We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. Youre now a year into your role as CMO and leading through a prolonged global crisis. 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. Pay for your transfer instantly with a debit or credit card** or start a money transfer and complete the payment in cash at a nearby agent location. Sub-Saharan Africa 3G and 4G mobile broadband coverage stands at 86% and 57% of the population, respectively. [4] Form 10-K for the year ended December 2017, p.7. [9]Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor,The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2003), Ch. In Western and Central Africa, only 36% of the population has access to broadband connectivity. 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. Created: 05-05-2021 - 17:15. From the earliest days of the pandemic, innovating the companys services to meet new patterns of consumer demand was an urgent matter. Arab Emirates. Institute, Infosys Innovation Swanback said a . What are the biggest lessons you learned? 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. During its February 2018 earnings call, CEO Hikmet Ersek announced that Western Union is experimenting with Ripple for settling transactions and for capital optimization, and is also testing Ripples native currency (XRP).[10]. The executive team has done a great job of making it really clear across the company that this is something thats expected of you. 35, No. For decades, Western Union has defended its global position by investing in regulatory compliance. Download the Western Union (WU) money transfer app and quickly start sending cash to Mexico and worldwide, 24/7! It took six months to do the bare minimum. And on our website, we added new support and wayfinding tools to ensure customers could quickly and easily access information. (PDF-165 KB) The transformation of a legacy company whose roots lie in the era of the telegraph involves more than just lean deployments and agile methodologies. Marketing tactics evolved to attract digital customers, who have a different profile from traditional retail customers. These are more tactical, day-to-day ways to implement lean across the organization. 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. Entertainment, Professional Western Union, Chief Data Officer: Digital Transformation Initiatives Blockchain is technology that uses an open, distributed ledger to permanently verify and record transactions between two parties. For more than 170 years Western Union has been helping people send money all over the world. Everest Group Low-Code Application Development Platforms PEAK Matrix 2022. 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 recently delivered a similar requirement to a higher standard using one OutSystems developer in just 15 days. 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. 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. 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. 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. Most of the customers for remittance service (e.g. 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. Western Union's digital transformation - Think with Google Western Union must adapt to an increasingly mobile world: if Western Union doesn't develop low-cost mobile money transfers, Western Union won't be able to compete . Harveer Singh, Chief Data Architect & Global Head of Engineering, reveals how the initiative will give the organisation the speed and agility it needs to . In [] Western Union is renowned for its unparalleled international network, with over 500,000 agent locations spanning 200 countries and territories. That support has made it a lot easier to have the influence we need to make the transformation successful. Driving Western Union's Tech Transformation | by Digital Bulletin 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. The scale of change this represents for a business like Western Union is not to be underestimated; the company employs around 11,000 people and has more than 550,000 retail agents locations within . As an iconic brand for over 150 years, Western Union is constantly striving to innovate for their customers. 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. Automation, Microsoft Head of Information Technology & Digital Transformation Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Oct 2015 - Present 7 years 6 months. [5]. Western Union: New Thought Leadership Status in Digital Cross-border So its a real imperative across the top of the organization. The Future of Payments is Invisible | CIO 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. Dr. Hosam AbouElDahab on LinkedIn: Western Union and Beforepay Offer Markets are perpetually shifting and change is unavoidable, but to keep up with those shifting tides companies need to stay focused on digital transformation. 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. There was a need to accelerate the process we wanted to undertake, I have that experience of transformation projects happening on a massive scale. Singh was given autonomy to mould his teams, combining the skills already at Western Union with external talent, many of which were from a consulting background, resulting in a diverse and varied team, which he says proved invaluable. 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. 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. Consumers can 'Send Now, Pay Later' by borrowing up to AUD 2000 through Beforepay's wage-advance product on Western Union's digital channels. We have a lot of great ideas in terms of investments to drive that topline revenue growth, but we needed ways to fund those. Western Union offers digital transactions in 70 countries to move money around the world. 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. Youre starting to see that happen culturally. 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. 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. Strategic partnerships working with platforms like Google is a critical piece of that. 