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Globalizing HR
Data privacy issues and scalability were important concerns when Chiquita began developing a global HR system. The company's approach to IT requires transparency, customer focus, flexibility and Cloud computing.
At a session entitled "Chiquita Consolidates a Bunch of HR Systems," Manjit Singh, chief information officer for Chiquita Brands International, outlined the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company's efforts to develop a global HR system. "We've been around 125 years in 75 countries, but we never had a global HR system," Singh said. "For us, getting to standardized business processes [and a] single global view of all of employees was critically, critically important." In the end, Chiquita selected Workday >, and its Software-as-a-Service approach, to handle its global HR process. To be sure, Singh said, Chiquita had some concerns, including issues such as security and privacy. But noting that most CIOs outsource their data centers, Singh questioned why "I would trust my data-center provider more than I would trust < Workday >? The answer is I wouldn't." Singh noted that scalability was another key concern. It was important for the vendor to be able to ramp up quickly to meet the requirements of a company Chiquita's size, he said. Chiquita has roughly 23,000 employees worldwide. Five rules guide Chiquita's approach to information technology, Singh told attendees. First, he said, is having a focus on business enablement. "I'm not a big believer in doing technology for technology sake. A lot of people ask me why I don't use the iPhone. I love the iPhone, but I don't allow it in the enterprise. Why not? Because we're a BlackBerry shop and the BlackBerrys work just fine." Other rules include ensuring information is transparent and readily available; IT remains customer focused, not just in terms of the internal customer but the external customer too; IT is "flexible enough to change with the business"; and Cloud computing is embraced as the new platform. In opening the session and introducing Singh, < Workday > founder and CEO Dave Duffield noted that Chiquita was < Workday's first enterprise customer. With several recent client acquisitions, Duffield put his company's client base at around 104. Read
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October 1, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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