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For many manufacturers and distributors, digital transformation often begins with high hopes. Leadership align around the shared goal, budgets move forward, and teams start evaluating platforms while feeling that lift excitement of heading in a new direction. But somewhere between strategy and execution, the pace that once felt automatic starts to drag. The slowdown is usually gradual at first, then more noticeable as projects compete with day-to-day responsibilities. Even when everyone still believes in the value of the work, the early energy becomes harder to maintain.
It happens far more often than most companies like to admit. In a recent article, we looked at why digital readiness tends to be overstated and how organizations often view their maturity through a softer lens than reality. Readiness, even when accurate, is only the setup. Once a company moves from strategy to actual execution, a different set of challenges shows up. Because even with the right foundation in place, moving from a strategy to hands-on implementation brings a challenge more grounded in operations than outlook.
Digital transformation rarely slows because leaders lack intention. It stalls because companies underestimate what it takes to make digital processes and tools work across old systems, departments, and data sets. The positive news is that these stall points are surprisingly consistent, and surprisingly fixable.
When you have seen enough digital initiatives that have lost momentum, a clear pattern starts to show. Progress rarely slows for mysterious reasons. The first slowdown tends to go down at the same moments across organizations, usually right after the early enthusiasm settles and the heavier, more detailed work takes over.
For most B2B teams, the slowdown during one of a few familiar situations:
These situations are not indicators of project failure. They’re symptoms: clues that something underneath needs attention.
Once teams reach this stage, the loss of momentum doesn’t happen in a dramatic way. People aren’t sure what to do next, so they do nothing. The challenge for most B2B organizations is keeping the work moving once the real complexity appears.
B2B companies always rely on clear functional roles: sales manages relationships, operations handles fulfillment, IT maintains the systems, finance oversees controls, and customer service solves day-to-day issues. This model works well for traditional processes. But when a digital project cuts across all of these teams, things break down. It requires steady decision-making across multiple teams.
You need decisions on pricing, error handling, workflows, exceptions, customer experience, and more. But without a clear owner, decisions end up bouncing between departments:
When no one holds full authority, the decision-making slows to a pace that makes forward movement difficult.
Legacy structures are built on top-down decision-making. Digital initiative needs a model that moves across teams, and someone must be able to confirm the decision without waiting for hierarchy and relying on formal escalation for every issue. Without this role, tension builds quietly, feedbacks take longer than they should, tasks get passed back to IT even when the issue is rooted in business policy. Priorities shift frequently because no one is responsible for protecting the roadmap.
Effective digital transformation requires process owners who can influence decisions. Project managers alone cannot provide this foundation.
Integrations are often the area where digital projects start to trail off. Most companies expect some complexity, yet many are surprised by the amount of time this portion eventually consumes.
The issue is not only about data quality. Much of the friction comes from the logic of older systems and the number of tools that must communicate cleanly with one another.
Most platforms promote connectors that claim to simplify integration and promise a fast setup. These connectors work well for straightforward needs, but the moment the organization applies its own rules, the work becomes more demanding. Special pricing? Multi-warehouse routing? Legacy contracts? Custom approval logic? These situations require engineering rather than simple set up configuration.
Complexity grows further when multiple vendors are part of the work when you add in an ERP partner, an ecommerce vendor, middleware tools, or tax engines. Even a small issue or unclarity can lead to days of back-and-forth between multiple teams (here comes the benefit of working with the full service providers). There is no one to blame, the challenge simply reflects the differences in how these systems were built and updated over time.
These problems usually show up later than expected, require cross-team decisions, and create delays during a point in the project when leaders expect speed. Integrations rarely cause projects to fail outright, but they’re a major reason momentum fades away.
Pilots are supposed to reduce risk. Ironically, many end up doing the opposite. It happens because they test a version of the business that is cleaner and more controlled than reality. When a pilot uses ideal data, limited workflows, or narrow scenarios, it cannot expose the issues that matter most.
Another problem is the absence of clear success criteria. Teams often begin pilots without deciding what level of improvement will determine whether they are ready to take the next step. Should the pilot demonstrate stronger conversion? Fewer order corrections? Faster cycle times? A more reliable workflow? Without a clear target, no one feels confident concluding the pilot, and it expands until it becomes a research exercise rather than a route to launch.
The longer a pilot runs, the more urgency fades. Momentum fades because the pilot no longer serves as a tool to validate assumptions. It becomes a holding pattern.
Pilots work best when they are short, targeted, and designed to answer specific questions, not when they try to mirror the entire business.
Companies that recover momentum do not start by trying to fix everything. It starts with taking a few deliberate steps.
Momentum builds up through repeated reinforcement.
That leads right back to better ownership, progress becomes steadier and easier to maintain.
When a digital project hits a wall, it’s tempting to think something’s gone seriously wrong. But more often, it just needs a reset.
Momentum does not return through pressure alone. It returns when you clear the obstacles for your team.
Manufacturers, distributors and other B2B companies have what it takes. But it takes time to adjust to a new rhythm, which definitely will happen when trying to improve. Once that rhythm clicks, momentum builds on itself.
Have questions or need assistance with your project? Contact our team, and we’ll be happy to help.