SPSS Inc. And American Century Investments Win 1999 RealWare Award; Data Mining Leader's Analytical Solution Transforms Financial Giant's Customer Relationship Management System
Recognized for excellence in data mining, SPSS Inc. and American Century Investments (ACI) have been selected as winners of the 1999 RealWare Award. The companies were singled out in the category of "best decision support system for business intelligence" in the award sponsored by Intelligent Enterprise magazine, published by Miller Freeman. The panel of judges included industry-leading analysts from the Hurwitz Group, Two Crows Corp., and International Data Corp.
The award was granted based on ACI's implementation of a closed-loop decision support system designed with SPSS products. ACI secured a competitive edge by using SPSS and Clementine software to transform previous customer insight into actionable decision-making information.
According to Miller Freeman, the RealWare Award recognizes the vendor and the customer using outstanding, real-world customer solutions demonstrating innovative, effective use of information technology in the enterprise.
"In the competitive world we're in today - where business knowledge must lead to business intelligence - having the right solution is the first presupposition to success," said Stephen Cole, assistant director of research and development for American Century Investments. "American Century has the right people on its team to become the leader in the financial provider arena. We have always sought out the best in ourselves and the relationships we form with the analytic/consulting community. SPSS and the solutions it offers in analyses and consulting were indispensable to our goals."
SPSS Inc. President and CEO Jack Noonan said, "We have been working with American Century for more than two years. We are extremely proud of the analytical solution we built with ACI, and this industry recognition is icing on the cake. We will continue to develop customer relationship management solutions for ACI and for customers in all industries."
"The competition for this year's RealWare Awards was intense - thanks both to a record number of entries and the high caliber of our judges," said David Stodder, chair of the RealWare Awards and editorial director of Intelligent Enterprise. "Winning this award signifies excellence in implementing technology to achieve a high-impact, business-critical objective. Reaching this level of accomplishment requires a strong partnership between vendor and customer. We at Intelligent Enterprise extend our congratulations to American Century Investments and SPSS."
Both SPSS and Clementine products are used throughout the world to help people make more informed decisions that can positively impact their company's bottom line. The company's flagship data analysis product, SPSS features powerful analytical techniques and dynamic, interactive graphs. Clementine was the first enterprise-strength data mining product aimed at business users and is consistently acknowledged by users and analysts as the leading visual rapid modeling environment for data mining.
SPSS Inc., a multinational software and services company, is a leader in business intelligence, especially data mining and customer relationship management. The company also leads in three vertical markets: survey/market research, quality improvement and scientific research. With products running on all major computer platforms and translated in several languages, SPSS helps organizations leverage information to increase revenues and improve processes.
Founded in 1968, the company has more than 40 offices, nearly 900 employees and 1998 revenues of $121 million. The company also has won the following awards: named No. 28 in DM Review's Data Warehouse Top 100; placed No. 23 on the 1999 Soft-letter 100, a ranking of the top 100 personal computer software companies in the United States; and No. 97 in the 1999 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.
American Century Investments is a mutual fund company serving nearly two million individual and institutional investors. Through its broad selection of 70 mutual funds, the Kansas City-based company manages approximately $90 billion in assets. James E. Stowers Jr. founded the company in 1958 and serves as chairman. His son, James E. Stowers III, is chief executive officer and William M. Lyons is president and chief operating officer. For more information on company products and services, visit its website at http://www.americancentury.com.