IBM SPSS Statistics Reviews

In our company, we have about 2000 workers. I use K-means algorithms all the time. So, for example, say we want to classify workers to do better studies by groupings. Maybe we want to target groups of workers who tend to make more errors so we can concentrate on reducing the effects of this issue. We can further classify the grouping in terms of age and in terms of year of services in the company or other ways that may be helpful. After we have found the grouping of people, we can do other types of analysis and the result of the study can be used to apply solutions. In this case, where we are looking to reduce errors, it might be a solution to deploy more supervision and evaluate more of the variables from the group of the employee that we have isolated to analyze performance issues. For example, we may want to reduce excessive overtime to enhance alertness. We are use TFS (Team Foundation Server) and we use the K-means algorithm to help optimize the behaviors in the groups that we identify.  

I think in the future this kind of algorithm will be used widely by people to predict many things and to improve the performance of businesses and individuals.  

I like that the solution provides many built-in options for us. They have many existing algorithms that we can use. Using them effectively depends on us because we have to understand how to utilize any particular solution. But actually, the product is at a good level when it comes to ease-of-use. You have to have the data first to work with. You retrieve data you want to use from the database and you format the data and put it to the SPSS. Then you do analysis and from that, you can take better steps towards a business solution based on the results the analysis returns.  

The areas of SPSS Statics that have room for improvement — where it can be simplified to make it better — have to do with how you connect the SPSS solution with the data. They could provide enhancements like a query console so we can connect to the database and feed data more easily into SPSS. That could be really beneficial and save time and effort. Just enhancing the tools to collect the data would be significant.  

One other enhancement I would like to see is the ability to create higher-level presentations. When you are finished processing the data, you come up with the result. If you are a technician or a data analyst it is not so hard to look at the data. But what I think would be a nice addition is to create presentations. The bosses at a higher level do not want to see the raw data and to show the data is not so nice and easy for them to understand. Some ways to do more to create a presentation — something that is easier to look at and understand — would be good. The ability to do this should be improved.  

They need to improve the ability to connect to the databases, provide a query console and query windows. The engine for processing is there already, but the data feed has to be better. Then provide ways to present the result differently. Maybe graphic presentation options would be good so understanding the results can be more intuitive for the user.  

We have been using the IBM SPSS solution for about a year.  

The stability of SPSS Statistics doesn't seem to have bugs, glitches, or crashes. It's pretty stable and it functions well under the loads we have tested. The number of SPSS users is currently not more than 10 people. The data that we process with the SPSS is never really more than 2000 rows. So we only know that it is stable at this level of usage so far. If there is an opportunity to process 100,000 rows, I don't know what the performance would be. From what I know we would not see any problems, but so far our usage is limited.  

While we don't really know yet what the performance will be like under greater loads for big data, I am pretty confident that the product is very scalable.  

We have had contact with the IBM SPSS technical support team through the phone and they help us through what they call the TeamViewer. They can assist us promptly and I think the service is good. We are satisfied with the level of technical support we receive.  

We did not use a different solution because we are trying to stay with Oracle and IBM solutions for compatibility and dependability.  

The initial setup of the product is easy.  

We did not do the deployment ourselves, we had someone do it. Even though it was not me who did the deployment, I know how they did it and was involved with the group who did it. So I am experienced with the initial setup but asked for assistance from integrators to not divert internal resources and be sure it was done right.  

My advice to other users is that if they are not doing proper data analysis that there are other, better solutions like SPSS to predict and to analyze the data. Assuming the data is already there, they may just be printing a report or pulling a PDF or filling information into the database. But they are not really doing what they can with the data to use it.  

Now there are better solutions we can use and should use to produce information from the data in a way we did not before. It is a better way and the way of the future for data analysis. We need to use predictive algorithms and AI to get more from the information we collect and use it to create better solutions for our businesses. Data analysis is different now than it was only maybe 5 years ago. We can perfect the data and come up with facts from that analysis that we can use for predictions that will help make looking into the future with prediction more viable and accurate.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate IBM SPSS Statistics as a 7 out of 10. To improve that score they need to enhance the data access and export so that it will be less work, add dashboards for queries and give more options for reporting output.  

