computer science

TOA Technologies

TOA Technologies is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand TOA Technologies rather than just read about it. In short: TOA Technologies is an American software-as-a-service company that develops, markets and sells ETAdirect, a web-based applications solution for companies with small, medium, and large mobile workforces across the world. Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, its products include advanced tools for automating and optimizing planning, scheduling, appointment booking, and routing, as well as job allocation and real-time fie…

Key takeaways

TOA Technologies belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TOA Technologies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TOA Technologies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TOA Technologies is an American software-as-a-service company that develops, markets and sells ETAdirect, a web-based applications solution for companies with small, medium, and large mobile workforces across the world. Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, its products include advanced tools for automating and optimizing planning, scheduling, appointment booking, and routing, as well as job allocation and real-time field service event management. Mobile workers have access to HTML5-based mobility apps that provide location-based information, forecasting, capacity management, routing, real-time field management, dispatch, and customer communications through ETAdirect. TOA Technologies was acquired by Oracle in 2014.

ETAdirect ETAdirect is a software as a service model employing a patented algorithm which operates using pattern recognition in order to accurately gauge the arrival time of a mobile employee at a customer's location. Additionally, ETAdirect's algorithm provides data which enables the estimation of job length. ETAdirect's prediction window is typically less than 60 minutes, allowing for precise notices to consumers over a variety of channels including: voice, email, text, X, and other communications channels. This technology aims at reducing customer queries to service provider call centers. ETAdirect is currently used by several cable television companies in North America, including Cox Communications, broadband operators in Europe, such as Virgin Media, and ONO (Spain). They also provide their service to global communications companies such as Telefonica and global utility companies like E.ON.

Company information TOA Technologies was founded by Yuval Brisker and Irad Carmi in 2003. The company is privately held and employs more than 550 employees worldwide and is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, with additional offices in London, United Kingdom, and São Paulo, Brazil. Principal venture shareholders are Technology Crossover Ventures, Draper Triangle Ventures (a DFJ network affiliate), Intel Capital, and Sutter Hill Ventures. TOA stands for "Time of Arrival." The concept of time is central to the ETAdirect software solution set, as its central algorithm measures time and predicts performance based on resource-specific pattern recognition and predictive analytics. This yields a more accurate time of arrival estimates than the alternative of managing service appointments according to averages of human resource capabilities and availability. As of December 2013, TOA Technologies had over 85,000 users. Oracle Corporation announced that it was acquiring TOA Technologies on July 31, 2014.

Milestones In July 2013, TOA Technologies closed a major round of funding with Technology Crossover Ventures, raising $66 million to transform global field service management. On July 31, 2014, Oracle Corporation announced that it was buying TOA Technologies. The transaction closed in mid-September, 2014.

See also Software as a service Decision support system Service chain optimization Field service management Enterprise mobility management Customer relationship management Customer experience management Workforce management Vehicle routing problem

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TOA Technologies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TOA Technologies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TOA Technologies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TOA Technologies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TOA Technologies

In research: TOA Technologies appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TOA Technologies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TOA Technologies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2014 mergers and acquisitions, Business software companies, Centralized computing, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TOA Technologies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “TOA Technologies” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study TOA Technologies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TOA Technologies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TOA Technologies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TOA Technologies in simple terms?

Why does TOA Technologies matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TOA Technologies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TOA Technologies.