Accelerating Global Supply Networks with Smart, Scalable Logistics Software Development

Logistics software is mostly an agreement about message formats with people who do not work for you. This page names the standards those messages are written in, the rules that constrain what software may tell a driver to do, what actually moves the cost of a project, and what to ask any firm bidding for the work, including us.

On this page

• What we build for logistics and supply chain operators
• The standards a logistics integration has to speak
• The rules that bind a carrier’s systems
• What drives the cost of a logistics software project
• How the work is scheduled
• What to ask any firm building logistics software
• Frequently asked questions
• More about logistics and supply chain software
• Talk to our engineers

What we build for logistics and supply chain operators

The solutions above are the outcomes. These are the service lines the work is staffed from, each with the page that describes it in full.

• Custom and enterprise software. Custom software development and enterprise software development for planning, visibility and yard or dock workflows that no packaged product models the way you run them.
• ERP and business systems. ERP, SAP and CRM integration, because a shipment record that never reaches finance is a reporting problem waiting to happen.
• Tracking and connected assets. Internet of things engineering for telematics, RFID readers, temperature loggers and the ingestion behind them.
• AI, machine learning and agents. Artificial intelligence and machine learning and agentic AI for routing, load building, exception handling and forecasting.
• Data platforms and analytics. Data analytics and big data engineering, which is most of the real work behind any visibility dashboard.
• Cloud and migration. Cloud computing and cloud migration and optimization, including the scaling design for peak season rather than for the average week.
• Security and testing. Cybersecurity, penetration testing and software testing, with partner facing interfaces treated as the exposed surface they are.
• Automation and RPA. Robotic process automation and automation for document handling, carrier invoice checking and the rekeying between systems that do not talk.
• Run and support. Managed services, infrastructure management and DevOps, because an integration estate needs an owner on the day a partner changes a spec.
• Mobile for drivers and warehouse staff. Mobile application development for scanning, proof of delivery and driver workflows with intermittent connectivity.
• People. Team augmentation when the constraint is capacity rather than direction.

Case studies, delivered with our partner NeoSOFT. Network Planning Tool (NPT) built for a multinational package delivery and supply chain management company, which that page describes as streamlining large scale data management and operations planning through a high performance planning system. And an AI driven route and truck volume optimization platform built for a logistics solutions company in the Nordic region, described on its own page as improving route planning, load visibility, and operational efficiency through real time optimization.

The standards a logistics integration has to speak

EDI X12, the North American transaction sets

Who issues it, and whom it binds. X12, through its Accredited Standards Committee. X12’s own description is that it “defines and maintains transaction sets that establish the data content exchanged for specific business purposes”, that “transaction sets are identified by a numeric identifier and a name”, and that “each transaction set is maintained by a subcommittee operating within X12’s Accredited Standards Committee”. It binds you by contract: a shipper or a retailer makes a set and a version a condition of trading.

What a software build has to do under it. Speak the specific sets your partners use, in the versions they use. In transport and warehousing the recurring ones are the 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender, 210 Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice, 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message, 856 Ship Notice/Manifest, 940 Warehouse Shipping Order, 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice, 850 Purchase Order and 997 Functional Acknowledgment. The build also has to handle the acknowledgement loop and decide what happens to a message a partner never acknowledges.

What we do. We treat each partner’s implementation guide as a separate interface with its own tests, rather than assuming one mapping serves everybody, and we build the exception path before the happy path.

UN/EDIFACT, the international syntax

Who issues it, and whom it binds. The syntax rules are standardised by ISO as the ISO 9735 series, developed by technical committee ISO/TC 154 for electronic data interchange for administration, commerce and transport. ISO 9735-1:2002 states that it “specifies common syntax rules for the formatting of batch and interactive messages to be interchanged between computer application systems” and carries the terms and definitions for the whole series. Like X12 it binds by contract, and it is what you meet when the partner is outside North America.

What a software build has to do under it. Expect to support both families rather than choosing one. The mapping layer, not the transport, is where the cost sits.

What we do. We build the canonical internal model first and treat X12 and EDIFACT as two adapters onto it, so a new partner is a mapping rather than a project.

GS1 SSCC, identifying the thing on the pallet

Who issues it, and whom it binds. GS1. Its standards page says the Serial Shipping Container Code “can be used by companies to identify a logistic unit, which can be any combination of trade items packaged together for storage and/ or transport purposes; for example a case, pallet or parcel”. Voluntary, and in practice required by any partner who scans on receipt. GS1 publishes the surrounding standards on the same page, including the General Specifications, the Tag Data Standard and the GS1 Logistics Label Guideline.

What a software build has to do under it. Allocate identifiers correctly and once, print them where the existing hardware can read them, and keep the link between the identifier and the shipment record for as long as anybody might scan it.