We primarily use the solution for the advanced analytics features or asset maintenance for IBM Maximo.

You can find a complete algorithm in the solution and use it. You don't need to write your own algorithms for predictive analytics. That's the most valuable feature and the main one we use.

Each algorithm could be more adaptable to some industry-specific areas, or, in some cases, adapted for maintenance.

I've been working with SPSS for three or four years.

For our purposes, and how we use it, I've found it to be very stable.

The solution is scalable, but our system isn't so big. We just use it for simple scenarios. However, I believe this solution to have similar scalability capabilities to other IBM products. We have approximately ten users on the solution currently.

We don't reach out to IBM support directly. We have a good relationship with a local office and always get help from them if we need it. We don't use the official IBM support as our issues are usually quite small.

I didn't handle the initial setup, however, I don't think it's too complex. The team, as far as I know, didn't have any issues.

I've been working with SPSS for three or four years, but have limited knowledge of the product because we only used it for one project.

We use the on-premises deployment model. We're IBM partners.

I'd recommend the solution for the purposes of predictive analytics. I'm not sure about other use cases. SPSS can be used also for some other solutions in the area of advanced analytics, or for predictive analytics. 

I can recommend it, as it's a good, stable solution with a proven track record.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is for statistical approaches, performing ED tests, and multi-armed bandit tests. It gathers the results that help us to decide on what type of campaign works best, and what type of branding would work best.

The features that I find to be the most valuable are the anomaly detection and its statistics. The clustering statistics are important as well as the usual old-school statistical analysis called ANOVA and ANCOVA. They are critical.

There were some new approaches that I hadn't used before. 

The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important. Many people don't read these types of handbooks, but they should because it was very useful and I use it a lot.

I don't know if this solution is available on the cloud. If it is then we should be using it because it would be even better. The on-premises version is lax in terms of computational capability, so we have to use a more powerful computer.

Some new tools will be available soon with self-explanatory statistical results, and they have multi-language generations that create automatic reports with detailed explanations of the statistical reports. I wish that they were more advanced.

Some areas that need improvement or should be more advanced are in the reporting. The statistics should be more self-explanatory with detailed automated reports.

You should be able to walk through with the statistical schematics because some of the matters are advanced, and if you don't have a full understanding or you don't remember how to get the desired results then there should be a guide or a walkthrough to help and explain how it should be applied.

In the next release, they should have some new statistical approaches that can be applied, some new memory detection, and new clustering techniques.

Also, some new statistical methods to increase the different model's explainability would be helpful.

I have been using this solution for more than three years.

This solution is stable.

This solution is not scalable.

If I had known or implemented the version, then it may be scalable. The problem is that it's used on the original core and it's receiving a long analysis. It should be able to use multi-cores, and CPU, but it doesn't do anything like that. 

I am the only user.

When you contact support, sometimes it takes a while because they don't know how to help you resolve your issue. In turn, they contact other areas of support and it takes time to get back to you.

The support is just ok, and you have to contact someone who works in the US or in Europe.

Previously I was using SAP Statistics. It was old-school, so I switched to Visual Statistics and it was useful. From there, we switched IBM SPSS Statistics. It is a good solution but it would be even better if it had some automated skills.

The initial setup was a little bit complex.

It took half of an evening to complete the setup and implementation, mainly waiting on support to help with issues.

I did the implementation myself. I did not use a vendor or integrator.

It's a pretty old-school statistical tool but it's useful.

I would recommend it, although there are some better tools available.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

The primary use case of this solution is for collecting business data and reporting to upper management. Also, I am creating some regulatory and ad-hoc reports.

Some of the most valuable features that we are using with some business models are machine learning algorithms, statistical models given to us by the business, and getting data from the database or text files.

