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When budgets and time are tight it’s the ideal time to invest in training

When budgets and time are both limited it can be hard to justify investing in training, particularly training for things you’re already using. However, investing time and money in exchange for the right training generally pays for itself (both financially and in terms of time saved) through attendees gaining additional skills which allow for more efficient and accurate work.  

Key driver analysis – adding value to SPSS core functionality with additional capabilities

Smart Vision Europe has a decades long track record of working with the IBM SPSS software suite. Over this time, we have worked with many clients across a range of industry sectors and with diverse use cases and requirements. There is one remarkably consistent use case application. We see it time and again. Hundreds of …

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Here’s how centralising SPSS Statistics licences through NHS Trust libraries can save your NHS Trust a significant amount of money

NHS Trusts (and their predecessors) have always been some of the most loyal and regular users of IBM SPSS Statistics since its launch in 1968. Back in 1968 the process for buying SPSS was straightforward but as time has gone on the product itself has become much more sophisticated and the options for how to …

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How SPSS can make tenant satisfaction surveys easier for social housing providers

For more than a decade we have been helping social housing providers gain insight and understanding into how their tenants think they are performing by helping make it easier for them to analyse both their primary research data (usually collected from tenant satisfaction surveys) and other operational data. The matching and joining of tenant research …

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Why SPSS is a much better choice than Excel for data analytics

The volume and nature of the data that most organisations hold these days mean that the analytical possibilities are great. Organisations are constantly seeking ways to extract valuable insights from their data to gain a competitive edge, using advanced analytics to help them make data driven decisions. However, as with everything, it’s really important to …

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What is the difference between data science and machine learning?

While data science and machine learning are related, they are very different fields. In a nutshell, data science brings structure to big data while machine learning focuses on learning from the data itself. This post will dive deeper into the nuances of each field. What is data science? Data science is a broad, multidisciplinary field that extracts value from today’s …

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Background to SPSS and PS IMAGO

PS Imago Pro is a result of the mature and long established IBM SPSS Partner Ecosystem. IBM encourages its partners to use their skills and expertise to develop additional functions and features that further enhance the core SPSS product that IBM offers, without diluting any of the existing functionality of that core product.

Key analytics trends for 2023 and how they will affect your business

Data and analytics are becoming ever more central to businesses and their operations. The growth of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning means that advanced analytics plays an ever-growing role in traditionally data-heavy businesses, from retail and heathcare to finance and ecommerce. How is this likely to develop further in 2023? In this blog …

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Resources to help you accelerate your data analysis with SPSS

IBM SPSS Statistics provides a powerful suite of data analytics tools which allows you to quickly analyze your data with a simple point-and-click interface and enables you to extract critical insights with ease. During these times of rapid change that demand agility, it is imperative to embrace data driven decision-making to improve business outcomes. Organisations …

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Running an old version of SPSS Statistics? Here’s why it’s worth making the move to the latest version

With v29 of IBM SPSS Statistics just released, should you consider an upgrade if you are running an unsupported version of SPSS? In terms of eagerness to upgrade, our customers fall in to a few categories: Some will upgrade as soon as they feasibly can – either due to IT policy or because they would …

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Announcing Smart Vision’s new business partner relationship with Data Robot

At Smart Vision Europe we have many years of experience helping our customers successfully get started with applying and getting value from data science, AI and machine learning. We have set up and delivered numerous successful data science programmes across a range of industries as well as in the public sector. Under the collective banner …

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What’s new in SPSS Statistics 28.0.1?

IBM has just announced the general availability of IBM SPSS Statistics 28.0.1. This modification release introduces new statistical tests, enhancements to existing procedures and functional enhancements that will improve everyday usability. In this blog post we outline some of the new features and functionality.  New statistical procedures and algorithm enhancements  Kernel Ridge Regression As part …

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What’s new in IBM SPSS Modeler 18.3?

SPSS Modeler is a robust data science software for professional analysts and data scientists. The software scales from supporting line-of-business predictive analysis to enterprise-scale implementation.Consisting of IBM SPSS Modeler Desktop 18.3 and IBM SPSS Modeler Server 18.3, SPSS Modeler delivers a robust predictive analytics solution for a holistic approach to predictive analytics. It brings predictive intelligence to decisions made by individuals, …

What’s new in IBM SPSS Modeler 18.3? Read More »

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What skills are needed to successfully run data science projects in the cloud?

In my most recent blog post I wrote about the benefits and opportunities that cloud computing brings to data science projects and reciprocally, how data science projects provide a great way to demonstrate the value of cloud computing. In this post I want to discuss the cloud computing skills challenge and provide some advice on …

What skills are needed to successfully run data science projects in the cloud? Read More »

What’s new in SPSS v28?

