When you spend 20 years building a brand, you are clearly doing something right. So, when a multi-billion dollar company acquires you, it’s in everyone’s best interest for that company to offer support but not micromanage. Such is the case with NetCracker, a two decade old company that was acquired by NEC (News - Alert) in 2008. The $40 billion company has left the NetCracker brand alone, and it has thrived, to the point of contributing $2.5 billion to that company total.

At The Cable Show in Washington, DC, I had the chance to sit down with Sanjay Mewada, VP of strategy for NetCracker (News - Alert), to discuss the state of the company and its future. He emphasized the fact that NetCracker handles the entire value chain, “from customer engagement to cash,” as he put it. It deals in customer facing systems, interactivity, customer engagement and even billing, fulfillment and provisioning.

Mewada stated that NetCracker handles the full gamut of transaction, from a free download of Angry Birds to multi-million dollar payments by Boeing (News - Alert). Whether simple or complex, the cycle is something that NetCracker owns, though the backing of NEC helps the company deliver services in any possible way.

At the show, NetCracker made two significant announcements. First, it revealed details concerning its relationship with Canal Digital Kabel-TV, which will be using NetCracker’s next-generation BSS to transform is billing environment. It also revealed that Cox (News - Alert) Communications has selected NetCracker to provide a business support system to enhance the lead-to-cash process for the cable provider.

Speaking about the future, Mewada showed excitement about software-defined networking and its impact on the integration of BSS and OSS.