Cramer Systems Launches Communications Provisioning Solution in North America; Leading European OSS Vendor Optimizes Networks, Cuts Provisioning Time by 40%.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2001

Cramer Systems Ltd., Europe's leading provider of Operational Support Systems (OSS) for the communications industry, today entered the $3.9 billion North American provisioning market, introducing its state-of-the-art Cramer Dimension solution in a bid to become the industry leader.

Cramer Dimension, the only platform to link customer-facing and network-facing OSS elements, meets North American carriers' urgent need for a single solution that optimizes network assets and accelerates service provisioning. Cramer Dimension's unique, inventory-centric approach to provisioning models all network components for better infrastructure planning, transforms service orders into proper network configurations for efficient service activation and speeds service delivery by as much as 40 percent for greater customer satisfaction, faster billing and prompt revenue generation.

"Our goal is to make communications companies more profitable by offering the world's finest provisioning solution," said Jon Craton, CEO of Cramer Systems. "Cramer Dimension is the single key to maximizing network and customer service value in this highly competitive market."

Based in Bath, United Kingdom, Cramer Systems today serves more than 25 European network operators, including BT Cellnet, Belgacom, Cegetel, diAx, KPN Telecom, Telfort, Infostrada, Wind and Telewest. In the U.S., the company will target the full array of communications providers, including incumbent and competitive carriers, wireless providers and broadband operators. North American operations will be based in McLean, VA, and will be led by newly-appointed president, Kimber H. Lewis.

Provisioning, connecting customers to the network, has been a key stumbling block to service provider growth because it is largely a manual process impeded by the increasing complexity of multi-technology, multi-service network environments. It has become a "craft" unique to every provider, involving many personnel, departments and databases. Providers often do not know what their network resources are, or whether they are available to serve a customer in a given area.

The result is service delays, under-utilized assets and needless network build-outs - all significant drags on revenue growth.

Cramer Dimension eliminates provisioning bottlenecks and inefficiencies by providing the missing link: a comprehensive network inventory that pinpoints the location, configuration and capabilities of all deployed network assets from the central office to the customer premise. The detailed, accessible insight enables users to strategically plan network expansions and streamline the provisioning process.

At the same time, Cramer Dimension is a platform for applications that use network inventory data to automatically allocate resources, shape them into requested services and connect these services to the customer. Cramer Dimension's open architecture readily integrates with other systems to become the hub of an advanced OSS infrastructure, providing a centralized solution for managing network resources and information to optimize operations.

About Cramer Systems

Cramer Systems is a global supplier of "provisioning" software for the telecom industry. Provisioning connects the supply and demand sides of a telco's business, converting raw bandwidth into revenue generating services - a market that is expected to grow to $3.9bn by 2003 (source: Dataquest).

By automating and speeding up this process, Cramer's products help telecom operators to launch new services more quickly, accelerate revenues and improve capital and operational efficiencies. Cramer's products are either embedded as part of an overall solution from major telecom equipment vendors, or delivered through the leading telecom systems integrators.

The company's European headquarters are in Bath, England. North American headquarters are in Washington, D.C., with further offices located in Denver.

Cramer customers cover leading mobile (including 3G), convergent and fixed operators, including BT Ignite, Cable and Wireless, KPN Telecom, BT Cellnet, KPN Mobile, Infostrada and Cegetel.