Women are increasingly shaping the IT industry – at valantic, we create opportunities together and promote talent so that diversity becomes a strength.
Women are increasingly shaping the IT industry – at valantic, we create opportunities together and promote talent so that diversity becomes a strength.
Night shift at a manufacturing plant. A machine has come to a standstill: a defective seal. The shift supervisor opens the manufacturer’s customer portal. The replacement part is in stock. However, the technical details do not indicate whether it is compatible with the machine’s configuration. She calls the support hotline, where a recorded message tells her that service hours run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This is not a fictional scenario, but a common experience. For urgent or complex issues, the service portal offers only limited help and fails to deliver what it could: quick solutions, direct answers, and access to everything a user needs and wants to know at that very moment.
The pressure to change this is growing: 71 percent of B2B companies already rely on e-commerce. According to McKinsey’s Global B2B Pulse Survey 2026, digital sales channels generate about one-third of their revenue. In light of this trend, a B2B portal can be an effective tool for the high-margin after-sales business—if it is set up and used correctly.
Why B2B service portals often fail to deliver on their promises
Digital service channels were long treated as a pure IT project. In reality, customer platforms cut across several teams and departments that, for historical reasons, often work separately in many companies:
Sales is responsible for pricing, terms, and customer relationships.
Marketing is responsible for personalization and content.
E-commerce is responsible for transactions and technical platforms.
If these three areas remain isolated, information gaps and inconsistencies arise, just as in the night-shift example above. The portal answers questions about availability and order history, but it does not connect that information to the customer’s context: not to the technical details, and not to the price negotiated with that customer.
What follows from this: connect teams, data, and systems
The customer base in industry has also become far more diverse. According to the McKinsey study, customers use an average of ten different channels and expect the transitions between them to be seamless. Incomplete information and a lack of expert support are among the most common reasons for switching providers.
To meet customers’ expectations of service channels, all three disciplines must be integrated: marketing, sales, and commerce—functioning as a single unit—require a consolidated system and data infrastructure. Only when CRM, CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote), PIM, and ERP all access a common database can the service portal provide complete, up-to-date, and reliable information. Without that foundation, the platform remains a digital facade that causes customers to pick up the phone again at the first sign of a problem.
Real-world success story: B2B self-services with MyTriflex
Our project with Triflex demonstrates how this can work in practice: Through the MyTriflex customer portal, the manufacturer consolidates digital sales and information processes into a central B2B self-service platform. By integrating existing systems (CRM, SAP ERP, PIM, payment) and following a composable commerce approach, orders, product details, customer data, and pricing information now come together in one place.
If approached correctly, a service portal can achieve more than efficiency gains and a shift of volume into digital channels. Integrated systems, data, and processes are only half the story. It also takes a clear monetization goal. Two models in particular turn a digital service channel into a genuine source of revenue:
Pay-per-use billing
In the pay-per-use model—also known as “Equipment-as-a-Service”—customers do not purchase a machine or equipment but instead pay for its use, for example, based on the number of units produced, operating hours, or achieved availability.
New revenue streams in the aftermarket
More and more companies are also generating additional revenue through paid features and digital enhancements on the platform, such as software updates, advanced analytics and reporting functions, or integration with B2B marketplaces. In this way, the service platform becomes a sales channel for digital value-added services and a gateway to higher-margin business areas.
Unsurprisingly, in these and nearly all other monetization models, AI can support the business in a variety of ways and amplify the business impact of service portals.
Using AI to transform a static customer portal into a proactive service orchestrator
AI agents and assistants widen what a service portal can do. Whereas customers previously had to click through spare parts catalogs and static product pages, AI now answers technical questions via chat and finds the right part in seconds, based on serial number, data sheets, and system configuration. Availability and feasibility checks run automatically in the background.
The next step goes beyond mere automation and responding to inquiries. For example, an AI-powered service portal can anticipate maintenance needs (predictive maintenance) and recommend replacing a part before a malfunction brings the machine to a halt. The reactive service channel becomes a proactive orchestrator.
Sales excellence as the foundation for profitable B2B customer portals
Despite all the technical possibilities and advancements, a service portal only holds real revenue potential if the sales process behind it is right. A unified database, digital tools for CPQ and Guided Selling, clear workflows, and governance empower employees to create and manage customized service offerings more quickly, consistently, and with a greater focus on the customer. This is precisely what Sales Excellence means in the industrial sector, and it describes the approach we take at valantic:
CPQ and Guided Selling speed up quoting, raise quote quality, and improve close rates.
Modular tools (CRM, CPQ, pricing) increase technical scalability and enable international expansion without breaks in the system landscape.
Centralized product, pricing, and configuration logic ensure data consistency, governance, and compliance across all sales channels.
AI-powered pricing and forecasting models improve margins, enhance confidence in negotiations, and enable better planning in demand and production management.
Architecture blueprints and standardization reduce customization and operational overhead and create a uniform, repeatable sales model across regions and teams.
How to get started: three recommendations for setting up service portals
1) Start with a business case
Before diving into architecture planning, the first question should be: What’s the realistic revenue potential of a customer portal, what savings can it generate, what will it cost to build, and when will that investment pay off? Approaching the service channel as a business case—with concrete revenue targets for spare parts sales, paid digital services, or a pay-per-use model, for example—means every technology and feature decision rests on solid ground.
A recent project shows how the math can work out:
valantic recently calculated the business case for a planned customer portal for an internationally leading mid-sized company with more than €2 billion in revenue—with break-even after just one year and a cumulative positive net effect in the stable double-digit millions over four years.
2) Involve sales and customers from the start Service portals often fail because the very people who are supposed to use them don’t accept them: Sales teams see the portal as extra work rather than a way to lighten their load. Customers go back to the phone as soon as they hit the first hurdle. By involving both groups early in the design and testing phases and showing them what the portal does for them day to day, you keep the platform from being built past the needs of the people who use it.
3) Connect teams, tools, and data
Marketing, sales, and e-commerce are jointly responsible for the portal. This requires one consolidated data foundation spanning CRM, CPQ, PIM, and ERP, as well as metrics that track personalization, close rates, and the share of revenue running through digital channels.
Conclusion: B2B service portals are more than just another sales channel
Today, a B2B service portal is no longer just an efficiency tool or a convenience feature for higher customer satisfaction. It is where marketing, sales, and commerce converge, and where data, AI, and new revenue models turn a service channel into a strategic source of revenue.
Anyone who continues to view the B2B customer portal merely as a cost center is squandering potential that lies in the highest-margin part of the business: the long-term customer relationship following the initial sale.
Would you like to know what revenue potential service portals offer your B2B business? Feel free to get in touch with our manufacturing experts.
What's driving the manufacturing industry in 2026
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As Director of Industry Business, Fabian Littau supports industrial companies in the digital transformation of their sales, marketing, and customer service functions. With the goal of turning digital sales channels into genuine growth drivers, he combines forward-looking B2B strategies with technical innovations across the entire value chain.
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