western union digital transformation

My role was to bring all of these different teams together and instil a culture that recognised it wasnt just about how fast we were going, but also about the quality of the product were delivering.. Finance. The transformation of Western Digital to a Live Enterprise Modernization of legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications provides an opportunity for a technical upgrade as well as a transformation of the core business, according to IDC. Funds can be picked up in cash at half a million Western Union agent locations worldwide or transferred electronically to the recipients bank account or to a debit card linked to a digital wallet. 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. 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. Last year, the global-payment services giant completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, for a total of $80 billion. Its one of the most widely used platforms from a data perspective and were expanding our relationship with Talend to start using some of its data quality products as well. We caught up with Mazzaferro to dive deeper into how the Data Cloud enables ongoing digital transformation at Western Union: Snowflake: Tom, as CDIO you lead the charge on keeping Western Union at the forefront of data economy leadership. The second aspect is our agile work, where we spin up teams that have learned and are now experts in using agile methodologies for product launches or IT development. In this video, Shelly Swanback, president of product and platform at Western Union, discusses the three key . Automation, Microsoft Now its more pull. Transformation, Cyber 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. The aim of this paper is to sketch a brief history of complex digital transformation of media and . OutSystems High-Performance Low-Code Platform Powers Western Union Digital Banking Solution 2 min. ; Offering combines Deloitte's ConvergePROSPERITY BankingSuite solution and multiple AWS services. Mazzaferro: In the past, the thinking in the industry has often been that applications are king, and that data flows through the applications. 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. 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. Digital Bulletin exists to tell the story. Technology, Industrial Cloud services such as cloud data platforms have become cost-efficient, high performance calling cards for any business that leverages big data. Cookies help us deliver our services. Log in to help. 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. How Western Union achieved Digital Transformation with Infosys and Oracle. McKinsey's Kausik Rajgopal and Lang Davison recently sat down with Western Union's CEO to talk about its multicultural customer base (and . SEED aims to improve education and employability of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, especially children of refugees, migrants, and local families. We offer consumers the choices they want, both for sending and receiving money, he stresses. 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). Nov 2011 - Present11 years 5 months. [2]But today, new technologies are threatening Western Unions entire business model. To ensure those approaches were safe and secure, we partnered with governmental organizations to find new and secure ways to verify customers. Western Union built its platform by assembling a global network of third party agents. It is our responsibility to enable businesses, problem solvers, regulators and communities to leverage fintech for the betterment of lives. Mazzaferro: Keep it simple. Seven months after Goldfinch Partners and The Baupost Group announced they were purchasing Western . [1] The first transcontinental telegraph was sent on October 24, 1861, from the Chief Justice of California to President Abraham Lincoln. The OutSystems platforms capabilities were immediately put to the test through 2021, as Western Union and its system integrator started development of its new digital banking app that includes a multicurrency bank account combined with money transfers, and other added benefits such as a Visa Platinum debit card. Meanwhile, new fintech players like Transferwise are able to offer cash transfer services for a fraction of the price since their operations are 100% online. DENVER-(BUSINESS WIRE)-The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a minority stake in fast growing Saudi Digital Payments Company, or stc pay, a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi Telecom Company. Cortex, Infosys NICE have announced Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, has advanced customer experience through improved . Africa's largest payment gateway, MFS Africa, has partnered with Western Union to enable individuals and businesses across the continent to receive money Western Union is the worlds first P2P company. Singh was brought in to help facilitate that leap, drawing on his expertise with business transformations, technology management, data architecture and collaborative working, backed up by various consulting roles at Deloitte, IBM and Accenture. Specifically,. 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. Team members were drawn from different continents and operating on different time zones. Western Union's Customer Journey Digital Transformation Fueled by NICE - Innovative NICE Nexidia Customer Journey Optimisation provides powerful analytics to enhance customer experience. 