AsiaInfo Holdings, a vendor of telecom software products and IT security products and services in China, announced that it has signed a contract with China Unicom (News - Alert) to upgrade its rechargeable mobile phone card system in China Unicom's headquarters and subsidiaries in Hunan and Fujian provinces.

The new system will allow China Unicom to "centralize management of its rechargeable card systems in various provinces," officials say.

Steve Zhang , AsiaInfo's president and chief executive officer, said that "as a long-term strategic partner of China Unicom," AsiaInfo will "continue to develop operational support systems and understanding of China's telecommunications industry to help China Unicom increase its competitiveness after China's telecom industry restructuring."

The upgrade of the rechargeable card system will involve the modification of multiple China Unicom systems, including its existing customer relationship management (CRM) and billing systems. The upgrade will let China Unicom consolidate its independent rechargeable card systems in each province for centralized management.

In November AsiaInfo Holdings won a contract with China Telecom to develop a Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) for deployment in China's northwest.

Under the agreement, according to reports, AsiaInfo would develop a CRM system to cover 14 cities and regions in Xinjiang.

Beijing-based AsiaInfo, a provider of telecom software solutions and IT security products and services, did not provide financial details.

Earlier in 2007 a report found that medium businesses in China, defined as companies with 100 to 999 employees, are set to invest an upwards of $21 billion to "reinforce their IT infrastructure and products" this year, almost twenty percent more than last year's spending, with the bulk of the spending being on IT services such as CRM, computing and the Internet.

Source:TMCnet