A logistics manager finds a warehouse with the right floor area and loading docks. Finance asks for commercial terms. Legal needs the documents. The owner wants to know whether the request is serious. The option is there, but the decision has not started yet.
I’m Anton Fokin, CEO of Qtim. This is not only a real-estate pattern. The same gap appears in partner portals, B2B marketplaces, and complex corporate sales: a catalogue opens the route, then a group has to travel it together.
Warehousing is a neutral example of the mechanism. A digital decision layer carries facts from one stage to the next, so each participant does not have to collect the same inputs again.
The catalogue gives the group a common starting point
A catalogue helps people see available options and compare basic constraints. For a warehouse, that includes floor area, loading docks, location, availability, and the property passport. In another B2B category, it may be a product specification, a service description, or a commercial offer.
At this stage, the layer works as a storefront for current facts. Each material parameter needs a source and an update date. Without them, the first shortlist becomes a sequence of follow-up emails and phone calls just to confirm the data.
In the Qtim case for Teplomash, the team built a B2B catalogue of about 900 products for an official distributor of equipment from four manufacturers. Filters, a basket, and a request-to-manager flow help a buyer select an option and formulate the request. That is the confirmed part of the first stage; the published case does not disclose the later approval route, so it should not be presented as a proven outcome.
An option becomes a request
A buyer saves several options, adds a deadline, mandatory conditions, and colleagues involved in the decision. This creates a request: the context of one specific operation.
The distinction matters because the group now needs to assess whether the terms apply to this operation, not merely whether an asset or product exists.
A request must be checked against the terms
In its 2025 US industrial real estate research, JLL reported that tenant decision timelines had increased from 3.5 to 11 months. This is not a benchmark for the Russian market. It illustrates the nature of the task: a new warehouse affects the supply network, costs, contract risk, and plans across several functions.
JLL’s 2025 global outlook also described companies using existing space for longer and delaying some transactions amid uncertainty and higher costs. An interface cannot remove those constraints. It can make missing data, open conditions, and the timing of the next contact visible.
A status becomes useful only when it also names a reason, an owner, and a next action. “Under review” leaves the group waiting. “Legal is reviewing the termination clause; an update is due Friday” gives the team a workable plan.
An expert joins where context runs out
A buyer can compare parameters, save a shortlist, flag mandatory conditions, invite a colleague, and see the gaps between the request and the offer. The expert receives the context already assembled and can focus on exceptions, applicability, and terms.
In Gartner’s 2025 survey, 632 B2B buyers said they preferred independent research; buyers turn to sellers for a contextual assessment of fit. The interface should collect the starting facts. An expert should handle exceptions, terms, and incomplete data.
The first release should carry one journey end to end
The first release does not need to digitise every contract scenario. It needs to take one deal from discovery to a substantive review without collecting the same information twice. Choose the priority contractual scenario and build a shared route around it.
At the start, keep an offer passport with a source, an update date, and a change rule. In the middle, capture the deadline, mandatory conditions, constraints, and decision participants. During review, operations clarifies the practical side, legal works with documents, and finance works with terms. The expert receives the request, selected options, discrepancies, and action history.
Link deal events to the CRM, ERP, documents, or inventory systems where those data already live. A new role should not automatically create an isolated product.
Where to look before launch
A small deal flow can work with a CRM, document storage, and one process owner: fields are stable, there are few participants, and history survives a handoff.
A separate decision layer becomes relevant when several roles repeatedly reconcile terms, buyers need to search independently, and data arrive from more than one system.
Return to the point where operations, finance, and legal first work with the same option. The boundary of the first release is the step where they begin to reconstruct facts from separate messages. The Qtim team can help map the data, roles, and statuses for the first version of a B2B client portal or marketplace.
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