Western Union Announces Agreement to Sell Western Union Business These are seismic factors currently redefining our world, earning their own epochal moniker: The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Western Union is the worlds first P2P company. 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. Western Union's cross-functional tech teams pushed out expanded digital options and real-time visibility on the status of its retail locations worldwide. Discover how Santander Consumer Finance replaced 70% of their core IT systems in three years with OutSystems. ; Offering combines Deloitte's ConvergePROSPERITY BankingSuite solution and multiple AWS services. Commenting on the advantages of development on OutSystems, Tom says, We estimate that were getting new products to market at least twice as fast as competitors, and were probably using a tenth of the resources they are on front-end development. 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 -. Kong, New We continue to experiment with the technology and time will tell if it offers a better alternative to traditional rails.. Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. Most of the customers for remittance service (e.g. With OutSystems, we deploy twice every week. Services, High Business Unit Represents Approximately 7% of Company Revenue . The Essential Components of Digital Transformation Were there tools or technology that were particularly helpful in your transformation? Rapid iteration is a crucial capability for Western Union, especially when designing customer experiencesin over 200 countries with local customer and regulatory requirements. For decades, Western Union has defended its global position by investing in regulatory compliance. Need a Lenten fish fry? There's an interactive map for that Second, we increased our use of digital media to reach customers and build a feedback loop. The role of CDO needs to encompass more than data management and data governance, more than even enabling the pipeline and managing the environments. 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. That created a need to act. Western Union Advances Its Digital Growth Strategy With - Wire19 A large proportion of Western Unions infrastructure has been migrated to the cloud, and Singh reveals a timeline to complete the programme of work. Finacle, Infosys 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. We teach employees, and then they execute. Specifically, how Data, Editors note: This is part of a series of blogs about the data economy. [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. | Learn more about Rokas kudas's work experience, education, connections & more by visiting their profile on . Western Union International Bank GmbH is regulated by the Financial Markets Authority in Austria, [i] Agent location count valid as of 31 December 2017. We position ourselves as creating opportunity for financial inclusion by bridging gaps in the financial services sector. - Earn My WU points. Western Union now has more than 550,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. Teams that may not previously have interacted with each other are now doing floor walks with each other. 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. By John Manning, International Banker. 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. Everest Group Low-Code Application Development Platforms PEAK Matrix 2022. 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. 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 Launches Two Digital Banking apps in 11 Months 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Want to learn more about technology and organizations? 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. Behind those market-shaper practices are the lean tools and behaviors we develop and encourage. Western Union agrees sale of Business Solutions division for $910m Thank you for this great post, Hans. And still others want to do it all online.. Finance. One moment later, in Shimla, a hill country city in India, close to the ridge of the Himalayan foothills, a cashier at the . Others prefer to prepare a transaction online and then go to a retail location to pay cash. Youre starting to see that happen culturally. 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. This is a powerful tool for our business and one of the key capabilities of our new infrastructure.. Most popular: Free $20 Amazon.com e-gift code for every friend you refer (earn up to $500). To explore this content and receive communications from Google, please sign in with an existing Google account. Rokas kudas - Quality Assurance Manager - Western Union | LinkedIn People are enthusiastic about the results of the pilot, and they want to see that in their own area. InsurTech & Crypto projects as the world embraces CX, Business Transformation and Digital . ", Tom adds, In fast-moving customer-facing scenarios, development is never build-once-and-doneyoure always iterating to refine the customer experience. Gartner Magic Quadrant for Low-Code Application Platforms, 2023. 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. 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. Guide for Suppliers, Select We wanted plug-and-play convenience to integrate any technology.. Jay Jaffin was just starting his role as Western Unions chief marketing officer when the pandemic arrived. Having got the right people in place, Singh and his team set about building a partner network to supercharge Western Unions technology evolution. Digital transformation in the EUBenefitting people, the economy and the environment. Youre now a year into your role as CMO and leading through a prolonged global crisis. The pandemic really accelerated the digital transformation journey; the plan was for it to be rolled out in three years but that timeframe became 18 months. Western Union's digital transformation efforts may fail to drive earnings growth, but they may be enough to keep earnings steady going forward. de 2007 - actualidad16 aos 3 meses. Working across many cultures at Western Union | McKinsey We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. Snowflake: What are a few highlights of how Snowflake is helping with digital transformation? Driving Western Union's tech transformation - Digital Bulletin 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 . [9]Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor,The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2003), Ch. Procurement & Construction, Financial Poland followed later in 2022, while plans are at hand to launch Italy by the end of the year. Many CEOs are lured into spending too much time on legacy businesses, which dont need CEO oversight. Meeting the moment with solutions required Western Union to accelerate its own digital transformation. 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 . He reveals that Western Union was using multiple companies for each of its email, in-app and SMS communication channels. All of that is dependent on people in the organization putting resources behind this kind of an agile transformation. Then think about the products you want to offer and how it can be a data-enabled product, such as being hyper-personalized. Now that these pilots are winding down, its been easy to get the support across the organization to find the resources necessary to establish teams that can scale it out in different areas across the company. 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. The top challenge for businesses with digital transformation goals in 2023 is determining where their companies should direct spending on technologies, according to a BCG X report. To accelerate application development, improve agility, and provide great digital experiences, the company chose OutSystems as its high-performance low-code platform. 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 pandemics economic stressors created a situation where more people suddenly needed to send money to family and friends around the world, many of whom rarely use financial services. 