Crossing the Chasm: Telefónica heads to the cloud for field service management
April 11, 2013 by Yuval Brisker
As a co-founder and CEO of an amazing and fast growing SaaS company, I have the honor of being part of many great moments – large and small - in the life of the company, moments that usually mark an interesting and exciting shift in our business. Yesterday was such a moment - a milestone for our business, the coming together of a lot of what we’ve been working towards over the years, but really much more than that. What really makes this moment so exciting is that, I believe, it is also a landmark representing the sea change that’s happening in enterprise software.
Telefónica, a global provider of telecommunication services, an innovator, has selected TOA Technologies to deploy our industry-leading SaaS field service management solution to their global mobile workforce – a deployment that is ultimately going to span 24 countries. This could well be the largest footprint of an enterprise cloud software solution ever. They’ve made this decision after carefully surveying the market of existing on-premise solutions vendors – and decided to take the bold leap into the future and select TOA.
Amidst my pride, I can’t help but look back to when Irad Carmi, my co-founder and our CTO, founded TOA with the idea that one day every company – extra-large, large, medium and small – would need, and be using, software like ours by being built in the browser and managed as a service in the cloud (and designed with a clear focus on the user, providing tangible total value and built for partnership). We never had a doubt that this day would come. Today is special – because when a company of the size and reach of Telefónica has come to the conclusion that nothing but a true, native SaaS solution would do. That’s big.
If we’ve been waiting for any single customer to signify the ‘Crossing of the Chasm’ of enterprise software – from on-premise to the cloud. This is the clear marker.
Why did Telefónica go for the cloud? What is the lesson here?
- Scale: A cloud solution represents scalability and the ability to grow without the headache of buying new hardware and managing the growth. Scale and growth are built in.
- Standardization: A cloud solution like TOA’s represents the best way for companies with a large geographic and operational footprint to standardize their business processes and customer experience.
- Reliability: The solution that we and other cloud software vendors provide is the most reliable of all enterprise software solution. It’s the lifeblood of our business – and without reliability, cloud software would not have a business.
- Long-term innovation: This is assured. Cloud software is service. It’s always current, always the latest version and always reflects the latest and greatest thinking of the developers who develop the solution.
Ultimately, though, it’s all about partnership and the enormously positive people who work with us and believe in our company and TOA’s solutions. Our global team is expert at forging professional, collaborative and lasting partnerships with customers. And these partnerships are further enabled through our software service which keeps us close. This gives all of us at TOA the opportunity to work with the business and technology leaders of great companies – and in this case an important Tier 1 telecommunications service provider with an incredible global reach.
Nothing is going to stop the grand shift!
February 13, 2013 by Yuval BriskerMarc Andreessen gave a fascinating interview last week to TechCruch’s Alexis Tsotsis validating what we’ve known for about 9 years:
That enterprise software is going to go to the Cloud and only One Company in each sector will dominate.
“Any piece of software for which there is a piece of installed software for which there’s a web or a cloud equivalent, I think is in real trouble, and I think that is not becoming clear”
“I don’t know if it’s a year, two years, four years…All the trends that we are talking about are going to keep continuing. Nothing is going to stop consumerization of the enterprise. Nothing is going to stop Bring Your Own Device. Nothing is going to stop Sotfware-as-a-Service. Nothing is going to stop Cloud. All those things are just going to keep going.”
Highly recommended reading.
Into the Light
February 10, 2013 by Yuval BriskerOne of the great things about being CEO of TOA Technologies - an innovator, a fast mover, an up and comer of the first order, a rainbow of amazing, ambitious and creative people, customers and partners – is that you get to experience the great satisfaction, the pride and excitement that infects everyone who works for and is associated with the company when something significantly excellent happens.
One such milestone happened this week with Forbes’ recognizing TOA Technologies as one of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies. I can honestly say that I saw people standing a little taller, walking with an extra kick in their step, savoring the moment of accomplishment, of recognition, of being a part of a fantastic adventure. This is the fun part of every CEO’s job. I’m glad I get to experience it.
