Argility, Google Cloud taking Loop’s business to the next level

ATG’s Head of IT and Infrastructure, Japie Saunders.

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In any product’s delivery journey from the warehouse to the customer, the last mile is notoriously difficult to get right. It is also the most time-consuming leg of product delivery and the most expensive. Fifty percent of total shipping costs are attributed to the final leg.

Loop was founded in 2016 by a young entrepreneur who saw a gap in the market and seized the opportunity to fill it, and thus, the Loop delivery platform was developed. The platform provides real-time tracking and simplifies the lives of businesses, drivers and the end customers. It operates in the retail and wholesale space and is based in South Africa.

Loop is a young, agile and rapidly expanding organisation that recognised a need for the assistance of a highly experienced technology partner with a profound knowledge of the latest global solutions backed by on-the-ground, high-level support. Loop required a solution that facilitated the expansion of its business, process optimisation and a reduction in operating costs. Loop also required the enhancement of its core business through the utilisation of Google Maps Enterprise.

Loop selected South African technology veteran, Argility – a Google Cloud/Workspace partner – to assist in the formulating of smart decisions about using the right products/solutions for its business and that supported growth into the future.

According to ATG’s Head of IT and Infrastructure, Japie Saunders, the project commenced in June 2023 with first tasks completed by the end of July that year. “We touched on various items like security enhancements in GCP plus Workspace, organisational analysis and implementation of best practice in working with cloud architecture. It is always complex to take over any service from a previous provider or, where the customer has performed the tasks in-house, best practice and security are often overlooked, more than anything because the specific skills required are not available in-house."

ATG, as Loop’s managed services provider, not only in Cloud and Workspace, is continuously supporting the organisation with all its IT requirements.

The most significant outcome thus far has been a decrease in billing expenses, a more efficient and expeditious way of performing tasks and a satisfactory level of security for both the business and the end customer.

Utilising Google Cloud augmented by Argility's expertise, technical IP and experience, Loop’s path to sustainable growth and success is now more accessible and secure than ever before.

Detailed list of solutions successfully implemented:

• Billing Optimisation
• IAM – Identity Access Management
• Compute Engine
• Cloud Storage
• APIs & Services
• Big Query
• App Engine
• Cloud Logging
• Directions API
• Cloud Functions
• Google Maps
• Distance Matrix
• Cloud SQL
• Cloud Run
• GEO Coding
• Places API
• Cloud Tasks
• Cloud PUB/SUB
• Cloud Build
• Artifact Registry
• Cloud Scheduler
• Networking