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. Thats really enabled a lot more collaboration across groups. Contributed to establishing Quality Assurance, Training and Documentation strategy and processes for AML Operations functions. Western Union offers digital transactions in 70 countries to move money around the world. The Western Union Way of digital transformation. Banco Santander Consumer Portugal Adopts OutSystems as its Digital Transformation Platform. Data and insights gave us the ability to make important strategic decisions in the throes of what could have been a panic. Customers can send and receive money in a fast, reliable and convenient manner., We are proud to offer the same omnichannel choice in Austria. As such, when Western Union embarked on its technology transformation, it was keen to recruit personnel who could help achieve its vision. The transformation of a legacy company whose roots lie in the era of the telegraph involves more than just lean deployments and agile methodologies. SEED aims to improve education and employability of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, especially children of refugees, migrants, and local families. Professors from HEC, ESCP business school, and leading carriers shared insights on . 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. Today, WU.com is available in 40 countries, with mobile apps in 18 of them. NICE have announced Western Union, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, has advanced customer experience through improved . The center of excellence keeps things on track and makes sure we follow a framework and are tracking the results, so that we can measure the impact of the transformation across the whole organization. Western Union launched its digital banking app in Germany and Romania in Spring 2022, following 11 months of iterative development. For example, De Beers is trying to create a diamond blockchain for registration and authentication, to prevent the spread of conflict diamonds. 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. To ensure those approaches were safe and secure, we partnered with governmental organizations to find new and secure ways to verify customers. The Transformation Story of Western Digital - infosys.com Digital Transformation. 2023Western Union Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. . Governments pay close attention to cross-border money transfers, and heavily regulate these services to prevent fraud, tax evasion, and other criminal activities. The author approaches the problem using public. 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. Western Union, Chief Data Officer: Digital Transformation Initiatives Western Union: Reimagining a Financial Services Leader Using OutSystems for customer-facing digital experiences, back office, and workflow solutions, Western Union launched new digital banking services in two countries in just 11 months. 8 (Managing the Strategy Development Process). Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. According to the terms of the transaction . Revenue from Western Union's digital money transfer services spiked from $600 million in 2019 to over $850 million in 2020. They can include creating strategy placemats (one-page strategy overviews that are easily shared), frequent team huddles, one-on-one coaching, and process confirmation. Sector, Travel and Technology or Operations transformation . The Western Union Way of digital transformation. So youre really talking about game-changing differences between how processes worked before and after. 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. Alonso Calderon - Enterprise Technology Operations Center Manager Cash And Trade Magazine - For Cash and Trade professionals in the Western Union Promo Codes | 30% Off In March 2023 | Forbes Zealand, South As mobile payments and blockchain tech challenge the status quo of cross-border money transfers, Western Union must digitally transform itself at the right pace or risk going the way of the telegraph. 1 (March 1990), pp. [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. . [8]David Thomas, Beyond the Hype: What Blockchain could mean for Africa, African Business Magazine, Feb. 26, 2018. 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 The company considers local preferences, as well, accepting about 10 payment methods, such as Apple Pay in the U.S. Dr. Hosam AbouElDahab on LinkedIn: Western Union and Beforepay Offer (2013) Comparing Media Systems beyond the Western World. Services, Data The reason for that is due to the huge increase in demand for our digital services as lockdowns were implemented across many different geographies. And if Western Union doesnt embrace and transform along with those technologies, it will fade away just like the telegraph. Board of Directors. Dan Nordlander, senior vice president of Western Union Way Operations at Western Union, discusses his companys unique transformation journey with McKinseys Barr Seitz. This would help Western Union objectively pursue new blockchain opportunities, even if those opportunities eventually cannibalize or destroy its existing C2C business. From apps that save lives to those that process loans in a Thats changing. 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. Western Union Google Pay Integration: Interview With Vice - Monito 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. Theyll be there to help you stay on track or course correct when you have troubles. This does have privacy implications and hence needs to be vetted out with regulatory authorities around the world. Nduduzo Tshuma - Head of Information Technology & Digital On May 17, 2018, at the Digital Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria, the European Commission launched the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans. 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. 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. We have a lot of great ideas in terms of investments to drive that topline revenue growth, but we needed ways to fund those. And the new business model may require a very different RPP (traditional money transfer process vs. transfer via blockchain). For decades, Western Union benefited from network effects as it added density and new geographies. Head of Information Technology & Digital Transformation Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Oct 2015 - Present 7 years 6 months. OutSystems provides the innovation and agility to accelerate the digital transformation of Western Union. 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. Part of this agility drive involved Western Union migrating its legacy on-prem IT infrastructure to the Cloud. Now Departing: Union Pacific's 40-Year-Old Mainframe | CIO <br><br>My Leadership Philosophy<br><br>I am an . I also agree with you that the competitive advantage of Western Union is a broad network of retail footprint across the world. 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. Feb 7, 2023. Its time to align your banks digital transformation strategy with the entire customer lifecycle by providing a personalized omnichannel experience. 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. 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. The executive team has done a great job of making it really clear across the company that this is something thats expected of you. 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. Poland followed later in 2022, while plans are at hand to launch Italy by the end of the year. Definition of Digital Transformation - IT Glossary | Gartner & Distribution, Media and 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. And its not something you can achieve really quickly, its a multiple-year process. of Use, Payment Build customized, secure, and scalable mobile banking apps. 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. Think of Western Union, and its yellow placard advertising an agent location comes to mind. Really understand the business stakeholders problem and how you can fix or enable it. Navigate 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. First, for continuity of services. Driving Western Union's Tech Transformation | by Digital Bulletin