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. Accelerating Digital Transformation in Western and Central Africa Data safety. Were talking 30 percent, 40 percent, and, in some cases, deployments with a 70 percent return on capacity. The service, which is set to launch in Madagascar, will see funds from around the world move through payment rails operated by MFS Africa, the continent's largest payment gateway.. MFS Africa's digital payments network connects more than 400 million mobile money wallets, more than 200 million bank accounts across Africa, and more than 200,000 agents in Nigeria, to enable cross-platform 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. Harveer Singh Leads Western Union's Digital Transformation - Profile 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. His career span includes working with organizations like FIS, Western Union, HCL Technologies, CGI, Mahindra Satyam and iGate Global Solutions. This is a powerful tool for our business and one of the key capabilities of our new infrastructure.. (2017) Monitoring Media Pluralism in Europe: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 in the European Union, Montenegro and Turkey. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. . Part of this agility drive involved Western Union migrating its legacy on-prem IT infrastructure to the Cloud. How Western Union achieved Digital Transformation with Infosys and Oracle Jay Jaffin was just starting his role as Western Union's chief marketing officer when the pandemic arrived. Something we could take forward is a digital dollar, which we could make transferable all around the world with our vendors. Need a Lenten fish fry? There's an interactive map for that How Western Union Became a Global Digital Front-Runner for Cross-Border Mazzaferro: In the past, the thinking in the industry has often been that applications are king, and that data flows through the applications. To ensure those approaches were safe and secure, we partnered with governmental organizations to find new and secure ways to verify customers. The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. Navigate For example, in 2016 Western Union integrated money transfer options with messanging apps WeChat and Viber, allowing users to send small amounts of money through the apps. Western Union's digital banking platform is a complex ecosystem of partnerships from across the technology and fintech landscape. The Western Union Foundation is a separate charitable corporation that is tax-exempt under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, contributions to which are tax-deductible for US income tax purposes. Its not done from the perspective of correction or a negative consequence. Digital transformation starts with people, which is a useful reminder that . Whats really nice about that is that its so visually obvious. 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. We use OutSystems in multiple layers of our tech stack, says Tom. Board Committees. Singh also sees huge potential in the use of blockchain for specific use cases within financial services and payments, for example, helping with the Know Your Customer (KYC) process that is important to stopping money laundering and fraud and eliminating many of the checks that currently hold up cross-border payments. Western Union International Bank GmbH is regulated by the Financial Markets Authority in Austria, [i] Agent location count valid as of 31 December 2017. 2023 MWC Huawei Digital Leadership Seminar: Connecting Global Wisdom [3] Shelly Freierman, Telegram Falls Silent Stop Era Ends Stop, NY Times, Feb. 6, 2006. Arvie de Vera - LinkedIn An advantage of Western Unions omnichannel approach is that it includes all customers, whether they are integrated or not in the financial system: the banked, the underbanked, and the unbanked. Data and insights gave us the ability to make important strategic decisions in the throes of what could have been a panic. Goldfinch Partners is a private equity firm investing in businesses specialising in digital transformation. These are seismic factors currently redefining our world, earning their own epochal moniker: The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its been a great combination. Reflecting on the transformation to-date, Singh is clear that it hasnt come without its challenges. The EU is helping to boost Europe's digital capacities and create new opportunities for businesses and consumers while safeguarding basic rights. 2023Western Union Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Finally, shareholders may punish Western Union for moving away from its higher margin core business to focus instead on simpler, lower-cost digital money transfers. Services, High The company wanted to improve the digital experiences offered to customers and build new digital bankingproducts to extend its relationship with customers. Enterprise Technology Operations Center Manager. 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. Prior to implementing Snowflake in 2021, Western Unions data spanned 34 on-premises data warehouses, resulting in latency and operational burdens. Meeting the moment with solutions required Western Union to accelerate its own digital transformation. 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. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Digital transformation in the EU. 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. These agents typically manage retail stores across the world, and offer Western Union money transfer services in exchange for a commission. And still others want to do it all online.. We're making content recommendations better for thousands of readers. With a history of more than 170 years, the company has a presence in more than 200 countries and territories, connecting more than 120m people to one another and to the global economy, through cross-border money transfers in approximately 130 currencies. Discover the latest data, insights, and inspiration from Think with Google. Provide value consistently every month and deliver new value and capabilities. The digital transformation is helping Western Union emerge from a challenging two-year era. 