How supply chain software Arkieva has been in business for over 20 years

In the late 1980s, after receiving his Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University, Harpal Singh found employment in DuPont’s research department working as an analytics consultant.
In 1993, Singh was able to leave DuPont and founded a supply chain software company by leveraging his old connections at the processing plant. With DuPont as its initial client, a company called Zemeter — now known as Arkieva — was born.
The company supplies a fully integrated suite of inventory planning and management software, and according to sales and marketing director Garry Morton, it’s some of the most thorough software on the market.
“It has the ability to get into the very deep, deep detail of the products on a skew level,” Morton said of the software, developed on a .NET framework. “It’s supported and implemented globally for manufacturers in the Fortune 500 to 1000 category.”
Arkieva’s software is in production plants across industries — from berry producer Driscoll’s to biopesticides manufacturer Certis.
Morton said compared to the competition, Arkieva operates on a smaller scale. The company is headquartered in Wilmington, but maintains offices in India and Belgium to support global clients. The company may maintain a leaner operation, but Morton said he actually prefers the company culture Signh has created at Arkieva over his past experience.
“The culture is radically different [than at a public company], which I personally think is very healthy. The company has really taken on the culture of the owner,” said Morton. “His goal is to hire the right people with the right skill sets, to give them the tools they need to do their job, not to add layers of management. It can be a rather refreshing approach.”
That “responsive culture” is what Morton said is the key to Arkieva’s staying power.
“It’s open, more direct, more accessible, more visible. The heart of the company is exposed,” he said. “That helps everybody understand where they fit.