TOA Technologies announced that Madrid, Spain-based
Telefonica has chosen TOA's mobile workforce management software to manage its worldwide field technicians. Telefonica, which is one of the largest telecom companies in the world, chose TOA for its cloud-based ETADirect technology and its ability to ramp up operations quickly in multiple locations.
“It was a fairly long selection process,” says TOA vice president of worldwide marketing John Opdycke. “Telefonica originally thought it would be an on-premise solution, but then they realized the cloud-based solution would allow them to go one country at a time.”
TOA will implement its products first in Brazil, followed by Spain, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Peru. Eventually, TOA will be in 24 countries with Telefonica. “There’s nothing anyone needs except access to a browser,” explains Opdycke of why TOA was attractive to Telefonica. “They can be non-standard, browser agnostic and platform agnostic. Telefonica needed that flexibility.”
Telefonica is TOA’s largest customer to date in terms of size. More important, Opdycke says, is Cleveland’s increasingly strong presence in the global technology marketplace. “We’re proud to represent the Cleveland technology market and the international market,” he says. “TOA is one of the leading companies in the Cleveland market that is really doing international business.”
TOA employs 56 people in its Cleveland headquarters, and another 454 worldwide. The Telefonica deal will add employees to TOA in Spain and Brazil, and perhaps Cleveland. Telefonica’s CTO and other team members are planning a visit to Cleveland.
In the meantime, TOA is in the midst of expanding its headquarters from 8,200 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The company was also recently named as a finalist as Tech Company of the Year in the
2013 NEOSA Tech Week Best of Tech Awards.
Source: John Opdycke
Writer: Karin Connelly