How Mid-Market Companies Can Create a Digital Strategy

Keeping up with the rapid and disruptive changes in technology is a critical step in any organization, but it’s especially important in the mid-market space where companies compete against not only each other, but also against larger organizations. As a result, many mid-marketers are crafting digital transformation strategies to optimize their use of technology across the enterprise.

Brian Becker, partner and TMC practice leader at RSM US told the Triangle Business Journal that organizations can follow a few initiatives to design and implement a successful middle market digital transformation strategy. “However, a shift toward a fully-digitized and automated environment must be approached with careful consideration to ensure long-term sustainability, user adoption and maximum return on investment,” says Becker.

He said mid-market organizations should start by securing and prioritizing support in their organization for digital transformation. Companies should evaluate budget allocations, identify areas that can most benefit, and look for more streamlined digitization capabilities. Becker said companies should also seek applications beyond traditional back-office functions such as finance and accounting. Leading middle-market organizations are applying digitization strategies to things such as strategy development and business analytics.

Becker said digitization efforts should also tie individual successes to collaborative and organization-wide initiatives to digital growth. He said companies must also understand and calculate their potential ROI for digitization projects and investments.

Organizations can better support and implement a digital transformation when there’s company-wide support. Early this year, the National Center for the Middle Market and Magento Commerce found in a study that the fastest-growing middle-market firms (at least 10% or more growth rate) placed a greater emphasis on digitization. The research also found that unlike in the past, the middle market as a whole is using digitization less for the back office and more as a tool to drive growth.

The NCMM study found that nearly half of mid-market companies with growth rates of 10% or more considered themselves “digitally advanced.” The greatest use of this digitization was found in the business services and technology sector. Peter Sheldon, head of Strategy at Magento Commerce said in a company statement that the study clearly validates that digitization is critical to growth.

“To keep pace, companies must take necessary steps to address key digitization barriers and move quickly to successfully adopt next-era digital tools,” said Sheldon.