s full anLearn more about the data lake, a repository for structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data that provided direct access to raw organizational data. 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. Furthermore, a chain of retail outlets is expensive. 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. In the past several years, the Englewood, Colo.-based company has made a point to develop and [] (2013) Comparing Media Systems beyond the Western World. Union Pacific, the railroad company that transports chemicals, coal, food, minerals and automobiles in and around 23 Western U.S. states, has had two workhorses that toiled tirelessly for the past . The author approaches the problem using public. Solutions enabled - Oracle Revenue Management and Billing, Oracle Business Intelligence, Infosys Transaction Reconciliation System, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Solution and Services, Infosys Oracle Services, part of Infosys Cobalt. Then think about the products you want to offer and how it can be a data-enabled product, such as being hyper-personalized. Patrick Gauthier, CEO of Convera, formerly known as Western Union Business Solutions. Lean deployments are a big piece of our overall transformation program. Goldfinch Partners is a private equity firm investing in businesses specialising in digital transformation. Created: 05-05-2021 - 17:15. Discover the latest software purchases and digital transformation initiatives being undertaken by Western Union and its business and technology executives. But Western Union is missing the true potential of blockchain for its business. How Your Small Business Can Be Managed With The Right Databases, Why Businesses Must Focus on Introducing Technology in the Workplace. Western Union's investment in India is part of a broader fintech and innovation strategy that is driving the company's digital transformation. 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 company considers local preferences, as well, accepting about 10 payment methods, such as Apple Pay in the U.S. We believe in the work we do, why we do it, and who we hire to get it done. 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. Digital transformation in the EU. Now data is the driver and applications are being developed to handle that data and represent it to business stakeholders to make it consumable. That created a need to act. Others see blockchain as an opportunity to help emerging governments become efficient and transparent, for example, by serving as the official land title registration. So well go from maybe four pilot teams to a plan to scale out across 400 people and maybe 30 teams next year. For decades, Western Union benefited from network effects as it added density and new geographies. Were talking 30 percent, 40 percent, and, in some cases, deployments with a 70 percent return on capacity. Consumers can 'Send Now, Pay Later' by borrowing up to AUD 2000 through Beforepay's wage-advance product on Western Union's digital channels. [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. Over the last two years, Singh has been accelerating Western Union's tech plan. [9]Clayton M. Christensen & Michael E. Raynor,The Innovators Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2003), Ch. Some changes that used to take a month, we now deliver in around 48 hours.. 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. 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. Kong, New But theyve been hugely supportive and as weve hit milestones, such as moving significant infrastructure completely to the cloud or achieving significant savings with the Marketing Cloud, we have built that business case. First, Western Unions third party agents may try to thwart any concerted moves to digital platforms, seeing such a move as a threat to existing commission revenues. Not satisfied with the idea of incremental change, the company took a start-from-scratch approach, assembling an experienced team and transforming its infrastructure. We embrace the white canvas and first principles design, breaking away from legacy systems to create smart . Thank you for this great post, Hans. Many of its 150 million customers worldwide depend on money transfers to pay for food, electricity, medication, and other necessities. Huawei believes digital talent is a key driver in achieving digital transformation, solid economic growth, and better quality of life. The idea is to orient the company around improving these market-shaper practices, really getting the health of our organization strong, and becoming confident that if we can improve the health of the organization, the financial results will follow. be to drive digital transformation and . Were there tools or technology that were particularly helpful in your transformation? So, constant iteration and rapid delivery are crucial. We set up virtual war rooms, met with our executive team daily to strategize, and spoke to customers every week to keep a pulse on their needs. 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. We continue to experiment with the technology and time will tell if it offers a better alternative to traditional rails.. And being with the people that are actually doing the work really helps the management get a better sense of where they can use their leadership and influence to make that process easier for the employee and better for the customer. 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 executive team has done a great job of making it really clear across the company that this is something thats expected of you. 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. In the past, JSON storage and analysis required specific JSON databases. Western Union is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. January 25, 2019 | Video. 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. Western Union will likely face internal resistance from three sources. 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. For example, we began offering an option for telephone money transfer. Cole heads the 169-year-old company's digital transformation efforts, including the design and development of the software powering those consumer-facing platforms. 