New Version of SPSS Inc. Data Collection Survey Software Quickly and Easily Captures Voice of the Customer

SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS), the leading global provider of Predictive Analytics software and solutions, today introduced PASW Data Collection 5.6 (formerly Dimensions), the latest version of its feedback management and survey research software. The use of surveys to capture "Voice of the Customer” across multiple touch-points is integral to bringing data about people’s attitudes into analytical decision-making.

Part of the SPSS Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) portfolio of products, PASW Data Collection 5.6 supports the entire survey lifecycle – from authoring to managing the data collection process to survey reporting and analysis – supporting global, multi-channel research and feedback collection.

PASW Data Collection 5.6 introduces new data entry capabilities, an enhanced authoring interface suitable for the novice and the research professional, and new phone-based interviewing capabilities designed to shape the modern survey research call center. This release also further extends the enterprise readiness of the data collection platform with enhancements to performance and security.

Jason Verlen, vice president of research and development and chief product strategist at SPSS, said, "Capturing quality customer data about preferences, opinions and behaviors is the backbone of Predictive Analytics and essential to truly obtain customer intimacy. PASW Data Collection 5.6 delivers new features and functionality that enable users to conduct both traditional and leading-edge survey research. SPSS continually innovates and expands this product line to serve key markets, including the market research industry, ensuring that feedback activities are cost-effective, timely and actionable.”

Customers use PASW Data Collection 5.6 to easily conduct diverse market research and feedback activities – from web-based satisfaction and loyalty surveys, to interactive face-to-face interviews conducted using mobile devices, as well as traditional phone-based research. By proactively capturing "Voice of the Customer,” PASW Data Collection 5.6 gives organizations the ability to increase the visibility and impact of feedback across the enterprise. Combining this rich feedback with transactional and text data drives more accurate predictive models for a complete understanding of customers, employees or constituent’s future behavior.

MarketCast, a division of Reed Business, is a leading research firm servicing the global entertainment industry and consults on hundreds of movie releases and television programs. David Breiham, associate director, research and organizational development at MarketCast, said, "Using PASW Data Collection, our survey development is made quicker and easier, allowing us to take a more proactive and integrated approach across the survey research lifecycle. We’ve had overwhelming success using PASW Data Collection and the new authoring feature is a powerful tool that will help our organization obtain high quality insights that drive results.”

New Authoring Interface for Rapid Survey Creation

PASW Data Collection 5.6 has a redesigned graphical user interface to easily create dynamic and powerful questionnaires that better engage respondents and improve response rates, while capturing quality, analysis-ready data.

Among many features in the interface, customers will appreciate the short cut menu bar for commonly used tasks, such as inserting a question or opening up a PASW Statistics (formerly SPSS Statistics) file, saving users from navigating through menus and sub-menus. Also, a question pane has been introduced allowing users to focus and control one question at a time with more question properties, such as translation notes, participant instructions and a preview of how it will exactly appear in the survey.

Customers can now jump-start survey creation by using PASW Statistics data files within the authoring interface. The new data captured can easily be added to these existing results for comparison longitudinally, or to ensure that the data represents the customer population accurately.

A Fresh Approach to Data Entry

With Data Entry, PASW Data Collection 5.6 users can confidently collect high quality, clean data that is always ready for analysis, eliminating the need for burdensome and time-consuming data cleaning, reformatting and validation.

Uniquely suited for heads down data entry, the interface is fully configurable and designed for different user styles. Real-time validation during the data entry process minimizes mistakes in the field while extensive data validation facilities, including full, partial and double-user verification, ensures that discrepancies are captured, corrected, and tracked as data is captured.

Dr. Brian Robertson, research director at Market Decisions, said, "PASW Data Collection 5.6 allows us to quickly design sophisticated surveys for data entry. The data entry facility is easy to use and intuitive, so we can get the data entered quickly and accurately, with the right level of oversight. This means our staff spends less time formatting surveys and checking data, and more time actually interpreting results so clients can obtain a clear, well-rounded view of their customers."

Shaping the Modern Survey Research Call Center

Telephone interviewing is still the most popular and reliable means to capture quality feedback. PASW Data Collection 5.6 enables the modern survey research call center by leveraging Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and allows market researchers to centralize control of the call center, operate around the clock and easily scale resources without significant cost escalation.

New features include:

• To manage time-sensitive samples and improve call center productivity, customers can better define and use "day parts” (e.g. morning, afternoon, etc.) that correspond to the hours of the call center operation. For instance, it is now possible to prioritize the sample based on who the person is and their propensity to buy.
• With improved management capabilities, call center managers have total control over global operations with regional flexibility. Weights and order can now be assigned to the sample based on time zone to ensure that an agent is more efficient in reaching respondents.
• New reports, such as the interviewer qualification report, the dialer statistics report and others for managing call center operations, provide more visibility for supervisors and call center administrators to easily identify issues across projects or to drill down into a specific project.

Extending Enterprise Reach

PASW Data Collection 5.6 contains performance enhancements that minimize system bottlenecks and the administrative overhead associated with managing the survey environment.

The new version includes a more robust security interface so administrators can quickly set up users, roles and manage access; a JDBC driver that opens survey data to any portal or dashboard; and the ability to protect and encrypt critical data transmissions using government standards by specifying Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance during installation.

Availability

PASW Data Collection 5.6 will be available from SPSS Inc. in June 2009 by calling 800.543.2185.

About SPSS Inc.

SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS) is a leading global provider of predictive analytics software and solutions. The company’s predictive analytics technology improves business processes by giving organizations forward visibility for decisions made every day. By incorporating predictive analytics into their daily operations, organizations become Predictive Enterprises — able to direct and automate decisions to meet business goals and achieve a measurable competitive advantage. More than 250,000 public sector, academic and commercial customers rely on SPSS technology to help increase revenue, reduce costs and detect and prevent fraud. Founded in 1968, SPSS is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. For additional information, please visit www.spss.com.