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 Professors from HEC, ESCP business school, and leading carriers shared insights on . Created: 05-05-2021 - 17:15. Western Union began a mission to transform the settlement platform with streamlined retail and digital cross-border money transfer operations to overcome the challenges and constraints of their legacy settlement systems. 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. Some changes that used to take a month, we now deliver in around 48 hours.. Download the Western Union (WU) money transfer app and quickly start sending cash to Mexico and worldwide, 24/7! Harare Responsible for . What are the biggest lessons you learned? Reliable for over 170 years. The primary reason we decided to go through with this transformation is that we saw an opportunity to positively impact revenue through our daily operations and behaviors. He reveals that Western Union was using multiple companies for each of its email, in-app and SMS communication channels. be to drive digital transformation and . It took six months to do the bare minimum. Policy . What we are talking about is not cryptocurrency, it is not something that has to be mined. Snowflake: What are a few highlights of how Snowflake is helping with digital transformation? 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.. 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. One trend that has emerged as a result is the growing role of digital money transfers among people who may not otherwise use those services. 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. The transformation of a legacy company whose roots lie in the era of the telegraph involves more than just lean deployments and agile methodologies. - Access cash back rewards at the WU store. 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, Singh tells Digital Bulletin. Experienced and certified (ACAMS) AML and Learning & Development professional with a proven track of records in compliance, people management, learning areas. This will enable the company to maintain its high . 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 -. You have to recognise that youre taking a massive journey as a company because it has always relied on data centres. Originally, the capacity of our on-prem environments wasnt projected to hit capacity until 2022, but we could see that point was going to be reached in 2020, so that meant a real acceleration.. Others prefer to prepare a transaction online and then go to a retail location to pay cash. [1] One hundred years later, Western Union launched the first domestic commercial geostationary satellite (Westar 1). Most of the customers for remittance service (e.g. Divestiture Will Support Western Union's Strategic Focus on its Global Cross-Border Payments Platform and Digital Capabilities He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. 2021. Experts at TCS and Western Union share the trends that are affecting digital transformation in financial services. 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. Thats the high performancewe rely on with OutSystems., Low-Code for Digital Financial Services Delivery. 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. And if Western Union doesnt embrace and transform along with those technologies, it will fade away just like the telegraph. When people send money to friends or family across the country or around the world, chances are good that Western Union is involved. Secure, touchless, digital money transfers were a safe, reliable way for people to send funds where they needed to, so we leaned in there. Not just front-end, but back office and our contact center. Western Union (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments and Zain Cash, the award-winning mobile financia . 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. HELIX, Management It has become one of the leaders in Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) technology and the majority of the data moving across our ecosystem is now powered by Talend. Snowflake worked with Longitude to assess what it takes to lead in the data economy. Were there tools or technology that were particularly helpful in your transformation? The international roll-out continues to other countries at pace. Introducing the next-generation operating model, Winning with your talent-management strategy. Procurement & Construction, Financial 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. Western Union (WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Discover the latest data, insights, and inspiration from Think with Google. Africa's largest payment gateway, MFS Africa, has partnered with Western Union to enable individuals and businesses across the continent to receive money from over 200 countries and territories. Transfers can be delivered in cash or into a digital wallet or a bank account via electronic funds transfer. [9]Western Union recently dipped its toes into blockchain. Discover the latest software purchases and digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by Western Union and its business and technology executives. 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. So youre really talking about game-changing differences between how processes worked before and after. 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. Reframe blockchain from a threat to an opportunity, by creating a new autonomous unit. Western Union is renowned for its unparalleled international network, with over 500,000 agent locations spanning 200 countries and territories. 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. Becoming digital first meant we needed to deliver fast, frictionless experiences, especially on mobile. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. Beyond the public health crisis, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on personal finances, causing poverty levels and inequality to rise globally. We do that both in-line, so you as a manager go and visit your own organization, but also visit other functions. Western Union and Beforepay Offer 'Send Now, Pay Later' Service to Consumers for International Money Transfers Western Union could use existing retail outlets as nodes on a land register blockchain, which could bring in new sources of revenue to those retail stores. Second, Western Unions employees may not have the knowledge or training to effectively lead Western Unions digital transformation, and may resist digital initiatives or operational changes. [12]Josh Constine, Western Union Brings Money Transfer and Its Tricky Fees to Chat Apps, TechCrunch.com, Feb. 4, 2016. Western Union. Recipients can choose to pick up the sent money at a Western Union location, or send the money to a digital wallet or bank account. Group, Infosys Revenue Management Platform for Banking, About We also innovated to make our services more inclusive for customers by creating new ways to send funds digitally and offering real-time digital account payouts. The company considers local preferences, as well, accepting about 10 payment methods, such as Apple Pay in the U.S. Having got the right people in place, Singh and his team set about building a partner network to supercharge Western Unions technology evolution. One of these customers is Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data & Innovation Officer of Western Union, which serves more than 100 million global customers through approximately 600,000 retail locations, and via its digital platforms. 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. [2] Westar 1, Wikipedia, accessed April 2018. Huawei believes digital talent is a key driver in achieving digital transformation, solid economic growth, and better quality of life. Western Union International Bank GmbH is regulated by the Financial Markets Authority in Austria, [i] Agent location count valid as of 31 December 2017. Us, Terms 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. Its been a great combination. 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. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. Security, Infosys These strategies are paying off. [3] Shelly Freierman, Telegram Falls Silent Stop Era Ends Stop, NY Times, Feb. 6, 2006. People are asking us, Hey, can you come help me? Many of its 150 million customers worldwide depend on money transfers to pay for food, electricity, medication, and other necessities. Meridian, Infosys After the catastrophic explosion in Lebanon in 2020, the two companies worked together to build data pipelines to help those affected by the incident and provide support to agents in the area. 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. Guide for Suppliers, Select Faced with numerous applications to deliver, the need to rapidly iterate customer experiences, and the steep learning curve for new Cloud DevOps toolchains, Western Union decided to evaluate low-code platforms. My mission is to empower people to become economically self-reliant. Management, Digital Workplace This does have privacy implications and hence needs to be vetted out with regulatory authorities around the world. Western Union International Bank is licensed by the Austrian Financial Market Authority. Think of Western Union, and its yellow placard advertising an agent location comes to mind. That system is fine in a cash based economy, but is becoming increasingly cumbersome as digital payments take hold in emerging markets. Western Union operates in the increasingly competitive, rapidly changing payments sector, where new fintech players are changing how the market operates. 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. And the new business model may require a very different RPP (traditional money transfer process vs. transfer via blockchain). Reflecting on the transformation to-date, Singh is clear that it hasnt come without its challenges. Wingspan, Infosys Once a customer notarises their documents, they can be stored in a safe location and distributed across the blockchain network, so any regulatory authority or government can access that information. Western Union has the infrastructure to help make that a reality. 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. What does "digital transformation" mean to Western Union? Feb 7, 2023. Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. Jaffin: Our company mission is to enable financial transfers between people anywhere and everywhere; we had a responsibility to continue to deliver on that. Western Union now has more than 550,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. The Western Union Way of digital transformation. Board Committees. [5]. Its important to understand that business stakeholders are customers of our data. Jay Jaffin was just starting his role as Western Union's chief marketing officer when the pandemic arrived. 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. Chief Data and Innovation Officer, Western Union, Enterprise-grade scalability and security, Cloud-based IT architecture based on microservices. Revenue from Western Union's digital money transfer services spiked from $600 million in 2019 to over $850 million in 2020. People who knew how a team or a group worked before can come in and see its night-and-day different. 