What we do. We design identifier allocation as a service with a single owner, because duplicated codes are the failure that is discovered at a receiving dock rather than in a test.

GS1 EPCIS, the event record behind visibility

Who issues it, and whom it binds. GS1, which describes EPCIS as “GS1’s flagship data sharing standard for enabling visibility, within organisations as well as across an entire supply chain of trading partners and other stakeholders”, helping provide the “what, when, where, why and how” of products and other assets. The Core Business Vocabulary is its companion standard, providing the definitions of the data values that populate it. Voluntary, and increasingly the shape a partner asks for. GS1 records that EPCIS and CBV 2.0 added sensor data, certification details, JSON and JSON-LD syntax and a REST API for capture and query.

What a software build has to do under it. Model events rather than states. A visibility system built on the current position of a shipment cannot answer the question everybody eventually asks, which is what happened and in what order.

What we do. We build the event store as the record and the dashboard as a projection of it, so a later question about history has somewhere to look.

The rules that bind a carrier’s systems

These are law and programme rules rather than data formats, and they constrain what software is allowed to tell a driver to do.

Hours of service, 49 CFR part 395

Who issues it, and whom it binds. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation. Part 395 is mandatory for motor carriers and drivers within its scope. For property carrying vehicles, section 395.3 sets out that a driver may not drive without first taking 10 consecutive hours off duty, may not drive after a period of 14 consecutive hours after coming on duty following those 10 hours, may drive a total of 11 hours within that period, and that driving is not permitted if more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30 minute interruption in driving status.

What a software build has to do under it. If your software plans a route, assigns a load or promises an arrival time, it has to model those limits. A plan that is optimal and illegal is worse than no plan, because somebody has to notice.

What we do. We put the rule in the planning model as a constraint rather than as a warning banner, and we make the rule set configurable because exceptions and short haul provisions exist in the regulation itself.

The ELD rule, 49 CFR part 395 subpart B

Who issues it, and whom it binds. FMCSA. The agency describes the electronic logging device rule as “congressionally mandated as a part of MAP-21” and explains that an ELD “synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time, for easier, more accurate hours of service (HOS) recording”, and that the final rule “does not change any of the basic hours-of-service rules or exceptions”. In the regulation, section 395.8 requires a motor carrier operating commercial motor vehicles to install and require each of its drivers to use an ELD to record duty status, with the exceptions the section itself lists.

What a software build has to do under it. If you integrate with an ELD rather than build one, two clauses matter. Section 395.22 requires a carrier to use only a device listed on FMCSA’s registered ELD list, and it puts user rights management on the carrier: managing accounts, assigning a unique ELD username to each user, and holding the driver identification data the rule enumerates. Your identity model has to line up with that rather than fight it.

What we do. We integrate to the carrier’s registered device and keep account lifecycle events auditable, so the record of who was granted access and when survives a staff change.

CTPAT, the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism

Who issues it, and whom it binds. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP states that participation “is voluntary and there are no costs associated with joining the program”, that on joining “an agreement is made to work with CBP to protect the supply chain, identify security gaps, and implement specific security measures and best practices”, that applicants “must address a broad range of security topics and present security profiles that list action plans to align security throughout the supply chain”, and that members “are considered to be of low risk, and are therefore less likely to be examined at a U.S. port of entry”.

What a software build has to do under it. The security profile is evidence about people, partners and systems. Software that already records who had access to what, which partners were vetted and when, turns the profile from an annual scramble into a report.

What we do. We design access records and partner vetting records to be exportable, because the point of an audit trail is that somebody outside the company can read it.

ISO 28000, security management for the supply chain

Who issues it, and whom it binds. ISO, through technical committee ISO/TC 292. ISO 28000:2022 states in its own abstract that it “specifies requirements for a security management system, including aspects relevant to the supply chain” and that it “is applicable to all types and sizes of organizations”. Voluntary. ISO’s certification page adds the point that trips buyers up: “ISO does not perform certification or issue certificates”, so any certificate comes from an external certification body.

What a software build has to do under it. Management system standards run on records. If the system of record does not capture the decision and who made it, the management system has to be run in a spreadsheet alongside it.

What we do. We build to the control expectations and hand over the evidence. Sthenos holds no ISO certificate of its own, holds no independent attestation, and is not SOC 2 attested.

Incoterms 2020, the vocabulary on the order

Who issues it, and whom it binds. The International Chamber of Commerce. ICC describes the Incoterms rules as “a set of standards used in international and domestic contracts for the delivery of goods”, “recognised by UNCITRAL as the global standard for the interpretation of the most common terms in foreign trade”, which “help to avoid costly misunderstandings by clarifying the tasks, costs and risks involved in the delivery of goods from sellers to buyers”. They were first published in 1936, and the Incoterms 2020 version entered into force on 1 January 2020. They bind the parties who write them into the contract.

