An undisputed leader in the global payments space, Western Union is driving a company-wide technology transformation, underpinned by migrating its infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud. 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. [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. Its important to understand that business stakeholders are customers of our data. To learn more about the data economy, what your organization stands to gain from using data effectively, and how to become a Data Economy Leader, download the report overview, How to Win in Todays Data Economy. 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. Dan Nordlander, senior vice president of Western Union Way Operations at Western Union, discusses his companys unique transformation journey with McKinseys Barr Seitz. When people send money to friends or family across the country or around the world, chances are good that Western Union is involved. The development speedand deployment easeprovided by OutSystems accelerates change and feedback cycles, which paves the way for continuous innovation. The executive team has done a great job of making it really clear across the company that this is something thats expected of you. Western Union can leverage such physical presence to win this new innovative space. The Baupost Group is a $31 billion Boston-based investment firm. 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. Now data is the driver and applications are being developed to handle that data and represent it to business stakeholders to make it consumable. It is far more stable than that and can be used for near instant settlements across the board, while providing liquidity to Reserve Banks. So well go from maybe four pilot teams to a plan to scale out across 400 people and maybe 30 teams next year. Over the last two years, Singh has been accelerating Western Union's tech plan. Western Union International Banks CEO Peter Bucher firmly believes you can drive successful, innovative business while creating a better world for the community you live in. Western Union. That system is fine in a cash based economy, but is becoming increasingly cumbersome as digital payments take hold in emerging markets. Today, structured and semi-structured data can easily coincide. And when that happens, they start to see further opportunities for continuous improvement, leading them to new ideas about things they can do to improve efficiency or effectiveness. Maybe it started out as more of a push, where we were looking to come in and work with a team. When people send money to friends or family across the country or around the world, chances are good that Western Union is involved. Over the last two years, Singh has been accelerating Western Union's tech plan. ; Offering combines Deloitte's ConvergePROSPERITY BankingSuite solution and multiple AWS services. - Earn My WU points. He also praises Snowflakes adaptability when it came to dealing with huge capacity increases. 2023Western Union Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Some want to go to a retail store and pay cash. She also has worked with ad agencies like Ogilvy and McCann. 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.. Consumers can 'Send Now, Pay Later' by borrowing up to AUD 2000 through Beforepay's wage-advance product on Western Union's digital channels. I have successfully directed virtual teams working on Mastercard integrations, Western Union and MoneyGram. One of the benefits that weve really seen as weve gone through these first two years of our journey is what happens when we get everyone speaking the same language. This would help Western Union objectively pursue new blockchain opportunities, even if those opportunities eventually cannibalize or destroy its existing C2C business. 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. Mazzaferro: In the past, the thinking in the industry has often been that applications are king, and that data flows through the applications. Western Union's cross-functional tech teams pushed out expanded digital options and real-time visibility on the status of its retail locations worldwide. Customers can send and receive money in a fast, reliable and convenient manner., We are proud to offer the same omnichannel choice in Austria. Snowflake worked with Longitude to assess what it takes to lead in the data economy. We have a lot of great ideas in terms of investments to drive that topline revenue growth, but we needed ways to fund those. Manufacturing, Communication Ericsson will help accelerate Econet's digital transformation journey. Youre starting to see that happen culturally. Digital transformation in the EUBenefitting people, the economy and the environment. Some changes that used to take a month, we now deliver in around 48 hours.. . 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. Blockchain is technology that uses an open, distributed ledger to permanently verify and record transactions between two parties. Singh is a proponent for a Central Bank Digital Currency, which he says is significantly different to the digital assets such as BitCoin and Ethereum, which can fluctuate wildly in value over short periods of time. 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. Looking ahead, the Sales Cloud will be connected to the Marketing Cloud, which in turn is connected to our Care Cloud, so that whenever something happens across any of those products we are able to react in a way that suits that customer. You have to recognise that youre taking a massive journey as a company because it has always relied on data centres. And on our website, we added new support and wayfinding tools to ensure customers could quickly and easily access information. The EU is helping to boost Europe's digital capacities and create new opportunities for businesses and consumers while safeguarding basic rights. We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. [11] Western Unions footprint of retail locations gives it a worldwide laboratory for experimenting with blockchain applications. In a report on ERP modernization, the global market intelligence firm highlights how Western Digital . The network upgrade will pave the way for Econet to deliver 5G connectivity in more . . There was a need to accelerate the process we wanted to undertake, I have that experience of transformation projects happening on a massive scale. But it becomes more self-driven, and that really enables the scale. Some development teams suffer 100 percent attrition in two to three years., "OutSystems helps in many ways. He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. Complete your profile for personalized recommendations, Managing Director, U.S. Financial Services at Google. Having found great success with its Marketing Cloud, Singh outlines his longer-term vision to connect a number of Western Unions central products. Western Union's investment in India is part of a broader fintech and innovation strategy that is driving the company's digital transformation. Us, Terms People are enthusiastic about the results of the pilot, and they want to see that in their own area. . Cookies help us deliver our services. de 2007 - actualidad16 aos 3 meses. 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. As we get the pilots completed, the idea is to turn the WU Way team into more of a center of excellence. Migrants, who typically are the link between cash economies underserved by financial institutions, and highly bancarized, digital economies, benefit from Western Unions unique ability to combine the physical and the digital. This will enable the company to maintain its high . 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. SEED aims to improve education and employability of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, especially children of refugees, migrants, and local families. 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. 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. 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. Rapid iteration is a crucial capability for Western Union, especially when designing customer experiencesin over 200 countries with local customer and regulatory requirements. Africa's largest payment gateway, MFS Africa, has partnered with Western Union to enable individuals and businesses across the continent to receive money 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. 