Portal Software wins AOL contract

Portal Software completed the largest contract in its history today as it signed America Online to license its Infranet software program.

Portal will replace a customer management and billing system that AOL built and managed on its own through a contract estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Steve Sommer, vice president of marketing and business development for Portal.

"Amongst everybody that competed for AOL’s business, the best competition turned out to be AOL internal development," Sommer said. "When they picked us, it was a great endorsement of our software, and also for our company."

Portal’s Infranet software manages Internet and next generation communication services, including the creation and management of customer accounts; development, pricing and provisioning of service offerings; and activity tracking, rating and billing.

"The plan is, over time, to use [Portal] software for all of [AOL’s] services, for all of their subscribers, which currently is 27 million worldwide," Sommer said.

The worldwide contract will start immediately and is valid for five years. It covers software licensing, annual support and upgrades.

"The fact that Portal won the AOL contract substantiates the approach we’ve got to the market, which is to sell a standard product-based platform rather than custom development or one-off development," Sommer said.