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. 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 . Board Committees. Digital transformation in Western Union must be driven from the top-down. 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. [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. 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). Policy . Think of Western Union, and its yellow placard advertising an agent location comes to mind. 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. There are 13 of these practices, and thats really how were assessing success with the transformation across the organization. We offer consumers the choices they want, both for sending and receiving money, he stresses. Top-down prioritization of digital transformation. 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. Rica, Hong Sources for images:Western Union vs. Bitcoin, Bitland,MyWU,Ripple Union. Leadership Team. 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. 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. With OutSystems, we deploy twice every week. Media, Madison Square 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. 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. 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. 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 . (2017) Monitoring Media Pluralism in Europe: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 in the European Union, Montenegro and Turkey. We're making content recommendations better for thousands of readers. Services, Public . Updated on. Digital Transformation. On May 17, 2018, at the Digital Assembly in Sofia, Bulgaria, the European Commission launched the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans. [5] 2017 Annual ReportCEO Letter (noting Western Union has expanded its fund payout network to billions of bank accounts). Digital is all about how we reach the customer. Enterprise Technology Operations Center Manager. 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. Please enable Javascript to see this feature. And the new business model may require a very different RPP (traditional money transfer process vs. transfer via blockchain). 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. Western Union is renowned for its unparalleled international network, with over 500,000 agent locations spanning 200 countries and territories. How did you evolve for digital convenience and safety? And still others want to do it all online.. 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. Africa, South Join us to learn how your organization can become a leader in the Data Economy and the business benefits that result. While WU is considered a global leader in their space, competitive insights and . Western Union charges high fees since they need to cover rent and labor overhead. Professors from HEC, ESCP business school, and leading carriers shared insights on . Its created a need for financial sector brands to step up and help by democratizing access to their services via mobile phones. To explore this content and receive communications from Google, please sign in with an existing Google account. Western Union operates in the increasingly competitive, rapidly changing payments sector, where new fintech players are changing how the market operates. People. 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. [4] Form 10-K for the year ended December 2017, p.7. Snowflake: What do you see changing now that your organization is better able to share data? My mission is to empower people to become economically self-reliant. Last year, the global-payment services giant completed 268 million consumer-to-consumer transactions worldwide, for a total of $80 billion. 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. Cloud services such as cloud data platforms have become cost-efficient, high performance calling cards for any business that leverages big data. It took six months to do the bare minimum. They essentially sponsor a team and loan the resources that are necessary. We started function by function, looking at individual deployments across our different groups in the company. We saw that our revenue and customer base didnt reflect the opportunity and size of the market.. However, Western Union doesnt view its established retail business as totally separate from the digital world. So its a real imperative across the top of the organization. Western Union has gained a comprehensive view of the customer while running the Data Cloud on AWS. According to the terms of the transaction . Discover how Santander Consumer Finance replaced 70% of their core IT systems in three years with OutSystems. Data privacy and security practices . 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 . Technology, Industrial Every year or two we rescore ourselves in a company-wide exercise to see where were making progress and where were falling behind. 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. Western Union has the infrastructure to help make that a reality. Hospitality, Waste 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. Many CEOs are lured into spending too much time on legacy businesses, which don't need CEO oversight. Increasingly, digital technology and mobile devices play a key role in these transactions. Western Union is doing that. Arab Emirates. We will expand our Messenger bot to other countries and add other languages, he adds. Western Union powers your pursuit. Western Union and Beforepay Offer 'Send Now, Pay Later' Service to Consumers for International Money Transfers Heute nutzen bereits rund 150.000 Anwender in Deutschland sowie in Rumnien, Polen und Italien die Western Union Digital Banking App fr ihre finanziellen Angelegenheiten - immer mit dem Ziel . de 2007 - actualidad16 aos 3 meses. The Western Union Foundation is actively supporting NGOs that help refugees and migrants around the globe through education and financial literacy. 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. 