New Balance Runs With Sprint

Sprint , an Overland, Kan., communications provider, has signed a multi-year deal to provide voice and data services to New Balance, a Boston running shoe maker.

The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Under the pact, New Balance will consolidate its current systems — including enterprise resource planning (ERP), product development, and online business-to-consumer and business-to-business — on a single network.

“Sprint’s attention to detail and the service that its people deliver to New Balance every day were key differentiators in our decision to switch carriers and make Sprint our primary provider,” said Dennis Langlais, New Balance’s information systems technology manager..

Langlais added that the more efficient system combined with Sprint’s pricing will reduce its network infrastructure costs.

A New Balance spokeswoman declined to identify the company’s previous carrier.

For privately held New Balance, the deal is the latest in a series of IT upgrades. Last week, the company said it has
bolstered its storage area network with gear from Portsmouth, N.H.-base Sandial.

The system enables New Balance to configure its storage network for the first time using an ‘always on’ utility model, helping us to maximize efficiency, minimize down time, and maintain granular control over our storage network resources.”

In January, New Balance chose collaboration software from Westford, Mass.-based MatrixOne to ties together product design teams worldwide. And last year, the shoe company completed a major overhaul of its Web site to