SPSS Ships AnswerTree 2.0 Desktop Data Mining Software; Features Data Access and Performance Improvements and Web Distribution Capabilities
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What if you could pinpoint the one thing that motivates your customers to buy, or which people are most likely to default on loans? AnswerTree 2.0, from SPSS Inc., gives users the power to mine this kind of information from their data. With four powerful algorithms, SPSS' desktop, decision-tree software identifies segments, patterns and results-driving factors in data to help users make better decisions. AnswerTree 2.0 is now shipping.

The latest version of AnswerTree boasts many highly requested new features including ODBC connectivity and an ODBC wizard, which makes it possible for people to import data from any ODBC-compliant source such as Microsoft Access and other relational databases; direct access to data stored in Oracle Express and BusinessObjects; and significant improvements to processing speed which allows users to grow trees at least five times more quickly. Additionally, a new Setup Wizard makes it easy for both advanced and novice users to set up their model. With the Setup Wizard, advanced users can specify a complete model up front and novice users can set up their model in three steps and accept the program's smart defaults to get started. Users can also post AnswerTree output to the Internet or an intranet to share their findings with colleagues using SmartViewer Web Server, a Web-based report OLAP product released recently by SPSS.

"In the short time since we introduced AnswerTree, the product has enjoyed enormous success. We are introducing the new version to give our customers what they wanted most, greater speed and more data access options," AnswerTree Marketing Manager Anne Cress said. "The improvements strengthen what is already the most powerful decision tree software available to empower businesspeople as well as statisticians to easily segment and profile their data."

AnswerTree's ability to segment data and build customer profiles has applications for people involved in customer retention, customer loyalty, direct marketing, biomedical research and credit scoring, for example.

Other benefits of AnswerTree 2.0 include:

• Build better models with four algorithms - Users can build better models because each of AnswerTree's four powerful algorithms
• CHAID, Exhaustive CHAID, QUEST and Classification and Regression Trees - works best with certain types of data, giving users flexibility in their analysis.
• Easily identify and evaluate groups - A tree diagram gives users an instant snapshot of the key groups in their data, and charts and tables with summary statistics are displayed at every node so users can immediately see the differences between groups.
• Easily apply a model to new data or export it for more analysis - Users can apply their model to new data by saving the decision rules, generated automatically by the software, in SQL code or SPSS syntax and applying them to the new data source. This is useful, for example, to generate mailing lists for a direct mail promotion based on decision rules of who is most likely to respond. Users can also export data for selected segments in SPSS, SYSTAT or ASCII format for further analysis.
• Get reliable results - To ensure a model's reliability, AnswerTree allows users to train their model on a subset of their data and validate it on the remaining data, or use cross-validation to split and validate the model on sub-samples. In both cases, a misclassification chart clearly reports the model's accuracy and estimated error.

AnswerTree 2.0 is one of a number of analytic software products offered by SPSS Inc. "SPSS' products meet the business intelligence needs of the entire enterprise," Mark Battaglia, executive vice president of corporate marketing for SPSS, said, "In order to make the best decisions, people typically need to use multiple analytical methods, ranging from basic OLAP reporting, which enables people to learn what happened in a given situation, to advance modeling methods, like those contained in AnswerTree 2.0, to help them learn why it happens and how to make changes that will yield additional revenue and make operations more efficient," he added. "SPSS' broad-based product and service offering is designed to be the best way to create and distribute information for better decision making."

System Requirements

• Windows 95 or NT 4.0 - 50MB disk space (20MB for software; 30MB for data) - 486DX processor or higher - 12MB RAM (16MB RAM strongly recommended) - VGA monitor (SVGA recommended) - math co-processor

Company Information

SPSS Inc. is a leader in the large markets for analytical solutions: business intelligence (data mining and market research), quality improvement and scientific research. SPSS products and services transform organizations by helping users leverage information to grow revenues and improve processes. Today, more than 2 million people use SPSS, the world's best-selling software for desktop analysis, to create and distribute information for better decision making.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 1998, SPSS is one of the most enduring software companies in the world. SPSS has won the following awards: named No. 28 in DM Review's Data Warehouse Top 100; ranked among Forbes 200 Best Small Companies in America; Business Week's Top 100 Growth Companies for 1997; placed No. 21 on the 1998 Softletter 100, a ranking of the top 100 personal computer software companies in the United States; and No. 87 in the 1998 Software 500, a ranking of the world's largest software vendors by Software Magazine. Headquartered in Chicago, SPSS has offices and distributors around the world. For more information, visit http://www.spss.com