And recognition from the unbiased is more fulfilling, and this has undoubtedly been a great year of unbiased recognition for TOA: A few months ago Gartner named TOA a Leader in our software area; Montclair Advisors named us one of the top SaaS companies and much more. This particular recognition has a bit of a different flavor as it takes us back to the roots of the venture, to the original idea of solving a mass consumer problem in our case – the problem of customers waiting without knowing when a service or delivery person would arrive at their home – waiting sometime for hours, sometimes for days, frustrated and unhappy. But the beauty of our journey has been that our team has gone about solving the problem in a totally new and unexpected way – a way that’s led us to develop a complete, end-to-end solution for managing and empowering mobile employees, all in the cloud, and as a result, becoming a force in the new guard of enterprise software.
I think that one of the reasons that TOA was recognized by Forbes is that the basic idea of TOA, the basic problem we solve is just so easy to grasp – easier than most other enterprise software companies’ core missions. The idea that sparked TOA and the imagination of clients, investors and fans alike is a solution to the common annoyance of an everyday problem - after all, who hasn’t waited – pissed off – for something to be delivered or installed in their home? Everyone has, and so the end-user benefit is clear. So when recognition comes from a respected, popular business magazine like Forbes – in effect the defacto semi-official chronicler of ‘top lists’ in the world – it feels like we’ve come full circle, and the potential of the growth and emerging dominance of TOA to the worldwide consumer base ’waiting at home’ is now unequivocally clear.
Innovation, Audacity and No Fear. Google Apps is the new Office.
December 27, 2012 by Yuval BriskerGreat article in the NYTimes yesterday about Google’s expansion into Microsoft’s last bastion of domination - the Office productivity suite for enterprise customers!
Since TOA has been using Google Apps from the day it was available to businesses (we are a Charter User, I believe) this is no real news for us or for any of our employees worldwide. We love Google Apps (Docs, Plus, etc) and can clearly see a future where we will not need to buy a copy of Microsoft Office for every employee and save not only a lot of money but a lot of hassle on many levels (storage, security, records, etc).
Google Apps and Docs are not just ‘Good Enough’ at this point – they are indeed great. It only takes using them for a few days to figure out why. Google is constantly, continuously and obsessively innovating…with no fear..Even if GDocs seems to ‘look like’ Word or Excel or Powerpoint… they are not…their power is in the little improvements and small but substantial thought that Google’s brilliant developers have put into everything…with the goal of making the user experience simple, easy, connected.
And yes…it’s that connection, the ability to easily and seamlessly collaborate with others, without needing help or user manual , that is the true Killer here…And collaboration here is not some pretty industry buzz word that no one understands or know how to use…At TOA we use Google Docs primarily for sharing documents and collaborating and we encourage it – from the CEO on down as the de facto standard. We’ve collaborated with 5 people on an spreadsheet at one time with people in 5 different parts of the world and 5 different time zones; I’ve written whole documents with two or more people looking and working on shaping text together simultaneously (I’ve even done that on a Delta flight at 30,000 feet working on a presentation with one of my marketing directors, who was sitting 5 rows behind me, we were both connected to airborne wifi, both on the same Google Doc, working together, being highly productive.. talk about Mile High Club…); I regularly collaborate with my executive team to speed the creation and completion of documents, etc. And now we use Google Plus Hangouts to do big video conference calls incorporating Google Docs and Videos and Screensharing…you name it. And with the greatest of ease…
If I sound like I’m a paid spokesman – don’t worry – I’m not…I just love audacity in innovation and a company that has a vision, steadfastness and no fear. No fear of failure. It’s a hallmark of Google’s approach to trying new things. Google Apps, Plus and Docs are getting better by the day, by the hour and I and my colleagues marvel at the constant and positive change: For me looking at Google Plus and Google Apps and Docs is like watching a time-lapse motion picture of a beautiful plant growing…you can literally see the evolution with your own eyes, as you work, with new great features popping up every single day…It’s truly awe inspiring.
Microsoft on the other hand just can’t seem to regain the supremacy that it once had…despite some of the nice things they are trying desperately to role out with Windows 8 and Windows Phone, they are late to the party and the consumers are not really biting…at this pace, ten years from now, if there is no brilliant unexpected big move…Microsoft could well be a shadow of its former self – while Google does not rest and continues to rise…innovating like crazy, ambitious like there is no tomorrow, vibrant and alive….I embrace that strong innovative spirit and phenomenal execution!
