western union digital transformation western union digital transformation

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. 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. 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. Kong, New Data privacy and security practices . "As a digital enabler and a pioneer in the digital transformation, we aspire to play a vital role in the vision of the Saudi . 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. Improvements that we made to our apps digital customer experience, for example, helped it become one of the most downloaded apps among our peer set in 2020. Log in to help. Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. We position ourselves as creating opportunity for financial inclusion by bridging gaps in the financial services sector. The transition from legacy systems to Oracle Solutions was critical to the strategy's success. Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists, Sign up for the Digital Initiative Newsletter. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. Blockchain is technology that uses an open, distributed ledger to permanently verify and record transactions between two parties. With my work with WEF, I was lucky enough to sit around a table recently with some important people and talk about how we can take this forward. Secure, touchless, digital money transfers were a safe, reliable way for people to send funds where they needed to, so we leaned in there. As a company, Western Union is in the middle of a transformational moment. Discover how Santander Consumer Finance replaced 70% of their core IT systems in three years with OutSystems. 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. As we get the pilots completed, the idea is to turn the WU Way team into more of a center of excellence. 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. According to the terms of the transaction . Harveer Singh, Chief Data Architect & Global Head of Engineering, reveals how the initiative will give the organisation the speed and agility it needs to . We see ourselves as becoming a FinTech that can move quickly while being sure that our infrastructure and processes allow us to work at scale. 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. Experience in leading digital products from either the financial services, payment, or fintech industries. Almost immediately, it was clear that with retail stores temporarily closed, digital would need to play a larger role in delivering service to customers. The international roll-out continues to other countries at pace. Patrick Gauthier, CEO of Convera, formerly known as Western Union Business Solutions. For example, De Beers is trying to create a diamond blockchain for registration and authentication, to prevent the spread of conflict diamonds. 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. Western Union has the infrastructure to help make that a reality. Our digital-first crisis response is helping us evolve into the future. Increasingly, digital technology and mobile devices play a key role in these transactions. But for all its success, Western Union is undoubtedly a legacy player in a market that has been truly disrupted in recent years, with smaller and more agile outfits making waves in the increasingly digitised payments space. Talends technology has been used similarly in response to people impacted by floods in Haiti and to Indian citizens at the height of the countrys COVID-19 crisis. 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. Seven months after Goldfinch Partners and The Baupost Group announced they were purchasing Western . Finacle, Infosys [12]These kind of digital initiatives are good pursuits for current operational leaders, since they represent incremental or modular innovations to Western Unions existing product offerings. One of its most high-profile hires was Harveer Singh, who was appointed as Chief Data Architect & Global Head of Engineering and previously co-led EYs Next Generation architecture & solutions for Financial Services. 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. Transfers can be delivered in cash or into a digital wallet or a bank account via electronic funds transfer. ", Looking back to why Western Union chose OutSystems, Tom says, We serve millions of customers in over 200 countries and territories, and we want to give them the best possible customer experience. Today customers can commence their journey on our mobile App, pay for their transaction digitally or opt to pay cash from any of our participating Western Union retail locations, use wu.com or go directly to any of the 1,200 agent locations or Western Union-owned locations in Austria[i]. 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. [8]David Thomas, Beyond the Hype: What Blockchain could mean for Africa, African Business Magazine, Feb. 26, 2018. However, Western Union would be wise to form a new, separate unit for exploring blockchain services. Really understand the business stakeholders problem and how you can fix or enable it. Institute, Infosys Innovation Part of this agility drive involved Western Union migrating its legacy on-prem IT infrastructure to the Cloud. 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. Here are 4 steps they follow, Why durable solutions are needed to build the future of audiences, A data-privacy team can support your privacy transformation. 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. Microservices, Digital Process Created: 05-05-2021 - 17:15. Although retail business declined during . Group, Infosys Revenue Management Platform for Banking, About 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. He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. Markets are perpetually shifting and change is unavoidable, but to keep up with those shifting tides companies need to stay focused on digital transformation. Garden, The Economist Western Union can leverage such physical presence to win this new innovative space. 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. 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. 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. The company wanted to improve the digital experiences offered to customers and build new digital bankingproducts to extend its relationship with customers. Inclusion, Bloomberg We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. What are the biggest lessons you learned? Jaffin: Its important for us to continue trying new technology that gets us closer to customers and their changing needs, like advanced analytics and other tools. Open a free Western Union Digital Banking bank account to manage your international finances and make instant, transfer fee-free* money transfers to other Western Union Digital Banking account holders. [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. [5] 2017 Annual ReportCEO Letter (noting Western Union has expanded its fund payout network to billions of bank accounts). If you are a new customer: now you can transfer your FIRST money transfer for FREE*. & Distribution, Media and 28+ active Western Union coupons, discount codes & coupon codes for June 2021. 