SPSS Inc Announces the Release of WhatIf? Web Server

Enabling decision makers to create scenarios and see the effects of potential decisions in real time, SPSS Inc announces the release of WhatIf? Web Server. This new product gives everyone involved in the forecasting process, from sales and marketing managers to financial analysts and purchasing managers, the power to interact with forecasts on the Web and see the effects of their decisions in real time. WhatIf? Web Server can be combined with DecisionTime Server, SPSS' powerful forecasting software, to provide a complete enterprise forecasting solution. Together, these products enable users to create, publish, view and interact with all types of forecasts in which time is a critical dimension. WhatIf? Web Server is currently available.

"We've made it easy for general business people to improve the accuracy of their forecasts and publish them to the Web - resulting in more people making better decisions and improving profitability," said Tom Moellering, marketing manager at SPSS. "With WhatIf? Web Server, we enable colleagues, vendors, partners, and customers to collaborate in the forecasting process, create scenarios, and see the effects of potential decisions in real time via the Web. WhatIf? Web Server provides a secure environment for deploying time-series forecasts while minimizing deployment and IT costs."

WhatIf? Web Server helps organizations:

• Increase profitability by improving decision-making - an analyst can easily create a forecast in DecisionTime and publish it to the Web using WhatIf? Web Server. Then, colleagues in sales, finance, and inventory -- as well as constituents from outside the organization -- can all use the accurate forecasts to make better decisions.
• Improve ROI by interacting with forecasts and creating scenarios in real time - by creating scenarios and testing the results of potential decisions in real time via the Web, everyone in the forecasting and decision making process can more easily understand how their decisions impact the bottom line.
• Become decision-enabled over a secure Web environment - decision makers using a password-based security system have the confidence to publish forecasts to the Web knowing that each user can access only the files to which they've been given permission.

For example, with DecisionTime a marketing analyst can create an accurate forecast model for product sales, including the effects of causal variables such as marketing programs, advertising campaigns and sales promotions. Using WhatIf? Web Server, sales and marketing managers around the world can immediately use the results of forecasts to create scenarios and see the effects of their decisions on the bottom line, answering questions like, "What if I have a sales promotion? How will it affect forecasted revenue?" or "What if I spend more on adverising? How does that affect my results?" At the same time, inventory managers can use the forecast to order appropriate levels of inventory, vendors can see how much they need to supply, and customers can see what they're expecting to receive. Using and interacting with the results of powerful time-series models over the Internet benefits the entire information supply chain.

DecisionTime and WhatIf? provide accurate, reliable time-series forecasts and put them to work for those who make business decisions. These two products combine the model-making expertise of an analyst with the experience of a business manager. DecisionTime uses forecasting algorithms to automatically build sound forecasts from historical data and causal variables. Using WhatIf?, decision makers can use the forecast and adjust factors to incorporate their experience and specific business knowledge. This enables them to explore alternative scenarios and compare how different options impact the forecast. DecisionTime and WhatIf? serve many industries in multiple departments, including marketing, sales, strategic planning and operations.

Pricing and Availability

WhatIf? Web Server is shipping internationally with a domestic list price of $25,000. International pricing varies.

System Requirements

Server - 300 MHz processor - 5-10 GB disk space - 512 MB memory - Windows NT Client - MS Internet Explorer 5.0 and above or Netscape 4.7 and above

About SPSS Inc

SPSS Inc enables organizations to develop more profitable customer relationships by providing analytical solutions that discover what customers want and predict what they will do. The company delivers analytical solutions at the intersection of customer relationship management and business intelligence. SPSS analytical solutions integrate and analyze market, customer and operational data in key vertical markets worldwide including: telecommunications, health care, banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing, retail, consumer packaged goods, market research and the public sector.

Headquartered in Chicago, SPSS has more than 40 offices, over 900 employees and 1999 revenues of $142 million. The company also has won the following awards: No. 77 on Forbes 2000 list of the "200 best small companies" and as the 22nd most profitable company on the Nasdaq exchange by Equities magazine; 1999 World Class Solution award in business intelligence and named "best decision support system for business intelligence" in the 1999 RealWare award competition; No. 12 in DM Review's 2000 Data Warehouse Top 100; placed No. 16 on the 2000 Soft-letter 100, a ranking of the top 100 personal computer software companies in the United States; and No. 115 in the 2000 Software 500, a ranking of the world's largest software vendors by Software Magazine; listed on Working Mother magazine's 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers for 2000. For more information, visit www.spss.com.

Contact SPSS Inc, Chicago, Susan Kalell, 800-525-4980, pr@spss.com.