New Alliances Will Drive FinTech Innovation

Q. What’s one technology you wish your organization had embraced faster?

While we have a huge competitive advantage now, I just wish our cloud big data journey had started years ago. Now, our technology platform is founded on a Hadoop big data technology cluster that is used for conversion analysis, risk statistical modeling, as well as payments and risk data processing.

One of the factors driving our digital transformation right now is the huge amount of transactional data that we’re generating as we serve our customers. We’re the largest network in the world to physically take cash in on a daily basis and digitize its value. Western Union’s global cash payout network has more locations than all the McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway and 7-11 locations in the world combined.

When you consider our global footprint and that we’re moving money across 16,000 corridors, 130 currencies and 200 countries–vetting these transactions as they happen against millions of records and compliance checks–you get a sense of the scale of what’s happening under the hood for money transfers to go through in minutes. Our investment in cloud platforms is core to our omni-channel strategy and ability to provide the same level of service that customers expect across our retail agent network, website and mobile app. Our digital strategy is paying off: over 65 percent of our transactions are now initiated digitally.

Q. How do you create a culture of innovation inside a large, established organization?

We like to think of ourselves as the 166-year old start-up. It’s in our DNA to be innovative and we have a history of disrupting ourselves without cannibalizing our core business. But that doesn’t mean we’re complacent. It takes work to ensure we don’t have any blind spots.

Our San Francisco lab, where our mobile and partner initiatives have been incubated, is just one example. We created this operation from scratch six years ago with the specific mission to lead the company’s digital transformation. The fact that our executive team and board supported this initiative from the beginning says a lot about the company’s commitment to innovation. We’ve invested in engineering, recruiting developer talent away from companies like PayPal, eBay, Cisco and other Silicon Valley giants. We’re changing our cultural metabolism, too, instilling an “experiment and fail fast” mentality that enables us to bring innovations to market faster. I think another factor is the idea that good ideas come from everywhere–it’s not just from the top down.

Q. How do you see the evolution a few years from now with regards to disruptions and transformations within IT Financial Management space?

Appreciating and recognizing technology adjacencies will help drive transformation. What were once perceived as unique or distinct markets are finding convergence. We see this in companies that are continuously extending themselves, using digital as a strategic advantage. Many would never have thought we’d be buying our groceries online or using crowd sourcing to transport us from point A to point B.

Weathering disruption and seizing pivotal transformation moments means investing in R&D and digital, finding ways to integrate, and breaking down the myths that new channels are going to cannibalize business. For example, even though we have a huge cash network, we brought digital to cash through our mobile app-initiated retail concept. The outcome: Now the majority of our customers do all the transaction paperwork digitally ahead of time.