Orange Digital Centers: Understanding Local Needs and the Challenges of Impact Measurement
Orange, a global leader in telecommunications, operates in 26 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The company is committed to leveraging its technological expertise and international reach to drive positive social impact. One key pillar of this commitment is the launch of ambitious digital inclusion programs tailored to local needs.
To bring this vision to life, Orange has established 17 Orange Digital Centers (ODCs) in various countries. These inclusive innovation hubs aim to foster digital empowerment, offering free resources, training, and support for local projects. From coding workshops to entrepreneurship coaching, ODCs help young people build essential digital skills and improve their access to the digital economy. They also contribute to professional inclusion by promoting employability and entrepreneurship.
But how can we ensure that these programs truly make a difference? And how can Orange measure and manage their success across diverse geographies and cultures?
Launching a Global Social Impact Measurement Initiative
To answer these questions, Orange initiated a structured social impact measurement project focused on the professional inclusion programs run within ODCs. The goals were to:
- Understand the needs and profiles of ODC beneficiaries
- Improve ODC operations and training delivery
- Demonstrate evidence-based impact to funders and partners
- Empower each center to manage and measure its own outcomes
- Create a consolidated, global view of impact across all ODCs
The Challenges of Implementing a Scalable Impact Measurement Framework
Rolling out a standardized impact framework across multiple countries came with several challenges:
- Local diversity: Each ODC operates within a unique sociocultural context, requiring a flexible yet unified evaluation model.
- Capacity building: Many local teams were not trained in impact evaluation methodologies, making sustainability a concern.
- Cost and complexity: Traditional impact assessments, while thorough, are resource-intensive and hard to replicate consistently.
Orange and Impact Track: A Strategic Collaboration for Measuring Impact
To overcome these challenges, Orange partnered with Impact Track, a platform designed to simplify and scale social impact measurement. Together, they focused on three key areas:
1. Harmonizing Impact Measurement Practices
A shared impact framework was co-developed for all ODCs, including:
- A standard theory of change
- A set of shared and customizable impact indicators
- A multilingual impact data collection system
This framework ensures consistency across regions while allowing for local adaptation. Each ODC can now track its own impact metrics and contribute to a centralized global reporting system, offering a consolidated view of Orange’s overall impact.
2. Strengthening Impact Literacy and Local Ownership
To ensure sustainable practices, Orange launched a comprehensive impact training program for local managers. Delivered in collaboration with Impact Track, the program covered:
- Basics of social impact measurement
- Selection and customization of impact indicators
- Practical use of the Impact Track platform to collect, analyze, and share data
The platform provides an intuitive interface that simplifies the impact journey—from choosing the right indicators to presenting results to funders and stakeholders. This saves time, builds capacity, and encourages local ownership of impact strategies.
3. Enabling Multilingual Data Collection
One major strength of the platform is its ability to support multilingual data collection, which is critical for inclusion and accuracy across Orange’s global footprint. This feature ensures better engagement with beneficiaries and higher-quality data across languages and regions.
Aggregating and Monitoring on Global Social Impact
By using Impact Track to aggregate and consolidate impact data from all 17 ODCs, Orange now has a comprehensive view of its global programs. The platform allows Orange to:
- Identify cross-regional trends and best practices
- Communicate personalized impact results through custom dashboards
- Build trust and transparency with stakeholders and funders
This aggregated reporting approach strengthens Orange’s ability to scale effective programs and respond to local needs.
Extending the Impact: The Women Entrepreneurs Program
In addition to the ODCs, Orange also runs the Women Entrepreneurs Program, a dedicated initiative supporting women in tech with training, digital tools, and access to funding networks.
To support this initiative, Impact Track helped develop a tailored impact assessment framework. The framework ensures clear tracking of gender-inclusive outcomes and alignment with SDG-related goals, such as gender equality and economic empowerment.
👉 Discover the impact of the Women Entrepreneurs Program
Want to Go Further?
Want to learn more about impact data management, digital inclusion strategies, or how to build your own impact measurement framework?
👉 Read our article '3 effective methods to measure social impact of funder projects'
👉 Contact us to explore social impact monitoring and measuring strategies.