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. We use OutSystems in multiple layers of our tech stack, says Tom. Lean deployments are a big piece of our overall transformation program. Dan Nordlander, senior vice president of Western Union Way Operations at Western Union, discusses his companys unique transformation journey with McKinseys Barr Seitz. 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. (2017) Monitoring Media Pluralism in Europe: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 in the European Union, Montenegro and Turkey. Behind those market-shaper practices are the lean tools and behaviors we develop and encourage. These agents typically manage retail stores across the world, and offer Western Union money transfer services in exchange for a commission. Western Union's digital banking platform is a complex ecosystem of partnerships from across the technology and fintech landscape. Rapid growth in technology was making it easy for international money transfers to take place online, Fellahi recalls. Product Director, United States Money Transfer. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. The new generation of customers, especially Millennials, want to find us in the ecosystem of messaging apps.. ; With the solution, Western Union launched a state-of-the-art digital . So youre really talking about game-changing differences between how processes worked before and after. 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 . Last year, the global-payment services giant completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, for a total of $80 billion. 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. In the past several years, the Englewood, Colo.-based company has made a point to develop and [] 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. Automation, Microsoft [11]See generally Rebecca M. Henderson & Kim B. Clark, Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms, Administrative Science Quarterly Vol. Western Union must adapt to an increasingly mobile world: if Western Union doesnt develop low-cost mobile money transfers, Western Union wont be able to compete with new competitors like Ant Financial and Zelle. Prior to implementing Snowflake in 2021, Western Unions data spanned 34 on-premises data warehouses, resulting in latency and operational burdens. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. In the past, JSON storage and analysis required specific JSON databases. Governments pay close attention to cross-border money transfers, and heavily regulate these services to prevent fraud, tax evasion, and other criminal activities. [2] Westar 1, Wikipedia, accessed April 2018. Imagine what we can do if you let us work with your team as well.. The map, Barmer and Newman say, is designed to do precisely that turn the western Pennsylvania fish-fry culture into an adventure stamped onto the landscape that fosters community engagement . 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. 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 now has more than 550,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. Western Union is the worlds first P2P company. The Western Union Foundation is actively supporting NGOs that help refugees and migrants around the globe through education and financial literacy. This is just one example of how blockchain could be an opportunity for Western Union. Having found great success with its Marketing Cloud, Singh outlines his longer-term vision to connect a number of Western Unions central products. McKinsey's Kausik Rajgopal and Lang Davison recently sat down with Western Union's CEO to talk about its multicultural customer base (and . Digital is all about how we reach the customer. Rapid iteration is a crucial capability for Western Union, especially when designing customer experiencesin over 200 countries with local customer and regulatory requirements. The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. Others prefer to prepare a transaction online and then go to a retail location to pay cash. Unless they can feasibly use technology to improve their cost structure, Im super bearish on Western Union. Before OutSystems, we typically released every six weeks. Meeting the moment with solutions required Western Union to accelerate its own digital transformation. 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. 12. If any of these should fit what you're looking for, consider exploring a career with Western Union. With the blockchain environment, there may be value in the technology as it becomes more mature and efficient. Western Union Digital Banking is offered by Western Union International Bank GmbH. Commenting on the advantages of development on OutSystems, Tom says, "We estimate that we're getting new products . People are enthusiastic about the results of the pilot, and they want to see that in their own area. A large proportion of Western Unions infrastructure has been migrated to the cloud, and Singh reveals a timeline to complete the programme of work. Leadership Team. We wanted plug-and-play convenience to integrate any technology.. Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. Thats not to say cloud is always cheap, it can be expensive but we have a very stringent Review Board to keep our costs in check, so cost reduction is something about which we are confident.. We caught up with Mazzaferro to dive deeper into how the Data Cloud enables ongoing digital . [4] Form 10-K for the year ended December 2017, p.7. Manufacturing, Information Services Becoming digital first meant we needed to deliver fast, frictionless experiences, especially on mobile. Receive rewards. Technology, Industrial Western Union charges high fees since they need to cover rent and labor overhead. ene. 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. 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. Leading fintech, Mambu, provides the platform and engine that drives the core of Western Union's new digital bank. Learn about JSON storage. 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. 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. In a report on ERP modernization, the global market intelligence firm highlights how Western Digital . UnionDigital Bank is the trusted bridge between innovation and regulation. Western Union also is uniquely positioned to explore blockchain applications in emerging markets by leveraging Western Unions retail footprint, regulatory compliance learning, and global brand. 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. When people send money to friends or family across the country or around the world, chances are good that Western Union is involved. He reveals that Western Union was using multiple companies for each of its email, in-app and SMS communication channels. Western Union's investment in India is part of a broader fintech and innovation strategy that is driving the company's digital transformation. Contributed to establishing Quality Assurance, Training and Documentation strategy and processes for AML Operations functions. Zealand, South The Baupost Group is a $31 billion Boston-based investment firm. Rica, Hong And its not something you can achieve really quickly, its a multiple-year process. And that could be at an operation site or it could be more of a frontline thing like a sales executive. 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.