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.. Hearing from customers helped us focus our messaging on two key ideas: digital convenience and staying safe through contactless funds transfer. The digital transformation is helping Western Union emerge from a challenging two-year era. As we get the pilots completed, the idea is to turn the WU Way team into more of a center of excellence. What we are talking about is not cryptocurrency, it is not something that has to be mined. OutSystems High-Performance Low-Code Platform Powers Western Union Digital Banking Solution 2 min. Watch this tech inequality series featuring scholars, practitioners, & activists, Sign up for the Digital Initiative Newsletter. . It requires a change in process and culture, the adoption of a common lingo, executive buy-in, and a center . 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. ", 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. A doctor in London taps an app on her phone to transfer 500 pounds. 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. Behind those market-shaper practices are the lean tools and behaviors we develop and encourage. of Use, Payment Big data has helped Western Union merge data across multiple channels for years, for marketing and promotion, customer lifecycle management, compliance and fraud modeling. Western Union launched its digital banking app in Germany and Romania in Spring 2022, following 11 months of iterative development. 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. Salesforce has been such an important part of the digital experience journey.. [1] One hundred years later, Western Union launched the first domestic commercial geostationary satellite (Westar 1). Engaged in problem resolution of complex . To accelerate application development, improve agility, and provide great digital experiences, the company chose OutSystems as its high-performance low-code platform. 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. 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. 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. In just 11 months, we delivered a full-service digital banking experience that expands our relationship with customers.. Jaffin: Digital was critical in a few ways. Now its more pull. 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. And when you have that, it becomes easier to have a stronger level of influence than you might otherwise expect with a small team, because everyone in the organization is clear that, whether youre working directly with the WU Way team or not, your job is to find ways for continuous improvement. Services, Consumer Business Application Services, Service Experience 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. [6], However, regulators cant keep pace with the wave of new blockchain applications. These are more tactical, day-to-day ways to implement lean across the organization. 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. Garden, The Economist Experienced and certified (ACAMS) AML and Learning & Development professional with a proven track of records in compliance, people management, learning areas. 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 is working alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS Partners to transform and expand its business, including the launch of a new digital bank. Management, Digital Workplace 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. Commenting on the speed comparison of OutSystems compared to previous traditional development, Tom said, "On an earlier project, we had ten people working on a pricing and UX project. 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. We scored ourselves as an organization on these market-shaper practices when we started the transformation in 2016. Data safety. The gap between access and use is growing, with 56% of people in . Western Union is one of the largest digital money firms, uniquely positioned to connect the cash and digital worlds across platforms, devices, borders, and currencies. Secure, touchless, digital money transfers were a safe, reliable way for people to send funds where they needed to, so we leaned in there. [1] The first transcontinental telegraph was sent on October 24, 1861, from the Chief Justice of California to President Abraham Lincoln. That system is fine in a cash based economy, but is becoming increasingly cumbersome as digital payments take hold in emerging markets. By John Manning, International Banker. 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. Sub-Saharan Africa 3G and 4G mobile broadband coverage stands at 86% and 57% of the population, respectively. Since 2008, Huawei has offered a wide and expanding range of . People who knew how a team or a group worked before can come in and see its night-and-day different. Key takeaways. Sector, Travel and This will enable the company to maintain its high . Profiles, Infosys Knowledge That support has made it a lot easier to have the influence we need to make the transformation successful. And if Western Union doesnt embrace and transform along with those technologies, it will fade away just like the telegraph. Recently I talked to him about the companys rapid pivot to digital this past year, his biggest learnings, and what the future holds. Jaffin: Our company mission is to enable financial transfers between people anywhere and everywhere; we had a responsibility to continue to deliver on that. In 2017, Western Union invested $200 million and 20% of its workforce on compliance functions. The CDO needs to drive digital transformation by enabling data to power product development and the company. Data and insights gave us the ability to make important strategic decisions in the throes of what could have been a panic. Meridian, Infosys Youre expected to find ways to optimize your processes and drive value. Learn about JSON storage. Manufacturing, Information Services Continue to partner with popular digital platforms to provide legacy C2C money transfer services. . The partnership with Talend has evolved over the last few years and was originally established to provide our business and technology teams a fast and efficient way to build data pipelines. Its important to understand that business stakeholders are customers of our data. 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. In the past five years, theres been a leveling across applications and data. 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]. 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.