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Predictive Analytics and Statisticians Elevated to Leading Competitive Weapons for Organizations Worldwide
[July 13, 2009]

Predictive Analytics and Statisticians Elevated to Leading Competitive Weapons for Organizations Worldwide


CHICAGO --(Business Wire)-- Smart and savvy organizations worldwide are harnessing the exponential growth of data with Predictive Analytics to better understand, translate and visualize how customers, constituents or employees will likely behave tomorrow.



Additionally, the growing use of advanced statistical analysis from SPSS (News - Alert) Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS) - the foundation of Predictive Analytics - has also created leadership opportunities for statisticians, business line managers and analysts who are turning data into actionable insights. Not surprisingly, a recent study of today's best careers released by CareerCast.com (with data based, in part, on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau) rated Mathematician first and Statistician third.

"Every industry can benefit by deploying statistical analysis to improve business processes," said Jack Noonan, chairman, president and CEO at SPSS Inc., the leading global provider of Predictive Analytics software and solutions. "This heightened move toward data-driven decision-making has also lifted the status of the statistician or analyst across the globe. The notion of the ‘number cruncher' toiling away alone in the basement no longer exists. There's now a respected seat at the table for those turning vast amounts of disparate data into a strategic, sharp-edged competitive advantage." SPSS is giving top organizations worldwide a strategic analytical advantage with PASW® Statistics (formerly SPSS Statistics), the leading statistical software suite. Part of the SPSS Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) portfolio of products, PASW Statistics increases the usability of advanced analytics for all audiences so that even those without a statistics background can easily leverage the software to improve their daily operations.


Ron Wasserstein, executive director at the American Statistical Association, said, "Our world is changing rapidly; these changes, fueled by technological innovation and globalization, increasingly rely on quantitative analysis. Statistics is becoming both more necessary and more influential, and the challenges and opportunities for statisticians and statistics proliferate in business, government and academia." Following are examples of organizations - and the rising analytical stars - who are improving customer satisfaction, analyzing survey data to capture the Voice of the Customer, enhancing workforce planning, and driving marketing effectiveness with PASW Statistics: JCPenney Co., Inc., one of America's leading retailers operating throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, is using PASW Statistics to analyze customer survey data on overall satisfaction, brand awareness and store environment studies. Charles Wilson, project manager of primary research in the Business Unit Strategy, said, "PASW Statistics is indispensable to analyzing consumer feedback and allows us to go past basic reporting to make true sense of the massive amounts of customer opinion data - and use this information as a key driver for our business to create a complete, holistic view of our customer." Boeing (News - Alert) Employee Credit Union (BECU), the 4th largest credit union in the United States, relies on PASW Statistics to improve customer satisfaction. Cal Bierley, marketing statistics analyst at BECU, said, "By adopting PASW Statistics our organization has substantially improved customer satisfaction by better targeting locations, tracking promotional codes for our member referral program and managing risk associated with member access of ATM withdrawals. We have been able to get full mileage out of our data to find relevant information quickly. Implementation of a predictive model to increase access to deposits coincides with a six percent point increase in members reporting they would highly recommend BECU." Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, a tourism/hospitality/entertainment company with two hotels, spa, golf courses, restaurants, campground, zoo, major amusement park and multiple entertainment venues in Hershey, Pa., relies on PASW Statistics to analyze customer survey data collected from its guests. Michael Peiffer, manager of media and research at Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, said, "PASW Statistics is our go-to software for analyzing survey data on customer travel habits, preferences and opinions. With the software, we're able to dig deeper into the data and better understand what our customers want and how to improve our offerings in the market, such why customers choose one of our resort properties, gain perspective of travel attrition rates and to test new website designs." Premierline Direct, a business and commercial insurance organization in the United Kingdom, trusts PASW Statistics to analyze customer data to assess who is most likely to churn and then targets them individually with a phone call. As a result of this approach, the company has seen an increase of 16 percent in policy renewal in a six month period. Also, by more accurately targeting marketing materials and promotions to the wider customer base, Premierline Direct has been able to ensure a minimum 100 percent return on investment for its direct marketing campaigns.

Hong Juan Liu, a research and development analyst at Premierline Direct, said, "A highly competitive market combined with an economic downturn means that we've had to be innovative about the way we target our customers and price our products. PASW Statistics has added intelligence to our business ensuring efficiencies in pricing, marketing and reporting - something no company can afford to ignore in today's business environment." City and County of Denver, one of the largest employers in the State of Colorado with approximately 13,000 employees, is using PASW Statistics to ensure continuity in day-to-day operations through successful workforce planning. Jeff Dolan, executive director of Career Service Authority, the City's HR department, said, "Providing consistent and efficient services to our citizens is paramount to the City and County of Denver. With the changes in the economy and challenges in the marketplace, PASW Statistics allows us to make strategic improvements for the current workforce and create a better road map for the City's future with solid, relevant and statistically sound data." Haddock Research & Branding Inc., a full-service market research agency focusing on climate change and the low-carbon economy, applies PASW Statistics for environmental survey research. Peter Winters, president of Haddock Research & Branding, Inc., said, "We use PASW Statistics to measure how the public feels, thinks and acts to climate change and the low-carbon economy and how this can be used to guide business and policy action. The software has given power to our analysis and enabled us to put qualitative insight with quantitative robustness." Amphia Hospital, one of the largest general hospitals in the Netherlands, uses PASW Statistics for predicting medical risks and better allocating hospital resources. Niels Kamst, data analyst at the Amphia Hospital, said, "To succeed in the competitive Dutch healthcare market, we use PASW Statistics to gather and analyze data on our patient population, staffing demands, and the risks of specific procedures. This analysis has given us a detailed view of what is happening behind the scenes and enabled our organization to leverage data in our decision-making. Using PASW Statistics, we have improved estimation of staffing needs and more accurately assessed the risks associated with cardiac bypass surgery." Beatbullying, the leading bullying prevention charity in the United Kingdom working to create a world where bullying is unacceptable, counts on PASW Statistics to provide better support to bullying victims. John Quinn, development director at Beatbullying, said, "By using PASW Statistics, it is easier to allocate response and resources in the right places. We are already thinking as far as 10 years down the line about the social trends that might lessen the number of children at risk of being bullied.

"Charities like ours - at the forefront of change - need to be funded, and having the right information at our fingertips is crucial when lobbying for financial support. As a result of the PASW Statistics deployment we are expecting to see significant return on investment over the next year, and to secure additional funding by turning data into compelling reports detailing the effectiveness of our work." Availability The entire portfolio of SPSS Predictive Analytics Software - data collection, statistics, modeling and deployment - is available by calling 1-800-543-2185.

About SPSS Inc.

SPSS Inc. is a leading global provider of Predictive Analytics software and solutions. The Company's complete portfolio of Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) products - data collection, statistics, modeling and deployment - captures people's attitudes and opinions, predicts outcomes of future customer interactions, and then acts on these insights by embedding analytics into business processes. SPSS Solutions address interconnected business objectives across an entire organization by focusing on the convergence of analytics, IT architecture and business process. Commercial, government and academic customers worldwide rely on SPSS technology as a competitive advantage in attracting, retaining and growing customers, while reducing fraud and mitigating risk. Founded in 1968, SPSS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, please visit www.spss.com.

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