60 percent.. - Earn My WU points. So its a real imperative across the top of the organization. Thats the high performancewe rely on with OutSystems., Low-Code for Digital Financial Services Delivery. We embrace the white canvas and first principles design, breaking away from legacy systems to create smart . A large proportion of Western Unions infrastructure has been migrated to the cloud, and Singh reveals a timeline to complete the programme of work. Does it offer a more seamless customer experience? Many of its 150 million customers worldwide depend on money transfers to pay for food, electricity, medication, and other necessities. Western Unions platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies and 500K partner networks. 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. His career span includes working with organizations like FIS, Western Union, HCL Technologies, CGI, Mahindra Satyam and iGate Global Solutions. And its not something you can achieve really quickly, its a multiple-year process. Revenue from Western Union's digital money transfer services spiked from $600 million in 2019 to over $850 million in 2020. Western Union is trying to use Blockchain as an incremental or modular innovation, when in fact it could be an architectural orradical innovation (see chart below) introducing entirely new businesses that fit well into Western Unions existing capabilities. Western Union is the worlds first P2P company. Experts at TCS and Western Union share the trends that are affecting digital transformation in financial services. Some want to go to a retail store and pay cash. In 2017, Western Union invested $200 million and 20% of its workforce on compliance functions. Navigating complex land title issues would also leverage Western Unions existing capabilities of dealing with a range of government regulations. Achieving that is going to give Western Union agility, stability and resilience and allow us to focus on product development, because we know that our technology is going to sit in the cloud and take up a lot less of our time. Western Union's digital services align with the UAE government's policy to create an economy driven by innovation and technology," said Salma Massoud, head of digital, Middle East and Africa . Reliable for over 170 years. . 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. Most popular: Free $20 Amazon.com e-gift code for every friend you refer (earn up to $500). It requires a change in process and culture, the adoption of a common lingo, executive buy-in, and a center . Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. 8 (Managing the Strategy Development Process). The Western Union Way of digital transformation. 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. 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. 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. According to the terms of the transaction . I also agree with you that the competitive advantage of Western Union is a broad network of retail footprint across the world. Rapid growth in technology was making it easy for international money transfers to take place online, Fellahi recalls. Services, Data The Foundation is supported by the Western Union Company, its employees, Agents, and business partners, working to support education and disaster relief efforts as pathways toward a better future. He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. 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. On March 1, Huawei held a "Digital Leadership Seminar" during Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, attended by more than 60 high-level customers from global carriers, government enterprises, and KOL. Industry experts were also drafted in to create the army that was required for this technology mission. Its not done from the perspective of correction or a negative consequence. And still others want to do it all online.. In addition to our digital banking app, there are at least 20 internal employee-facing apps that weve delivered that make work easier and more efficient for our employees., Asked what differences he sees in the development team, Tom says, With OutSystems, weve got a more cohesive and multi-talented development team because were using visual low-code development thats self-documenting. And if Western Union doesnt embrace and transform along with those technologies, it will fade away just like the telegraph. The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. 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. Jay Jaffin was just starting his role as Western Union's chief marketing officer when the pandemic arrived. In a report on ERP modernization, the global market intelligence firm highlights how Western Digital . Not satisfied with the idea of incremental change, the company took a start-from-scratch approach, assembling an experienced team and transforming its infrastructure. During its February 2018 earnings call, CEO Hikmet Ersek announced that Western Union is experimenting with Ripple for settling transactions and for capital optimization, and is also testing Ripples native currency (XRP).[10]. Western Union (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments and Zain Cash, the award-winning mobile financia . 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. This seems to be a typical BSSE case in which it is hard for the incumbent to disrupt its business, since the innovation may threaten the current profitable business. Western Union's digital banking platform is a complex ecosystem of partnerships from across the technology and fintech landscape. Automation reduces development toil, were more productive, so we dont need so many developers, and we dont end up with orphaned code when developers leave. Youre now a year into your role as CMO and leading through a prolonged global crisis. In just 11 months, we delivered a full-service digital banking experience that expands our relationship with customers.. How would this improve our agility, the need to deliver great digital experiences at scale, and the desire to use low-code across the whole stackfront-end, integration, and back-end core systems., Western Union became an OutSystems customer in November 2020. Digital transformation can refer to anything from IT modernization (for example, cloud computing), to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models. The partnership with Talend has evolved over the last few years and was originally established to provide our business and technology teams a fast and efficient way to build data pipelines. Western Union launched its digital banking app in Germany and Romania in Spring 2022, following 11 months of iterative development. Specifically, how Data, Editors note: This is part of a series of blogs about the data economy. 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. In the same way that they say it takes a whole village to raise a child, it takes an army of people with the right skillsets and approaches to undertake a challenge like this. Think of Western Union, and its yellow placard advertising an agent location comes to mind. The Western Union Foundation is actively supporting NGOs that help refugees and migrants around the globe through education and financial literacy. 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. 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. For example, we began offering an option for telephone money transfer. Western Union is one of the largest digital money firms, uniquely positioned to connect the cash and digital worlds across platforms, devices, borders, and currencies. Cole heads the 169-year-old company's digital transformation efforts, including the design and development of the software powering those consumer-facing platforms. Weve been able to increase the amount and frequency of relevant data we can share with our agents, and they have started to build new processes based on that. Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists, Sign up for the Digital Initiative Newsletter. Country/region, Costa Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Want to learn more about technology and organizations? She has extensive experience in leading strategic marketing and has worked with brands like Myntra, Arrow, and Amante. Discover the latest software purchases and digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by Western Union and its business and technology executives. Salesforce has been such an important part of the digital experience journey.. Introducing the next-generation operating model, Winning with your talent-management strategy. Western Union is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Imagine what we can do if you let us work with your team as well.. W ith the outbreak of a crippling global pandemic and a pronounced global economic slowdown, the last few years have been rather tumultuous for the world. Salesforce has a value proposition that was immediately interesting because it allows you to build a single omnichannel journey that can be managed really efficiently when I want to make a change I only need to do so in one place. Meeting the moment with solutions required Western Union to accelerate its own digital transformation. 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. Business Application Services, Service Experience WU's platform provides seamless cross-border flows, and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies. And being with the people that are actually doing the work really helps the management get a better sense of where they can use their leadership and influence to make that process easier for the employee and better for the customer. The company wanted to improve the digital experiences offered to customers and build new digital bankingproducts to extend its relationship with customers. Transformation, Cyber Sources for images:Western Union vs. Bitcoin, Bitland,MyWU,Ripple Union. So youre really talking about game-changing differences between how processes worked before and after. The partnership will enable funds to be sent from countries around the world to mobile wallets across Africa through the organization's licensed payment rails. And on our website, we added new support and wayfinding tools to ensure customers could quickly and easily access information. Dan Nordlander is senior vice president of Western Union Way Operations at Western Union, and Barr Seitz is senior manager of editorial and digital communications in McKinseys New York office. Business Unit Represents Approximately 7% of Company Revenue . As we get the pilots completed, the idea is to turn the WU Way team into more of a center of excellence. The Western Union Way of digital transformation. They essentially sponsor a team and loan the resources that are necessary. You stepped in as CMO just as COVID-19 was emerging, and I cant imagine that a global health crisis was what youd envisioned for your first 100 days. "As a digital enabler and a pioneer in the digital transformation, we aspire to play a vital role in the vision of the Saudi . For more than 170 years Western Union has been helping people send money all over the world. I have successfully directed virtual teams working on Mastercard integrations, Western Union and MoneyGram. 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.. Now its more pull. The company considers local preferences, as well, accepting about 10 payment methods, such as Apple Pay in the U.S. To address this new competitive landscape, Western Union sought an agility boost to accelerate innovation. The fusion of the digital and the physical, the irrepressible rise of new technologies. Network (IIN), Diversity Equity The Transformation Story of Western Digital. Governments pay close attention to cross-border money transfers, and heavily regulate these services to prevent fraud, tax evasion, and other criminal activities. Western Union's stock price continued to climb the week of April 12 reaching $25.89, compared to a low of $21.66 in January. Having got the right people in place, Singh and his team set about building a partner network to supercharge Western Unions technology evolution. (2013) Comparing Media Systems beyond the Western World. Join us to learn how your organization can become a leader in the Data Economy and the business benefits that result. But new innovators are highlighting a problem for Western Union: multi-homing is high