IBM Business Analytics software is designed to deliver complete, insightful, and accurate information for decision makers to make more effective decisions. As part of this portfolio, IBM SPSS Predictive Analytics software specializes in predictive analytics which organizations can rely on to predict future outcomes based on patterns found in historical data. Organizations in almost all industries of every size can benefit from the IBM SPSS technology to provide clear and actionable insight into current performance as well as use the information to drive better outcomes for future business. While Business Intelligence can help to monitor the current and past performance of the business operation, Predictive Analytics can answer questions on why the business is performing in a certain manner and how it can be improved in the future.

Organizations that incorporate IBM SPSS solutions into their daily operations will be able to take advantage of the predictive power to automate decisions to achieve business goals and deliver better results. It can ensure that the right decisions are made, every time, at the appropriate point of customer interaction. For example, in the consumer market industry it can be used to track customer loyalty for better target retention, in financial institutions it can be used to detect risk and reduce fraud. Predictive Analytics can help organizations to gain a better understanding of various types of business processes and ultimately have a major impact on decisions that have a positive impact on company’s profitability.

There are four different components to the IBM SPSS product offerings.

IBM SPSS Data Collection

IBM SPSS Data Collection is a comprehensive survey management solution to empower organizations to capture customer’s feedback from multiple channels including online, phone, and in-person. It offers the capability to control the entire survey process from design and data collection to the analysis of the end results. By applying real-time logic and data validation, organizations can expect to get clean and high quality data consistently.

IBM SPSS Statistics

IBM SPSS Statistics is widely used by professionals in commercial, government, and academic organizations worldwide to solve complex business and research problems.

The IBM SPSS Statistics suite of tools includes a set of components for data entry, data management, data preparation/transformation, statistical analysis, and result visualization integrating file management, analytics procedures and reporting functions. It can take data from almost any type of file and use them to generate tabular reports, plots of distributions and trends, descriptive statistics, and complex statistics models. People can use it to test and validate assumptions faster, and discover information more efficiently.

IBM SPSS Modeler

IBM SPSS Modeler can be used to conduct advanced data mining analysis to help organizations to gain a clearer understanding of the current business process and a deeper insight into future events. It offers a comprehensive workbench of data mining techniques including data preparation, visualization, and predictive modeling which will allow users to quickly and accurately predict what is likely to happen based on patterns found in historical data. With IBM SPSS Modeler, every step of the data mining process can be easily visualized as part of a “stream”. The stream allows analysts to focus on the knowledge discovery process rather than writing the code. Its capability of automated data preparation and data modeling will enable people to dive into the process quickly to produce consistent results.

Organizations can rely on IBM SPSS Modeler to solve challenging business problems and make more informed decisions. On one hand, its intuitive visual interface and built-in automation for quick results allows organizations to put the power of predictive analytics in the hands of business users to optimize decisions at the point of impact. On the other hand, professional analysts can take advantage of its proven modeling capabilities to discover hidden patterns for complex business problems using algorithms including classification, segmentation, association, etc. It can access various types of data resources and can incorporate multiple types of available data.

IBM SPSS Deployment

Organizations can benefit from the IBM SPSS Deployment family by bridging the gap between analytics and action. Deployment is a crucial step for organizations to ensure their everyday decisions are driven by analytics results. The Deployment products provide collaboration capabilities between those who develop the analytical assets and those who reply on them to make business decisions. Included in the SPSS Deployment suite of tools are the following:

IBM SPSS Decision Management

IBM SPSS Decision Management enables the business experts to combine predictive analytics and their business knowledge to optimize and automate the decision making process. The solution makes it easy for non-technical users to incorporate their deep understanding of the business process to create and customize predictive models catering for specific needs. The advanced data preparation and modeling feature will allow the user to set up the modeling environment in a fast and efficient manner while still taking advantage of the most advanced modeling technique. In addition, the user can run simulations on multiple “what if” scenarios to compare the outcomes and find the best performing models.

IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services

IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Service provides a framework for organizations to manage the deployment of predictive analytics. A centralized and searchable repository is designed to enable the secure sharing and re-using of analytical assets. The platform will allow all users within an organization to explore the analytical information which in turn will increase the effectiveness of decision making at every level of the enterprise environment. Within the Collaboration and Deployment Service, a user can also create repeatable analytical processes which can be automated and integrated with other business processes. Its real-time scoring service can help organizations to monitor business processes in response to current customer interactions.

With IBM SPSS Decision Management, the user can select which data they want to use for the predictors and which data to use for the target providing easy to interpret results in multiple formats. By running multiple simulation scenarios, the business expert can further refine the models to improve the future recommended actions. On the other hand, the analytics user can take the stream and enhance it with IBM SPSS Modeler. All the models can be retained in a centralized analytics repository for easy sharing and maintenance.

The Entire IBM SPSS Family

The graph below shows how IBM SPSS products integrate with the different capabilities of the analytical process.

The IBM SPSS suite of products offers a powerful set of tools to drive business success. If you have any further questions regarding IBM SPSS product family and its implementation in your environment, do not hesitate to contact us at the Ironside Group.