During a week in which Cramer launched its broadest suite of products since its inception 10 years ago, BellSouth gave Cramer its biggest customer to date.

Cramer has signed a multi-year license agreement with BellSouth that make it a strategic component of BellSouth's broadband transformation initiative.

Cramer will deploy its Cramer 5 solution across all of BellSouth's network domains beginning with the IP network, which currently supports IP-VPN and direct Internet access services to enterprise customers.

Don Hallacy, BellSouth CIO, said in a statement that the carrier is transitioning from its legacy systems to solutions that are flexible enough to support rapid change and reliable enough to reduce operating expenditures and revenue leakage. He added that Cramer delivers on both counts.

The value of the contract was not disclosed, however, “In terms of the number of customers they serve, BellSouth is the largest customer we have secured to date,” said Jon Craton, founder and senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Cramer.

Cramer will replace a series of legacy systems and databases in order to maximize accuracy between the inventory and the network. The first phase of deployment is on schedule for spring of 2006. Craton said that the company’s synchronization technology is part of the deployment.

“This is a multi-year licensing agreement that places Cramer in the strategic core of their broadband transformation journey,” Craton said. “The rate of change, not just within BellSouth but generally in the industry, is so high that the agility and flexibility of the systems we offer were critical,” Craton said.

Functionally, the project is in line with other large Cramer customers such as BT, but Craton said the magnitude and scale of this relationship is different.

He also said that this contract is focused on BellSouth’s wireline business. “This transformation project was running in advance of the AT&T announcement, so obviously the ongoing discussion will shape the extent of the transformation.

Craton sees no evidence that any part of the project would be put on hold because of the merger or negotiations.