There is no shortage of software-as-a-service (SaaS)–based manufacturing enterprise resource planning software offerings nowadays, for almost any vertical manufacturing market segment. But while cloud and hosted solutions are routine for many types of business software across various industries, manufacturing businesses still express a lot of skepticism, uncertainty and concern about the applicability of cloud software to their business.

Martin Hubert, chief executive officer with Freightgate, outlines the benefits of cloud technology for supply-chain managers and logistics providers. He suggests a road map to a "collaborative, inter-connected cloud."