When coronavirus (COVID-19) forced much of the world into lockdown, it was uncharted territory for many, including Nacha Elevation Consulting. As it turns out, we’ve been busy in recent months, and noticed a common thread among our clients: they want anything tied to payments to go all digital.

While the push toward digital isn’t necessarily new, the accelerated pace necessitated by the pandemic is. And it’s brought us clients from across a wide spectrum:

• A CEO pursuing a rapid change to digitize authorizations that were face-to-face.
• A credit union seeking to leverage new technologies and Automated Clearing House (ACH).
• Several fintechs looking to move their customers to all digital or expand their services.
• A fintech doing work overseas and, as a newer entrant into the U.S. payments ecosystem, looking to expand digital services here to meet new customer demands.

We tailor our engagement to fit each client’s individual needs and concerns, recognizing that they’re at various stages of their digital transformation. Some are at the beginning and want guidance to get started. Others already have a roadmap but want to ensure it reflects an all-digital future or are seeking guidance on what to prioritize and the lift required to get there. Still others are near the end of their journey, with a product ready to roll, but want Elevation to “look under the hood”  to validate their processes and procedures.

Regardless of what stage a financial institution, business, or fintech is at in their digital transformation, there’s a lot to consider. Elevation advises clients on how to move in a compliant manner, following payment system rules and best practices with proper risk controls. We do that by assessing any existing product or program and then advising on what needs to be done as clients phase out some of their more manual or in-person processes and procedures and move to all digital.

You might think the push to all digital is exclusively focused on newer and emerging technologies, but that’s not always the case. We’ve also seen an uptick in ACH-focused engagement activity, as organizations work to ensure that a bread-and-butter rail like the ACH Network is all digital.

Eventually, this pandemic will be behind us, and there will be many lessons learned on numerous fronts. For Elevation, the message is loud and clear: The mandate for digital transformation is real and there’s no turning back.

Is your organization ready? Elevation can help—whether you’re at the beginning, the middle, the end, or just looking for a gut check. We’re here to make sure our clients are prepared for what’s happening today and what’s coming tomorrow.

SAMANTHA CARRIER is senior director of emerging strategic initiatives at Nacha, where she leads Elevation Consulting, the organization’s consulting arm, which focuses on payments strategy, emerging payment solutions, payments innovation, financial service, and the ACH Network.