If you’ve transferred money abroad, you know the name Western Union. You also know how vital speed and reliability are when transferring money overseas. Western Union succeeds at all the above by operating an extensive global network of agents and locations. Its network comprises 550,000 locations in 200 countries and territories, serving 150 million customers. To manage this vast network efficiently, Western Union and partner ISG have been implementing intelligent automation solutions since 2016.

Challenge

Western Union agents are assigned daily limits, a maximum value they can transfer for customers each day. The limits are based on a financial assessment of the agent, which is business-critical to mitigate risks. In the past, when agents needed an increase, they had to call customer service or the collections team directly, a process that could take up to 10 minutes. Not only was this time consuming, but Western Union lost operational oversight because so many limits were manually adjusted. The company needed a way to better serve its agents while remaining in control of how limits were fluctuating.

Solution

Western Union partnered with ISG to deploy Blue Prism digital workers to assist agents and the Collections Team. With a digital workforce, today, Western Union can proactively increase daily limits when agents reach 70% of their allotted amount. The result? Processing time for limit increases has been reduced from 10 minutes to just 20 seconds and Western Union has returned more than 1,000 hours back to the business each month. What’s more, Western Union sets overall parameters, so as individual requests are made, digital workers moderate against operational imperatives to help Western Union maintain profits and mitigate risks. This process was piloted in one European nation, but soon rolled out to an additional 12 countries.

Blue Prism digital workers perform 100 separate processes across Western Union’s entire business, from marketing and finance to compliance and legal. Digital workers complete over three million tasks per year, and ISG remains a critical partner, offering guidance and extra resources on new projects.