Continental Airlines
Case Study > Data Warehousing
Continental Airlines
I. Executive Summary
Table of Contents
I II III IV V Executive Summary The Decision to Invest Implementation New Business Strategies ROI 2 4 6 9 19 20
Technical Appendix A
Continental’s comeback from “Worst to First” is an airline industry legend. Now the company is engaged in a new initiative to move from “First to Favorite.” To support this ambitious initiative, Continental tapped into its Enterprise Data Warehouse and expanded it to enable a real-time business intelligence capability. In the first five years of operations, the EDW achieved an ROI of more than 1000% on a $25 million investment. To do this, Continental has changed the way it does business, transforming its decision-making process to include multidimensional views of the business. A company that once knew little about its important customers, set fares and schedules using only the limited conventional industry assumptions, conducted contract negotiations blind, and fought fraud only after the damage was done, Continental today is one of the best managed airlines in the world. Its strategic and tactical decision-making analytics are on the cutting edge of the airline industry.
This case study would not have been possible without the great work of a team from Continental Airlines and the academic community in collaboration with Teradata. So many Continental staff gave generously of their time to speak about their experiences and successes, in particular Ron Anderson-Lehman, Anne Marie Reynolds, and Luisa Chong. Assisting with interviews, research and writing were Hugh Watson/Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Barbara Wixom/ McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, and Jeffrey Hoffer/School of Business Administration, University of Dayton.
> Customer Relationship Marketing provides customer service finely tuned by segmentation. At any time, Continental can see a single, real-time profile of any of its
Continental Airlines
I. Executive Summary
Table of Contents
I II III IV V Executive Summary The Decision to Invest Implementation New Business Strategies ROI 2 4 6 9 19 20
Technical Appendix A
Continental’s comeback from “Worst to First” is an airline industry legend. Now the company is engaged in a new initiative to move from “First to Favorite.” To support this ambitious initiative, Continental tapped into its Enterprise Data Warehouse and expanded it to enable a real-time business intelligence capability. In the first five years of operations, the EDW achieved an ROI of more than 1000% on a $25 million investment. To do this, Continental has changed the way it does business, transforming its decision-making process to include multidimensional views of the business. A company that once knew little about its important customers, set fares and schedules using only the limited conventional industry assumptions, conducted contract negotiations blind, and fought fraud only after the damage was done, Continental today is one of the best managed airlines in the world. Its strategic and tactical decision-making analytics are on the cutting edge of the airline industry.
This case study would not have been possible without the great work of a team from Continental Airlines and the academic community in collaboration with Teradata. So many Continental staff gave generously of their time to speak about their experiences and successes, in particular Ron Anderson-Lehman, Anne Marie Reynolds, and Luisa Chong. Assisting with interviews, research and writing were Hugh Watson/Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Barbara Wixom/ McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, and Jeffrey Hoffer/School of Business Administration, University of Dayton.
> Customer Relationship Marketing provides customer service finely tuned by segmentation. At any time, Continental can see a single, real-time profile of any of its