with money transfers. Institute, Infosys Innovation But you say its about more than technology? Snowflake: What are a few highlights of how Snowflake is helping with digital transformation? While WU is considered a global leader in their space, competitive insights and . Last year, the global-payment services giant completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, for a total of $80 billion. It works with Talend to streamline data movement in compliance with GDPR across financial, reconciliation, auditing and trading partners. Western Union International Bank GmbH is regulated by the Financial Markets Authority in Austria, [i] Agent location count valid as of 31 December 2017. The relationship with Talend has enabled Western Union to help its global customer base in times of real need. Deep divides in digital connectivity, internet use, and access remain. This aims to support the transition of the region into a digital economy and bring the benefits of digital transformation, such as faster economic growth, more jobs, and better services. Its been a great combination. 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. 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. The culture change has to be driven across teams to show how technology has enabled different and better outcomes. ; Offering combines Deloitte's ConvergePROSPERITY BankingSuite solution and multiple AWS services. In Austria our employees have put in place numerous initiatives such as German courses and mentoring programs, and we celebrated in March the first anniversary of SEED, a project supported by the Western Union Foundation in collaboration with the Austrian Ministry of Education and Teach for Austria Alumni Association. of Use, Payment Consumers are less aware that we have transformed ourselves into one of the largest digital money transfer firms in the world, with our digital activity generating well over $400 million revenues in 2017. Mazzaferro: Technology is a critical part of the equation, of course, but technology can never drive culture change. 35, No. Western Union operates in the increasingly competitive, rapidly changing payments sector, where new fintech players are changing how the market operates. 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 . Something we could take forward is a digital dollar, which we could make transferable all around the world with our vendors. Cloud services such as cloud data platforms have become cost-efficient, high performance calling cards for any business that leverages big data. They can include creating strategy placemats (one-page strategy overviews that are easily shared), frequent team huddles, one-on-one coaching, and process confirmation. The new generation of customers, especially Millennials, want to find us in the ecosystem of messaging apps.. She also has worked with ad agencies like Ogilvy and McCann. If any of these should fit what you're looking for, consider exploring a career with Western Union. Second, we increased our use of digital media to reach customers and build a feedback loop. Before OutSystems, we typically released every six weeks. Feb 7, 2023. Youre expected to come up with new ways of innovation to drive revenue growth across the organization. Heute nutzen bereits rund 150.000 Anwender in Deutschland sowie in Rumnien, Polen und Italien die Western Union Digital Banking App fr ihre finanziellen Angelegenheiten - immer mit dem Ziel . Teams that may not previously have interacted with each other are now doing floor walks with each other. Their bread and butter business is charging hefty fees on remittances and their core advantage was a network of retail outlets and agents across the US and partners around the world to get cash from one family member to another. [2] Westar 1, Wikipedia, accessed April 2018. 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. This will enable the company to maintain its high . Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. Think of Western Union, and its yellow placard advertising an agent location comes to mind. However, Western Union doesnt view its established retail business as totally separate from the digital world. Looking back at the results of our work over the last couple of years across all of our deployments, you see some really impressive gains. [9]Western Union recently dipped its toes into blockchain. To that end, Singh has built on an existing relationship to forge a highly valuable partnership with Salesforce and oversee the roll-out of its industry-leading Marketing Cloud. 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 -. Talend is our backbone for that work and have really evolved their product to meet our needs.. Huawei believes digital talent is a key driver in achieving digital transformation, solid economic growth, and better quality of life. Digital Transformation. 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. The transition from legacy systems to Oracle Solutions was critical to the strategy's success. Western Union is renowned for its unparalleled international network, with over 500,000 agent locations spanning 200 countries and territories. Western Union is working alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS Partners to transform and expand its business, including the launch of a new digital bank. Fellahi sees the Messenger bot as a promising tool. Similarly, Western Union's ethos is based on empowering the aspiring populations of the world with accessible financial tools to improve the lives of their loved ones and communities. Technology, Industrial In 1861 it sent the first transcontinental telegraph. When we started the transformation project, we came at it from the perspective of this being a cultural transformation just as much as a process transformation. 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. Sub-Saharan Africa 3G and 4G mobile broadband coverage stands at 86% and 57% of the population, respectively. Singh estimates that the project has reduced how much it spends on talking to its customers by a quarter, while markedly improving this critical function. Digital Bulletin exists to tell the story. 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.