Convergys Corp. (CVG) announced Tuesday a multi-year deal with Time Warner Inc.’s (TWX) AOL unit, in which the customer service and billing company will unify all of AOL’s billing accounts into one system, under their trademark software.

David Dougherty, chief operating officer and president of Convergys, said the deal, which had been negotiated over months, would help Convergys diversify its business. “This is a step out into a new area … [which] gets us into more technology content-oriented companies,” Dougherty said. “One of our priorities is to get ourselves more diversified.” Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) is another Convergys client, though most others are telecom companies.

Dougherty would not be specific about the number of years the deal would last, or the amount involved. Convergys, Cincinnati, makes the software Infinys, which has “very rich” capabilities for carriers to set up many service offerings, for voice, data and content, which was important as AOL has plans to add new services, Dougherty said.

The software keeps tab of a billers account in real time, immediately determining the account balance,taking into consideration different price plans and billing programs.

“AOL has many different billing systems today and we will be in the middle of helping consolidate those billing systems into a single system – which will be Infinys,” Dougherty said.

Infinys will provide AOL the capability to handle current and future business requirements globally, across languages. As part of the contract, Convergys will also provide professional services focused on implementation and support.

Additionally Tuesday, Convergys reported its first-quarter profit rose to $36.7 million, or 26 cents a share, above Wall Street’s average estimate, and up from $31.2 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. Information Management, the department responsible for the AOL deal, reported revenue of $188.8 million compared to $189.8 million in the same period last year, the company said.

By HENRY SANDERSON Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES