Logistics software and IT for agriculture, logistics and distribution
Arke Technologies builds, integrates and supports logistics software and IT for farms, agricultural distributors, transport operators and warehouses across South Africa, from Johannesburg. We connect transport, warehouse and ERP systems, build offline-first field apps, secure the supply chain and run the infrastructure behind it under one service-level agreement.
What is logistics software?
In its plain meaning, logistics software is the set of applications that plan, carry out and record the movement and storage of goods: orders, loads, routes, vehicles, warehouses, deliveries and the invoices that follow. In agriculture and distribution it runs from the farm gate or supplier to the depot, the warehouse and the customer, often across long rural routes with patchy signal.
Most organisations run several pieces of logistics business software, joined together. Logistics IT solutions go wider, taking in the depot network, servers, connectivity, devices and security that keep those logistics software tools running. Supply chain logistics software, and logistics and supply chain management software suites, extend the view upstream to suppliers and procurement.
Choosing the best logistics management software
There is no single best logistics management software, only the one that fits how your goods move. Logistics software companies sell to very different operations, from a courier with a few bakkies to a national cold chain. Logistics management software earns its keep when it:
Fits your flows: full loads or multi-drop, ambient or cold chain, own fleet or contracted carriers, domestic or cross-border into the SADC region.- Integrates: a published API for orders, stock, status and invoices, so it exchanges data with your ERP, accounting, e-commerce and fleet systems without re-keying.
- Works offline: drivers and field agents keep working without signal and sync when it returns.
- Handles local realities: logistics software in South Africa must cope with rand and VAT, load-shedding at depots, rural coverage and POPIA.
- Reports honestly: on-time, in-full and cost-per-drop figures you can check against source records.
- Lets you leave: your data exports in a usable form, and you hold the admin credentials.
Logistics software development: when to build
As a logistics software development company, we build when products do not fit: field sales with no signal, pricing rules unique to your business, or an integration layer between systems never meant to talk. We build web applications in Next.js, React and TypeScript on PostgreSQL, and mobile apps in Flutter, React Native, Swift or Kotlin; see mobile app development.
Farm IT solutions: connectivity, devices and power on the land
Farm IT solutions start with basics city offices take for granted. Fibre often does not reach the farm office, so fixed LTE is frequently the practical link, arranged, billed and supported through our connectivity division Fibre Boyz under the same contract. Wi-Fi must stretch across offices, packhouses and workshops, and rural power fails more often and for longer, so routers, switches and the farm server need UPS runtime sized to the outage.
Behind that sit accounting in Sage or Xero, payroll for permanent and seasonal workers, and staff records that POPIA protects. We set up and support Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, manage the devices and back everything up off site; see accounting software.
Supply chain cyber security
Supply chain cyber security covers two risks: an attack on your own logistics systems, such as ransomware on a dispatch server that stops the trucks, and risk that arrives through the supply chain itself, such as a carrier portal with a shared password, a compromised software update or a supplier's email account used to redirect payments. Cyber supply chain risk management (C-SCRM, in NIST's term) treats both as one problem. Cyber security in supply chain management means:
- A register of who is connected: every supplier, carrier and software vendor with access to your systems or data.
- Least privilege and MFA: individual accounts with multi-factor authentication on your portals, and no shared logins.
- Payment verification: bank-detail changes confirmed by phone on a known number, and email security that flags look-alike domains.
- Trusted software: updates from known sources, tested before they reach depots, with vendor access logged.
- Recovery: tested backups of dispatch, WMS and ERP data, and a plan to run deliveries manually for a day.
- Contract terms: security and POPIA obligations in supplier agreements, reviewed as part of supply chain security management.
Cyber security supply chain risk management starts with a cybersecurity assessment.
Depot servers, racks and power
Dispatch stops when the depot server or network does. We design and support site servers, virtualisation and networks, with hardware from our trading division Server Hub. A power distribution unit for a server rack feeds UPS power to each server, switch and firewall. A basic unit only distributes power; a metered unit shows the load it carries, an outlet-metered unit shows it per socket, and a switched unit lets a device be power-cycled remotely, which can save a long drive to a rural depot.
A unit's price depends on outlet count, input rating and type. Server Hub quotes it in rand with VAT included, alongside the UPS, rack and servers, each priced line backed by a dated, verifiable source. Request a hardware quote (opens serverhub.co.za).
Governance, compliance and procurement
- An SLA set to your operation: incidents prioritised P1 (critical outage) to P4 (low-impact request), response and resolution targets matched to the business impact of downtime and agreed with you, and a monthly service review and report with escalation paths and change control.
- Compliance: POPIA for customer, driver and seasonal-worker records, with operator agreements for carriers; King IV Principle 12 for boards; PFMA disciplines where the buyer is a public entity; controls aligned with ISO/IEC 27001 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (alignment, not certification).
- Procurement: Level 1 B-BBEE contributor, giving 135% procurement recognition (sworn affidavit available on request); company documents, CSD supplier number and SARS tax compliance status on request; buy through a proposal and SLA, a purchase order or a tender response.
- Continuity: you own your data, credentials and documentation. New depots join the same contract, and if you leave, we hand everything over in an orderly way.
Agriculture and distribution sits beside mining and industrial and retail and e-commerce among the industries we serve.