Category: Analytics

SPSS launches PASW 13

SPSS launches a new product.

From the official PR release –

PASW Modeler 13 (formerly Clementine) and PASW Text Analytics 13 (formerly Text Mining for Clementine) extend and automate the power of data mining and text analytics to the business user, while significantly enhancing the productivity, flexibility and performance of the expert analyst.

So Clementine users now get to use PASW Modeler 13.

Predictive Analytics Software, PASW, is the new name for the complete portfolio of SPSS Predictive Analytics products. This new naming standard unifies the product families under consistent and descriptive nomenclatures to reflect the broad functionality and seamless integration among all SPSS products.

The entire SPSS software portfolio will carry the PASW naming standard beginning with the releases of PASW Modeler 13 and PASW Text Analytics 13. Over the next year, new naming will be introduced at each release of the other SPSS products, including: PASW Statistics (formerly SPSS Statistics), PASW Data Collection (formerly Dimensions) and PASW Collaboration and Deployment Services (formerly Predictive Enterprise Services).

Jack Noonan, SPSS chairman, president and CEO, said, “SPSS is the only Predictive Analytics vendor to deliver the depth and breadth of software to capture customer feedback, predict behaviors and then act on the results by improving business processes. With important and valued feedback from customers, we have created a new, over-arching product portfolio name that builds on our 40 year legacy of innovation, enhanced performance, and robust deployment capabilities in Predictive Analytics.”

But is this just a re branding exercise or is there fresh meat behind the fresh name?

Stay tuned….

Decisionstats on KDNuggets

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That dear reader is your site –third from bottom ( http://kdnuggets.com/websites/blogs.html ) .How big is recognition from this – well HE was around and BIG before two Stanford Phd dropouts wrote that text mining algorithm .

Thanks for helping us come there – hopefully it is not just April list (see http://www.decisionstats.com/2009/04/april-2-announcement/ )

 

And read this if you want to know how to catch visitors that link to you –http://www.decisionstats.com/privacy/

Use clicky software for row level data on your website . Get it here from this link www.getclicky.com . I used to pay them 5 $ a month before I ran out of $, but the free version is great as well.

History of BI Month

Here is a good video tutorial from a cool guy working for Microsoft. If you have 10 minutes 36 seconds to spare – then watch it here –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1y5jBESLPE

10 minutes 36 secs is all it takes

SAS Institute invests in R project

A SAS spokesperson has confirmed to this blog that they have invested in the R –Core project to help build next generation algorithms . The new R powered SAS would not be sold as licenses but would be hosted on Amazon EC 2, thus users pay only for the time of usage.The shift to SaaS is expected to boost SAS’s revenue while at the same time helping small consultants and big clients like banks to cut costs.The official announcement had been planned for release during the RUser conference however the announcement was moved earlier due to rumors building up early this week due to leakages from SAS R and D ( called birdie leakages). The size of the investment is expected to be more than 20 million USD , the exact amount is expected to be disclosed later.The R Core team would be using this for much needed investments in GUI development and up gradation of the website besides offering R courses in East European universities. An expectation of an annual prize for R User of The Year is also expected to take place.

Also  Jim Davis ,SVP Marketing ,has clarified that he did not mean to demean all business intelligence industry by his remarks at SAS Global Conference that

“ Business intelligence is an over-used term that has had its day, and business analytics is now the differentiator that will allow customers to better forecast the future especially in this current economic climate.Business intelligence doesn’t make a difference to the top or bottom line, and is merely a productivity tool like e-mail.

He clarified  that this was just a part of the annual summer marketing campaign and he was just doing his job as marketing person. Which person in marketing does not send messages against the competition,” he pleaded.

In an unrelated development, Anne Milley ,head of strategy at SAS has been appointed leader for video conferencing to cut down on SAS institute’s frequent jet flyer miles.

Beating the Recession Back

Interesting Webinar –Courtesy www.Smartdatacollective.com

How to Boost Service,Cut Costs and Deliver Great Customer Experiences –Even in an Economic Downturn

http://smartdatacollective.com/client/sdc/1/

The paradox of tougher economic times is that customers demand more value, not less, at exactly the moment companies are looking for more cost-effective ways to deliver service. Web and mobile technologies provide important avenues to both savings and quality but the key to success remains knowing more about your existing and potential customers than your competitors do. To win the business of today’s mobile, tech-savvy, product-educated, value-conscious customers you have to dig deeper, think harder, and truly understand their preferences and behavior. You have to deliver a customer experience that is superior to one they can get somewhere else or you’ll lose their business

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Declaration- I work part time as a consulting community evangelist for Smart Data Collective.

Bi , Ba and Bs

Business intelligence is an over-used term that has had its day, and business analytics is now the differentiator that will allow customers to better forecast the future especially in this current economic climate.Business intelligence doesn’t make a difference to the top or bottom line, and is merely a productivity tool like e-mail.

Quote from Jim Davis ,

SAS Institute Inc.’s senior vice-president and chief marketing officer.

Pigeon-holing one element or another as backward-looking and another as forward-looking doesn’t even make much marketing sense, let alone being a tenable intellectual position to take. I think it is not unreasonable to expect more cogent commentary from the people at SAS than Mr Davis’ recent statements.

Post from Peter Thomas, Business Intelligence Guru.

Bottom line, it’s all fluff. I don’t like the term business analytics; it doesn’t tell me anything. Frankly, I think business intelligence as a term is downright laughable, too. What does that mean?

Post from Neil Raden Founder of Hired Brains

Here are my views on this

  • Is the distinction pure branding or semantics. Or is it rebranding  because SAS is the leader and the biggest business analytics and would not be the biggest business intelligence vendor- thus marking a tactical and aggressive shift in their strategy –
  • Also SAS remains the largest independent private business and the recent consolidation in this industry could be unsettling to people who want to keep it independent.
  • Ultimately customers vote with the cheque books –

call it business intelligence, business analytics or business as usual.

Bi,ba or bs

The Knowledge Discovery Conference

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Here is a great event and conference in June for people living in Europe ( or willing to travel ) .Do check out the tutorials on data mining and some research work and PhD dissertations – this is cutting edge for people wanting to keep up to with data mining and knowledge discovery.