Large-scale B2B transformation rarely fails because leaders lack ambition. More often, it slows down in the gap between vision and execution. Strategy gets approved, target architectures are defined and the business agrees change is necessary—yet delivery stalls under the weight of silos, local complexity and competing priorities.
That is why the operating model behind Sonepar’s transformation is so instructive. In a business made up of more than 170 operating companies, the challenge was not simply to launch a new platform. It was to create a way of working that could move quickly enough to deliver value, transfer capability into the organization and still support local market needs across a highly fragmented enterprise. The answer was a joint digital factory model built for speed, alignment and scale.
For distribution, wholesale and industrial businesses, transformation often starts with familiar problems: fragmented systems, inconsistent customer experiences, siloed data, complex catalogs and supply chains that stretch across regions and business units. Many organizations know what they want to achieve—better omnichannel journeys, more efficient operations, stronger use of data and AI—but struggle to build the delivery engine required to get there.
Sonepar’s transformation highlights an important lesson: a centralized digital platform alone is not enough. To move from ambition to adoption, organizations need a centralized execution model that can align business and technology, accelerate decisions and create repeatable ways of delivering value.
In Sonepar’s case, that meant pairing a modular, centralized platform approach with a joint team structure that brought together digital expertise, industry knowledge and local business understanding. The result was not just a transformation roadmap, but an operating model capable of turning strategy into working product at pace.
At the heart of the approach was the Sonepar Digital Factory, created as a joint transformation hub. Rather than operating through a traditional client-vendor handoff, Publicis Sapient and Sonepar worked in mixed teams designed to function as one delivery engine. This model began with a relatively small team and grew into a joint organization of more than 250 engineers across two hubs in Paris and the United States, representing 15 nationalities.
That scale matters, but the structure matters more. Mixed teams created the conditions for faster execution because strategy, design, engineering, product thinking, data and operational understanding could work together in real time. Instead of waiting for requirements to move across organizational boundaries, teams could shape, build, test and refine continuously.
This is one of the clearest operating-model lessons for industrial and distribution leaders: transformation gains momentum when cross-functional squads are empowered to work across disciplines and organizational lines, rather than through sequential handoffs.
One of the strongest proof points for the model is speed. Spark reached MVP in nine months. For a fragmented global B2B business, that kind of timeline does not happen through governance alone. It requires agile ways of working backed by the right team design.
The Sonepar model combined close day-to-day collaboration with a robust agile delivery engine. Teams operated with shared goals, faster feedback loops and a practical emphasis on learning by building. That made it possible to move quickly without reducing the scope of ambition. The platform was built not as a narrow e-commerce project, but as a synchronized omnichannel foundation designed to support customers and associates across web, phone, mobile app, branch, system-to-system and delivery touchpoints.
For transformation leaders, the takeaway is clear: velocity is not just about working faster. It is about reducing friction between functions, improving decision quality and organizing teams around outcomes instead of isolated deliverables.
Many large transformation programs create dependency where they should create capability. The Sonepar Digital Factory offers a different model. The mixed-team approach was explicitly designed to enable knowledge transfer as well as delivery velocity.
That distinction is critical. When internal teams work side by side with external specialists in product, engineering, agile delivery and data, the organization does not just receive a platform. It builds new muscles in how to prioritize, deliver, test, scale and improve digital products over time.
For industrial and wholesale businesses, this matters because transformation is never finished at launch. Platforms evolve. Customer expectations change. New market needs emerge. A joint operating model helps ensure the enterprise becomes better at change itself, rather than relying on a one-time implementation effort.
One of the hardest questions in global B2B transformation is how to centralize without flattening what makes local businesses successful. Sonepar’s story shows that centralization and localization do not have to be opposites when the operating model is designed well.
Spark was built as a modular, centralized platform with a localized customer lens. That allowed Sonepar to create shared foundations, best practices and scalable architecture while still supporting adaptation to local market needs. The same principle applies to the operating model. A centralized digital factory can provide common standards, reusable capabilities and consistent delivery practices, while local business input ensures solutions remain relevant to customers, channels and operational realities in each market.
For fragmented distributors, this balance is essential. Too much local autonomy can create duplication and slow progress. Too much central control can reduce adoption and miss the nuances that matter in-market. The right model creates a shared core with room for local expression.
Another lesson from Sonepar is that transformation must serve both the customer experience and the associate experience. Spark was designed to make life easier not only for buyers, but also for sales reps and associates who need better tools, data and automation to fulfill customer needs.
That is why cross-functional squads are so important. In industrial distribution, customer journeys are deeply connected to internal workflows such as inventory, logistics, service, product information and order orchestration. If these functions are transformed separately, friction simply moves from one part of the business to another.
A joint digital factory allows teams to solve for end-to-end outcomes. Customer-facing improvements can be developed alongside the data, automation and operational capabilities required to support them. This is especially valuable in sectors where a single missing item, delayed shipment or broken handoff can have outsized consequences for customer satisfaction and cost-to-serve.
Sonepar’s story suggests a practical blueprint for organizations that already understand the need for transformation but are struggling to scale execution:
For COOs, CTOs and transformation leaders, the most important insight may be this: the real differentiator is often not the technology stack. It is the operating model that determines whether transformation can move fast, scale effectively and keep improving after launch.
In large B2B enterprises, delivery velocity is an organizational capability. The Sonepar Digital Factory shows what becomes possible when that capability is built intentionally—through one team, shared ownership and a model designed to turn complexity into momentum.