In today s diverse marketplace, increasingly complex customer segments makes getting the right propositions to the right customers at the right time no easy task. Deciding who are the right customers requires understanding who makes up the customer base and apportioning them a relative value. Changes in customer lifestyle and behaviour have meant that customers can no longer be characterized by a single profile: segmentation has become a bit like trying to colour-code chameleons. For Orange, the problem of dealing with fragmenting segments, ranging from consumer to small, medium and large businesses, is exacerbated by the emergence of new market sectors, such as corporate solutions, telemetry ^[4]and airtime wholesale. ^[5]Further, notes Cascade, the gap between the early adopter customers (those experienced with the new technologies like high-speed data ^[6]) and the basic service customers is widening. Segmentation has filtered into branding, propositions and service, with, for example, pre-pay customers receiving a very different service to contract customers.

IT has been instrumental in Orange s quest to accurately identify and appropriately manage the differing requirements and expectations of customers. Refining segments to provide a more customized customer experience requires automated and intelligent systems. An internal audit of Orange s current capability has shown that major investment is needed to develop Customer Relations information systems (IS) and infrastructure. The company s data warehouse, which forms a core element of IS capability, is a major target for development.

Orange s data warehouse originated as a management information system to support financial...