The decision to digitalize your business processes shouldn’t be forced or rushed. Careful consideration and some tips will help to accomplish your goals for making the shift.

1. Clearly define your objectives. Take the time to answer the "why?" and "to what end?" of digital transformation for your organization. As you progress, regularly monitor your path to make sure the outcome gets you closer to meeting those objectives. If it doesn't, be prepared to pause and re-evaluate.
   
   
2. Be sure leadership and managers are firmly on board. Recruit and develop change agents who understand the objectives and can communicate them throughout the organization and answer any questions that others may have.
   
   
3. Budget accordingly. Whether your solution is purchased off the shelf or developed in house, digitalization isn’t cheap. IDC predicts that spending for digital transformation will grow to $6.8 trillion by 2023.1 Gartner predicts expenditures of $4.5 trillion in IT spending by the end of 2022 – up more than five percent from last year.2 In addition to the solution itself, you’ll need to budget for training, implementation, monitoring, and upkeep.
   
   
4. Be sensitive to employee concerns. Employees might be hesitant about digitalization and concerned about how it will affect their roles. It’s often a challenging mental shift to jettison long-held processes in favor of new ones. Make sure the lines of communication stay open — both up and down the org chart — so you can assure employees that the changes being made are to help them do their jobs, not to replace them.
   
   
5. Communicate candidly and regularly. Articulate the rationale, scope, and timeline for change to all stakeholders. Begin communication early so they can prepare and keep them abreast of any changes along the way. This is a situation where over-communicating is preferred to under-communicating.

The level of commitment, investment and work required to realign a company is extensive, but the value of digital transformation is clear: Improved operational efficiency, faster time to market, and the ability to meet customer expectations all give businesses a competitive advantage in the market.

Contact a Synovus Business Banker or your Relationship Manager to see how we can help.