Datamining is expanding it's scope towards the combination of hard factual measured data with soft declared surveyed data. This new trend enables us to understand causality of events and enables the tagging of qualitative segmentations in the customer base. However, both activities still have alot of challenges, mainly due to the discrepancy of what people say and what they actually do. Perception versus Reality.

Alain joined the France Telecom/Orange Group in Jan '04 as Director of Customer Insight. Prior to that he worked 5 years at Mobistar, an affiliate of France Telecom in Belgium, after being 5 years in Belgacom, the fixed incumbent operator in Belgium. He specialises in Segmentation with its customer base 'tagging', and in Social Network Analysis. His weak points are his relationship with his shaver.