We looked at B2B versus B2C Digital Quotient scores across the four dimensions and also peered into the survey data for details on underlying practices for each dimension.

Strategy—attention deficit. B2B companies are behind B2C companies in how they use digital tools and data to set strategy. They often treat overall strategy and digital strategy differently. 

Organization—beyond legacy structures. Most B2B players haven’t taken concrete steps to mobilize the organization around digital tools and data. 

Capabilities—skills deficit. With lower levels of strategic focus and organizational discipline, it’s not surprising that B2B companies are behind those in the B2C sector in digital capabilities. 

Culture—a firm base. On average, across cultural DQ measures, B2B companies aren’t far behind their average B2C counterparts in core areas such as trust and internal and external agility.

In the short-term, these APIs and iPaaS solutions faciliate best-of-breed marketing stacks — the most popular approach to marketing technology today according to a recent study by WalkerSands.

Many of today’s marketing stacks could be characterized as “macroservice architectures” — big chunks of semi-closed applications that have relatively small pipes of data being exchanged between them.

However, it’s not much of a conceptual leap to see how these best-of-breed stacks can evolve into more flexible microservice architectures with more versatile and powerful interactions that span an entire business.