The current features meet with the needs of our company. Our needs are not complex for the features offered.

There are some scheduling issues that created some complex flows. Creating a simple scheduling mechanism would be an improvement for this tool.

Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like.

The price is too expensive so they should consider reducing the cost, make it more competitive.

This solution is stable, we have not had any issues.

We have not scaled this solution as it is sufficient for us.

We have one hundred people using this solution. Most are IT, consultants.

We have contacted technical support two or three times and they don't respond quickly.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We did not use a vendor team to implement this solution. We did it ourselves.

We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function.

In this field, there are some open-source products such as KNIME that may be useful for our purpose, because it lessens the costs.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

It has helped our analyst unit deliver work with more transparency and confidence, given that we can always view the dataset in totality, after each step of data transformation.

• Merge, Aggregation, and Crosstabs functions are most valuable when I'm performing data preparation.
• Statistical modelling functions within this product, such as Regression and PCA function, are also useful. 
• The point-and-click interface is user-friendly.

Needs more statistical modelling functions.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Good.

Setup was straightforward. My IT support helped me with the setup; it was quick.

Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure.

The learning curve to using this product is not steep. The program is appropriate for those who do not have a lot of background in programming, yet have to perform basic statistical analysis. 

Custom tables and macros: They allow us to create useful reports quickly for a broad audience.

We can provide internal benchmarks that allow specific units to compare themselves to others and the whole organization.

• Scripts are clunky to work with.
• Better documentation on how to use macros.
• More affordable training for new staff members.

I have used it for 17 years.

Some of the versions have issues. It is not always made public that a “fix” is available. Many hours can be wasted thinking you have something wrong in your code when it really is an issue with the newest version.

I have used SPSS with 100,000 records. At that point, it was reaching its limit. Processes would not run, or would run incompletely. I am told for very large files, SAS may be better, but I have not confirmed this.

Well, actually, in terms of the technique that we use, and also the implementation, I prefer to use SPSS Clementine right now. It can cover a big amount of data, instead of just basic SPSS where you have limitations, how many observations you can analyze. In terms of the features, I think that the modelling section in IBM SPSS Clementine is very good. it has a lot of modeling techniques compared to other tools.

Similar to other tools, we can identify the pattern of the customers and we can differentiate between which customers we should target, which customer we should not target, and do some basic analysis. I think that's the thing that helps our organization.

Perhaps in terms of visualization. It's not really easy to do some data visualization, just simple, descriptive analysis in SPSS. I think that could be an area for improvement.

Also, right now we're handling more and more data. Maybe, in the future, they can improve on that. 

Also on the specialization, I think IBM SPSS can improve on that.

I've actually been using SPSS since I was in University, so it's around 10 years. 

When I was in college I used the basic SPSS, but when I was in the company I use SPSS Clementine. It is specialized for modeling.

Not much. I think it's good enough.

Up until now, not really. In telecom, we have a really big amount of data. I think that's not really been a problem for SPSS to handle.

I used several kinds of tools. It depends on the organization, what it already has. For example, in Alliance, right now, we already have our own solutions, so I just follow their organization rules and the preference. I have no preference in terms of the tools that I use.

I don't know. I'm not the IT guy who set up the tools.

As I said, I just follow what the company preference is for using tools. I'm not doing evaluation between products. The tool is already in place in the company, I just use it.

Regarding SPSS basic, I think the buyer should understand what are the requirements of the organization. So if it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer. It depends on the requirements. But in terms of the simplicity, I think the SPSS basic can handle it.

None are particularly valuable to me, because all its features are available in better condition elsewhere. 

Once I joined an organization, I stopped using SPSS entirely. Who needs to spend thousands on a license for halfway decent software when R and Python work for free?

• Cost
• Everything else about the software

I have used SPSS for about 10 years. 

It breaks under the weight of a moderate amount of data.

It breaks under the weight of a moderate amount of data.