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. Teams that may not previously have interacted with each other are now doing floor walks with each other. Technology powers the data economy. We use OutSystems in multiple layers of our tech stack, says Tom. ; With the solution, Western Union launched a state-of-the-art digital . We do that both in-line, so you as a manager go and visit your own organization, but also visit other functions. Talend is our backbone for that work and have really evolved their product to meet our needs.. Now its more pull. A large proportion of Western Unions infrastructure has been migrated to the cloud, and Singh reveals a timeline to complete the programme of work. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. Governments pay close attention to cross-border money transfers, and heavily regulate these services to prevent fraud, tax evasion, and other criminal activities. What we are talking about is not cryptocurrency, it is not something that has to be mined. Africa, South Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists, Sign up for the Digital Initiative Newsletter. How Your Small Business Can Be Managed With The Right Databases, Why Businesses Must Focus on Introducing Technology in the Workplace. Profiles, Infosys Knowledge Western Union has innovated before. today more than 65% of Western Union's digital transactions originate on a mobile . The international roll-out continues to other countries at pace. 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. Furthermore, a chain of retail outlets is expensive. 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. There were definitely times I was looking at costs and thinking how I was going to explain to finance, or my CFO, he says. Others prefer to prepare a transaction online and then go to a retail location to pay cash. Huawei believes digital talent is a key driver in achieving digital transformation, solid economic growth, and better quality of life. Top retailers use AI-powered campaigns to engage their most valuable customers. 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 . Data quality is so important to us, we need to know who we are marketing to and that means our data has to be of the highest quality.. Something we could take forward is a digital dollar, which we could make transferable all around the world with our vendors. Gartner Magic Quadrant for Low-Code Application Platforms, 2023. [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. Experience in leading digital products from either the financial services, payment, or fintech industries. Here is Swamy Sivasubramaniyan, Head of Financial Services and Settlement Platform for Western Union, discussing the digital transformation experience with Infosys and Oracle. Finacle, Infosys Provide value consistently every month and deliver new value and capabilities. 12. Harveer Singh, Chief Data Architect & Global Head of Engineering, reveals how the initiative will give the organisation the speed and agility it needs to . Before OutSystems, we typically released every six weeks. Rica, Hong Learn what is a data platform, which encompass a range of elements required to support the data management cycle. Heres how, Customers want control over their data and wont hesitate to switch brands to get it, Global Insights Briefing: Holiday takeaways for marketers, From solar panels to spa days, see how 2022s top searches set the stage for 2023. But Western Union is missing the true potential of blockchain for its business. 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. To address this new competitive landscape, Western Union sought an agility boost to accelerate innovation. 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. We offer consumers the choices they want, both for sending and receiving money, he stresses. 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. According to the terms of the transaction . Western Union has had a compound annual growth rate above 25 percent over the past five years, since the launch of the digital division. As such, when Western Union embarked on its technology transformation, it was keen to recruit personnel who could help achieve its vision. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Want to learn more about technology and organizations? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press We're making content recommendations better for thousands of readers. If Western Union tries to grow its blockchain capabilities within current operations, internal resistors may directly or indirectly sabotage the initiatives. We continue to experiment with the technology and time will tell if it offers a better alternative to traditional rails.. few clicks, you can use OutSystems to bring your visions to life. The gap between access and use is growing, with 56% of people in . McKinsey's Kausik Rajgopal and Lang Davison recently sat down with Western Union's CEO to talk about its multicultural customer base (and . Western Union will likely face internal resistance from three sources. So we had to figure out how to continue to show up for customers while also ensuring everyones health and safely. If any of these should fit what you're looking for, consider exploring a career with Western Union. We saw that our revenue and customer base didnt reflect the opportunity and size of the market.. Our research identified 10 attributes of an organizations data infrastructure that enable it to take full advantage of the data economy, the global supply and, Editors note: This is part of a series about the data economy. Best practices were also key. Patrick Gauthier, CEO of Convera, formerly known as Western Union Business Solutions. 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. Cole heads the 169-year-old company's digital transformation efforts, including the design and development of the software powering those consumer-facing platforms. 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.. 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. Business Application Services, Service Experience 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. OutSystems High-Performance Low-Code Platform Powers Western Union Digital Banking Solution 2 min. (2017) Monitoring Media Pluralism in Europe: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 in the European Union, Montenegro and Turkey. We wont bug you too much because thats more work for all of us. Transfers can be delivered in cash or into a digital wallet or a bank account via electronic funds transfer. If CDIOs dont have the right culture on their teams, how can they help drive a data-first culture throughout their organization? Western Union is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. 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 . We know there are certain systems that we cannot just move to the cloud straight away such as the AS400 IBM mainframe, but weve managed to take the ecosystem that surrounds our legacy technology and move it to the cloud and we think we can get everything to the cloud before the end of the year. From the earliest days of the pandemic, innovating the companys services to meet new patterns of consumer demand was an urgent matter. The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. We recently delivered a similar requirement to a higher standard using one OutSystems developer in just 15 days. 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. ", Tom adds, In fast-moving customer-facing scenarios, development is never build-once-and-doneyoure always iterating to refine the customer experience. Snowflake enables us to centralize our data and enable application and business processes to leverage it across the organization. The paper analyzes the issues of digital transformation in the European Union in such key dimensions as financing digitalization and implementing public policy to bridge the digital divide in the EU member countries. She has extensive experience in leading strategic marketing and has worked with brands like Myntra, Arrow, and Amante. Download the Western Union (WU) money transfer app and quickly start sending cash to Mexico and worldwide, 24/7! 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. Sector, Travel and 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.