[Survey] Over Half of BtoB Companies Sacrifice 'Customer Follow-up'. The Limits of Uniform DX and the Hybrid Strategy

While digital transformation (DX) is considered an urgent matter led by the government, the digitalization of ordering operations is still struggling in the field of business-to-business (B2B) transactions. Ukiyo Inc., which consults on B2B EC and ordering systems, conducted a fact-finding survey of 400 people involved in B2B ordering operations. This survey revealed a structural issue: 'uniform DX,' which attempts to integrate all customer correspondence into a single system, is hindered by complex business customs unique to Japan, and as a result, is depriving companies of opportunities to make proposals to large customers, which are their lifelines.

## ■ Survey Result Highlights

**Discrepancy between ideal and reality:** While 32.8% of the frontline view 'unification into a single system' as ideal, **the biggest barrier to systemization was 'individual rules for each business partner' (43.5%).**

**Structural opportunity loss:** Due to delayed systemization and remaining manual work, **more than half (50.3%) cannot allocate time to 'medium-to-long-term relationship building', and 34.0% to 'proposals to large/important customers'**, hindering original sales activities.

**Solutions demanded by the frontline:** **Over 70% of the total (71.8%)** answered that it is essential to balance digital efficiency with the 'intervention value unique to humans (flexible individual correspondence)'.

## 1. The frontline aiming for 'integration in a single system' and the analog wall that stands in the way

When asked about the ideal future of systemization, the most common answer was 'unify all business partners into a single system' at **32.8%**. While the personalization of operations is cited as an issue, many frontline workers desire fundamental efficiency, wanting to 'process all customers uniformly.' However, when asked about concerns when introducing web systems, etc., 'individual unit prices and rules exist for each business partner, making it impossible to unify into a single system' stood out at **43.5%**. Unlike BtoC (consumer-facing), the data shows that 'uniform systemization' that ignores the complex business customs specific to BtoB tends to diverge from reality.