For the past several years, IBM has released a new version of SPSS Statistics V22 in the fall, and Version 22 is now available (as of 8/13/13).
What does that mean for you and SPSS statistics V22? Well stay tuned, there’s a little something for everyone:
New to SPSS Statistics: SPSS is hands-down the easiest statistical tool to learn, with a point & click interface and no need to learn programming language (it is a favorite of colleges & universities around the world), while giving the user more powerful and accurate control over data than what you’d get from Excel. This particular version boosts productivity and shrinks the learning curve from the moment you open it:
The opening dialogue includes New Files, What’s New, Recent Files, a listing of the modules and extensions you’ve purchased, and Tutorials.*
(*SPSS Statistics is modular; so you can get one of the prepackaged bundles, or just the Base + Modules you require, without having to buy the whole kit and caboodle.)
This version also makes it super easy to turn SPSS’s drab output/charts into colorful, appealing, and interesting visual aids. Additionally, these outputs can finally be published to the web AND go mobile. Output can now be made accessible by desktop (win, mac, linux) smartphone and tablet (ipad, ipod, iphone, android 2.1 and newer, and Windows 8), where your consumers can interact with the object without any kind of special reader. This is in addition to the traditional Microsoft and Adobe publication formats, and now includes the ability to export to Cognos Active Reports (.mht). You can also now add notations to your output objects (automatically add your name, date, the data source, etc., or your own text).
Intermediate SPSS Statistics User: Monte Carlo Simulation – the FUTURE is NOW! Monte Carlo Simulation came out in v21 for SPSS Statistics and if you’re not already familiar with it, this means that SPSS Statistics can use existing similar data you have to fit and correct the inputs automatically, saving you time and effort. This makes it much easier to make a prediction even when you don’t have all the data! The updates in v22 for Monte Carlo Simulation include:
- Generating data without a model
- Association between categorical inputs
- Heat maps (and they look good too – see below)
- Support for ALM (Auto Linear Models)
- Simulating string inputs
- New correlation & contingency table
- Option to include or exclude missing values re: categorical inputs
- Unmatched categories table
SPSS Statistics Power User: For the SPSS super user, you might like to know that the Python plug-in that you used to have to download and install from the internet (and the manual process of going to IBM’s Developer Works website to obtain algorithms) is gone! The Python extension is directly in the UI and comes as a part of the SPSS download! You can now search for and download extensions and updates from right within the tool! IBM has also upgraded the speed of case processing, so you can read and write data faster to and from the active data set. There is also improved functionality within SPSS Statistics Server relative to performance and scalability with SQL Pushback. In total, this is good for statisticians and IT folks alike, as it makes the best use of IT resources (conserving resources, delivering faster results, and reducing overall IT costs). Additionally, working with large data sets is faster and more scalable, such as improved resilience in the event of network failures (if connection between server and client is lost, system will wait for a pre-specified time to reconnect), and asynchronous reading of data for improved performance on certain procedures (preliminary results show 4 to 47% improvement).
If you’re on an active service contract for SPSS Statistics with IBM, the new version should be available in your download portal TODAY. Feel free to contact us if you’re not on an active service contract. We can help!
There are various other updates to IBM SPSS Statistics v22. If you’d like to see more, please see this prerecorded presentation/demo that IBM published today: “What’s New in IBM SPSS Statistics v22?”.
Finally, IBM makes a 14 day trial version available on their website, so you can kick the tires here: IBM SPSS Statistics v22 Trial Download.