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. Singh describes the team he assembled as being super-powerful, and says he often refers to it as his three-in-box strategy, owing to the various areas for which he recruited. Definition of Digital Transformation - IT Glossary | Gartner 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. However, Western Union doesnt view its established retail business as totally separate from the digital world. 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. COVID-19 has brought countless challenges, but its also caused us to focus all of our efforts around customers and reground ourselves in our mission. Digital transformation & economic opportunities - Blog - Western Union Procurement & Construction, Financial 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. This aims to support the transition of the region into a digital economy and bring the benefits of digital transformation, such as faster economic growth, more jobs, and better services. Rapid iteration is a crucial capability for Western Union, especially when designing customer experiencesin over 200 countries with local customer and regulatory requirements. There were definitely times I was looking at costs and thinking how I was going to explain to finance, or my CFO, he says. Cortex, Infosys ", Tom adds, In fast-moving customer-facing scenarios, development is never build-once-and-doneyoure always iterating to refine the customer experience. Analytics, API Economy & He reveals that Western Union was using multiple companies for each of its email, in-app and SMS communication channels. 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. Experts at TCS and Western Union share the trends that are affecting digital transformation in financial services. The Western Union Company (WU) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript SEED aims to improve education and employability of students from low socio-economic backgrounds, especially children of refugees, migrants, and local families. Media, Madison Square Management, Digital Workplace Increasingly, digital technology and mobile devices play a key role in these transactions. Its reach is staggering: present in more than 200 countries and territories, transacting in 130+ currencies, with approximately 150 million people having used Western Union to either send or receive funds over the last year. As the figure below shows, five components are needed to execute an organization's digital transformation: 1. Becoming digital first meant we needed to deliver fast, frictionless experiences, especially on mobile. 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. Because if you dont have the right data, your applications will struggle to provide the right business outcomes and customer experiences. Snowflake enables us to centralize our data and enable application and business processes to leverage it across the organization. Western Union Announces Agreement to Sell Western Union Business The Baupost Group is a $31 billion Boston-based investment firm. Western Union. But Western Union is missing the true potential of blockchain for its business. 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 . 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. We offer consumers the choices they want, both for sending and receiving money, he stresses. How did you navigate those early moments? Western Union International Bank is licensed by the Austrian Financial Market Authority. 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 . Technology or Operations transformation . The aim of this paper is to sketch a brief history of complex digital transformation of media and . Western Union Advances Its Digital Growth Strategy With - Wire19 In the past five years, theres been a leveling across applications and data. As the centerpiece of Western Unions omnichannel vision, the Western Union App is increasingly the primary touchpoint for customers: today more than 65% of Western Unions digital transactions originate on a mobile device globally. Western Union Partners with MFS Africa to Enable Money Transfers into What is the Best High-Yield Dividend Stock to Buy Now? Our 7 Top Picks Why Do Companies Choose to Outsource Work? Its an ecosystem of complementary platforms that enable a seamless, single customer experience I think thats such a powerful proposition.. 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. Western Union now has more than 550,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. 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. Western Union Embraces Digital Transformation - BaselineMag.com 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. 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. Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. According to the terms of the transaction . [5] 2017 Annual ReportCEO Letter (noting Western Union has expanded its fund payout network to billions of bank accounts). 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. Deloitte Collaborates With AWS to Put Enterprise-Class Banking He shares his views on digital transformation and economic opportunities for all. 1 (March 1990), pp. Western Union built its platform by assembling a global network of third party agents. 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. Western Union hiring Global Head, Customer Experience & Design in 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 . Leading fintech, Mambu, provides the platform and engine that drives the core of Western Union's new digital bank. Huawei believes digital talent is a key driver in achieving digital transformation, solid economic growth, and better quality of life. Services, Consumer Powering Digital Transformation: How Western Union Leverages the Data That system is fine in a cash based economy, but is becoming increasingly cumbersome as digital payments take hold in emerging markets. Since 2008, Huawei has offered a wide and expanding range of . 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.
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