What a software build has to do under it. Treat the term as a field, not a footnote. It decides who arranges carriage, who carries risk at each leg, and therefore which cost lands on which ledger, which means billing, insurance and claims logic all read it.

What we do. We carry the term on the shipment record and drive the downstream rules from it instead of hard coding one trading pattern.

What drives the cost of a logistics software project

We do not publish a price for this work, because the range is set by your partner estate rather than by our rate. These are the factors that actually move the number.

How the work is scheduled

We work in two week sprint cycles, so there is working software to look at every two weeks rather than a status report. Discovery comes first and produces a written problem statement both sides agree on before any architecture conversation begins, and on an integration project discovery means reading your partners’ actual guides rather than a list of their names.

1. DiscoveryA written problem statement both sides agree on, before any architecture conversation begins.
2. Read the guidesOn an integration project, discovery means reading your partners’ actual guides rather than a list of their names.
3. Two week sprintsWorking software to look at every two weeks rather than a status report.
4. HandoverThe repository and the cloud accounts are in your name from the first commit, against a readiness standard we publish in full.

We do not publish a duration for a project we have not scoped. On a first call we will tell you which parts of the work are known and which are discovery, and say plainly which is which. The standard we hold our own delivery to is published in full as the production readiness checklist.

What to ask any firm building logistics software

These questions work on us as well as on anybody else you are talking to.

• Which transaction sets and versions have you actually implemented, by number? “EDI experience” and “we have run 214s against three carriers” are different claims.
• What happens when a partner sends a malformed message at 2am? Ask for the alerting and the replay path, not a reassurance.
• Does the planner model hours of service, and can the rule set be changed without a release? Regulations move.
• How do you allocate GS1 identifiers, and what stops a duplicate? This is discovered at a receiving dock if it is wrong.
• Is the visibility layer built on events or on current state? Only one of those can answer a question about last Tuesday.
• Which telematics or ELD vendors have you integrated, and are they on the registered list? Ask for the vendor names.
• Who owns the code, the repository and the cloud accounts when we are done? Get the answer in writing before the first invoice.
• Which of your claims are audited and which are self declared? Then ask for the report and its date.

Frequently asked questions

What is an EDI 214 and when do we need one?

The 214 is the Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message, one of the transaction sets X12 defines and maintains. You need it when a trading partner requires status updates in that format rather than through your portal or an API of your own.

Do we need EDI X12 or EDIFACT?

It depends on who you trade with. X12 is maintained by X12’s Accredited Standards Committee and dominates North America. EDIFACT syntax is standardised by ISO as the ISO 9735 series and is what you usually meet internationally. Many operators end up supporting both.

Does route planning software have to model hours of service?

If it plans work for drivers inside the scope of 49 CFR part 395, yes. Section 395.3 sets limits including 10 consecutive hours off duty before driving, a 14 hour window, 11 hours of driving in it, and a 30 minute interruption after 8 hours of driving time.

What is an ELD and does the rule apply to us?

An electronic logging device synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time, in FMCSA’s own words. Section 395.8 requires carriers operating commercial motor vehicles to use one to record duty status, with the exceptions that section lists. Your counsel should confirm which apply to you.

What is an SSCC and where does it go?

The Serial Shipping Container Code is a GS1 identifier for a logistic unit, which GS1 describes as any combination of trade items packaged together for storage or transport, for example a case, pallet or parcel. It goes on the logistics label and into every message about that unit.

Is CTPAT membership mandatory?

No. CBP states that participation in CTPAT is voluntary and there are no costs associated with joining the program. Members are considered to be of low risk and are therefore less likely to be examined at a U.S. port of entry.

Who owns the code and the cloud accounts?

You do, entirely, from the first commit. The repository and the cloud accounts are in your name, with no licence back to us and no dependency on us continuing to exist.

How is the work scheduled?

We work in two week sprint cycles, with discovery first. Discovery produces a written problem statement both sides sign off on before any architecture conversation begins, and if the problem is not what you thought it was, we say so.

More about logistics and supply chain software

Services. Custom software development, internet of things, AI and machine learning, data analytics, cybersecurity, managed services, team augmentation.

Standards and regulation, at the source. X12 transaction sets, ISO 9735-1 for EDIFACT syntax, GS1 SSCC, GS1 EPCIS, 49 CFR part 395, hours of service and ELDs, FMCSA on electronic logging devices, CBP on CTPAT, ISO 28000:2022, ICC Incoterms rules.

Insights and related work. Route optimization, fleet management software, supply chain analytics, agentic AI in supply chain management, the network planning tool case study, the production readiness checklist, and talk to our engineers.

Ready to talk? Tell us which partners you exchange messages with and which of their guides you already have, and we will tell you which parts of the work are known and which are discovery. Talk to our engineers.