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. Behind those market-shaper practices are the lean tools and behaviors we develop and encourage. In 2017, Western Union invested $200 million and 20% of its workforce on compliance functions. In 2016, Western Union completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions and 523 million business payments world-wide, moving more than $150 billion of principal for consumers and businesses. The executive team has done a great job of making it really clear across the company that this is something thats expected of you. From the earliest days of the pandemic, innovating the companys services to meet new patterns of consumer demand was an urgent matter. That support has made it a lot easier to have the influence we need to make the transformation successful. ene. Thats really enabled a lot more collaboration across groups. They have also triggered profound changes within global banking, demanding that lenders remain flexible, nimble, and innovative in their digital-banking strategies to meet customers' rapidly . There are 13 of these practices, and thats really how were assessing success with the transformation across the organization. But you say its about more than technology? To explore this content and receive communications from Google, please sign in with an existing Google account. We will expand our Messenger bot to other countries and add other languages, he adds. What Ive tried to do is look at each of the groups and find out who the strong players in each of them are, the leaders that are vocal and very straightforward in conversation. Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists, Sign up for the Digital Initiative Newsletter. Business Application Services, Service Experience Lean deployments are a big piece of our overall transformation program. Western Union will likely face internal resistance from three sources. These are more tactical, day-to-day ways to implement lean across the organization. <br><br>My Leadership Philosophy<br><br>I am an . As we get the pilots completed, the idea is to turn the WU Way team into more of a center of excellence. your next, Infosys Deloitte announces multi-year collaboration with AWS to co-innovate and engineer solutions that help institutions expedite the launch of digital banking services and modernize their legacy core banking stacks. [5] 2017 Annual ReportCEO Letter (noting Western Union has expanded its fund payout network to billions of bank accounts). [11] Western Unions footprint of retail locations gives it a worldwide laboratory for experimenting with blockchain applications. 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. By John Manning, International Banker. This is just one example of how blockchain could be an opportunity for Western Union. That allowed us to go from ten people to about 50 change agents in the first wave, which will be able to support 2,500 employees and 4,000 vendor full-time employees within two years. Product Director, United States Money Transfer. 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. Commenting on the advantages of development on OutSystems, Tom says, "We estimate that we're getting new products . Top-down prioritization of digital transformation. 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. Instead, Western Union should fund and fully staff a separate unit that has preferential access to Western Unions resources, but is not restricted by legacy operators within Western Union. 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. Something we could take forward is a digital dollar, which we could make transferable all around the world with our vendors. The EU is helping to boost Europe's digital capacities and create new opportunities for businesses and consumers while safeguarding basic rights. 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. 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 . 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 . Top retailers use AI-powered campaigns to engage their most valuable customers. Discover how Santander Consumer Finance replaced 70% of their core IT systems in three years with OutSystems. Jaffin: Western Union has a culture of innovating to meet customer needs, and the past 12 months have shown us that quick pivots can drive lasting change. Jaffin: Evolution meant expanding the ways in which customers experience the brand digitally. The transition from legacy systems to Oracle Solutions was critical to the strategy's success. We serve all customer segments: from digital natives who are never without their smartphones to the 4 billion people on earth the World Bank estimates arent online yet., Western Union is strongly committed to migrants and to refugees: migration is at the heart of our business. They tend to be younger, they live online and they prefer to do everything there, at the touch of a button, Fellahi observes. The Transformation Story of Western Digital. [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. We saw that our revenue and customer base didnt reflect the opportunity and size of the market.. There were definitely times I was looking at costs and thinking how I was going to explain to finance, or my CFO, he says. Although retail business declined during . . ; With the solution, Western Union launched a state-of-the-art digital . The pilots help get buy-in across the organization, and then once we have that buy-in, it provides the resources necessary to scale. Jaffin: Digital was critical in a few ways. Enterprise Technology Operations Center Manager. That means we can onboard new developers and have them productive much faster, and weve got fewer knowledge silos in the development team., Moreover, low-code development on OutSystems helps Tom fight back in the war for digital talent.

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