{"id":11963,"date":"2026-07-27T13:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/?post_type=report&#038;p=11963"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T16:39:14","slug":"the-clarity-problem","status":"publish","type":"report","link":"https:\/\/distributionstrategy.com\/report\/the-clarity-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clarity Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Failed technology investments in wholesale distribution are almost never a technology problem. They are a clarity problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was the central argument from Michael Biwer, CEO of Cavallo, and John Doffing, Senior Director of Field Sales at Epicor, during a Distribution Strategy Group webinar on using technology to drive profits and productivity. In this report, DSG Executive Editor Mark Brohan distills what the panel revealed: distributors routinely approve major software purchases without ever defining the business outcome the money is supposed to buy. The systems get installed, transactions process, and profit leaks anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data behind the argument is hard to ignore. Distributors running 500 orders a day are sitting on roughly 1 billion transaction data points by year end \u2014 most of it untouched. A single enforced pricing rule saved one distributor $350,000 a year; a comparable rule saved another seven figures annually. Yet Biwer regularly shows owners 5,000 transactions where purchase costs rose and prices never moved \u2014 and they had no idea. That is not an analytics gap. It is a profit gap that better-instrumented competitors are not carrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report covers where the clarity gap originates (the boardroom, not the software), why enterprise value is the one metric that resists manipulation, how margin erosion compounds quietly at the order level, and what it takes to fix it \u2014 from naming two or three margin targets before evaluating any vendor, to assigning a pricing czar and a data czar to monitor margin daily rather than discover erosion after the period closes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Download this report<\/strong> to diagnose whether your technology spending is anchored to a defined business outcome \u2014 and what to do if it isn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center has-headline-font-family has-xl-font-size\" id=\"registration-form\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--sm);letter-spacing:-0.015em\">Download Now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/js.hsforms.net\/forms\/embed\/v2.js\"><\/script>\n<script>\n  hbspt.forms.create({\n    portalId: \"47217141\",\n    formId: \"c35ad42e-7279-4eb9-af8d-6d80a377bfb7\",\n    region: \"na1\"\n  });\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Failed technology investments in distribution are almost never a technology problem. They&#8217;re a clarity problem. This report examines what separates operators who get ROI from those still waiting for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":11965,"template":"","report_category":[],"coauthors":[209],"class_list":["post-11963","report","type-report","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"related_event_id":0,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Clarity Problem - Distribution Strategy Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Failed technology investments in distribution are almost never a technology problem. They&#039;re a clarity problem. 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