By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
 Chiquita Brands CIO Manjit Singh is convinced that the cloud is computing’s next big movement. And he’s not just predicting it, he’s already going there. In September, Chiquita signed a deal for its 26,000 workers to use on-demand human capital management apps from software-as-a-service provider Workday. That deal wasn’t the produce company’s first leap into the cloud. Since Singh joined Chiquita in April 2006, it has signed to use on-demand management software from LeanLogistics for its North American transportation operations and SaaS apps from Infor (formerly DataStream) to manage the manufacturing line assets for Chiquita’s salad business.
And Singh wants more.
Chiquita recently signed a licensing deal for Oracle’s Hyperion business performance management tools. But if those sorts of tools had been available in a SaaS model, Singh would’ve jumped at the opportunity. “I would love to do more,” he says. But the big-name ERP vendors continue to drag their heels on SaaS. “Some are actively fighting against this paradigm shift,” he says.
Singh thinks the potential for running more critical applications on the Web is huge and the risks aren’t that great. Eventually, people will realize SaaS is no more risky than having their ERP applications running in an outsourcer’s data center, he says.
Singh’s also sold on the cost and time savings that the on-demand model provides in getting the software rolling. Plus there’s less mess with upgrades.
“If I write my contract smart, I’ll only pay as I use it,” he says. SaaS also avoids installation and upgrade costs, freeing up money for other investments. Singh says he shifted all the money saved from using Workday to areas that will help grow the business, like new products, marketing, and customers. “That adds more bottom-line value,” he says.
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