IBM is about to release the latest version of SPSS Statistics. Here’s a summary of some of the new enhancements that existing users can look forward to. Meta-analysis Meta-analysis is a well-established analytical approach that combines the results from a range of studies with a view to estimating the effect size of the treatment in question. …

What’s new in SPSS v28? Read More »

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Using text analytics to get value from unstructured data

What is unstructured data? The data you have access to within your organisation can be broadly sorted into two categories: structured and unstructured. Structured data is quantitative data that can be organised into a format that can neatly be fitted into the fields and columns of relational databases or spreadsheets. Examples might include things like …

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Why data science presents the best use cases for cloud computing

We are living through a golden age of technological innovation and revolution. Whether it’s the blending of real time data, technical software and hardware instrumentation to deliver efficient, user friendly and zero carbon buildings or the combination of data, artificial intelligence algorithms and automotive technology to enable semi-autonomous vehicles, we are witnessing rapid expansion of …

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How COVID-19 is changing the nature of advanced analytics

How COVID-19 is changing the nature of advanced analytics We’re over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic now and it seems that everyone is an amateur statistics expert. Concepts like the R number, exponential growth and, most recently, probability and assessment of risk that used to be really only for discussion amongst epidemiologists and statisticians …

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How can a data scientist access training in 2021? 3 trends things to look out for…

How can a data scientist access training in 2021? 3 trends things to look out for… I have been involved in the delivery and implementation of data science software applications, data science projects and solutions that have advanced and predictive analytics at their core, in one form or another, for almost 30 years. Of course, …

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Expert insights: Diana Dubash, Assistant Psychologist, Pain Management, Birmingham City Hospital

Lorna: Can you just start off by telling me a little bit about yourself, what your background is and how you came to be where you are now? Diana: I’m a psychologist. I did psychology A-Level. That’s where it all started. Then I did an undergraduate course in psychology in London. With psychology, it’s 50% …

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Introduction to Power Analysis

In this series of ‘eat your greens‘ posts looking at core statistical concepts in more detail, we have looked closely at what a test of statistical significance actually is. In particular, we have focused on how to interpret the statistical probability value that various tests generate. This value, often labelled ‘P=’, ‘Prob’ or ‘Sig.’ in …

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What’s new in SPSS v27.0.1.0?

IBM have released a new update to SPSS v27. Interestingly, this is a ‘dot’ release that contains a number of useful functional improvements rather than the usual bug fixes or third-party compatibility enhancements. The new procedures include three additional statistical tests for comparing differences in proportions. These procedures were introduced as syntax only commands in …

What’s new in SPSS v27.0.1.0? Read More »

Understanding correlation

This is the latest in our ‘eat your greens’ series – a back to basics look at core statistical concepts that are often misunderstood or misapplied. In everyday speech the term ‘correlation’ refers to a mutual connection or relationship between two things. In statistics correlations are specific measures or values that attempt to quantify the …

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The type of spreadsheet error that caused the loss of 16,000 coronavirus test results in England isn’t unusual – the limitations of spreadsheets are well known

Spreadsheets have been much in the news over the last couple of days in the UK, and not for good reasons. It looks as though Excel’s limit on the number of rows of data possible in a spreadsheet has led to Public Health England misplacing more than 16,000 Covid test results. The implications of this …

The type of spreadsheet error that caused the loss of 16,000 coronavirus test results in England isn’t unusual – the limitations of spreadsheets are well known Read More »

Finding normality – why is the normal distribution so important when we so rarely encounter it in real life?

This is the fourth post in our ‘eat your greens’ series – a back to basics look at some of the core concepts of statistics and analytics that, in our experience, are frequently misunderstood or misapplied. In this post we’ll look in more depth at the concept of the normal distribution.  One of the first …

Finding normality – why is the normal distribution so important when we so rarely encounter it in real life? Read More »

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Are algorithms evil?

None of us can have failed to notice the recent debacle over Ofqual’s (the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) use of an algorithm to predict pupil grades. Once again, ‘algorithm fever’ has generated a flurry of news articles questioning whether we are sleepwalking into a dystopian future where human expert decision-making is replaced with …

Are algorithms evil? Read More »

Testing versus inferring

This is the second post in our ‘eat your greens’ series – a back to basics look at some of the core concepts of statistics and analytics that, in our experience, are frequently misunderstood or misapplied. In this post we’ll look in more depth at the concept of testing versus inferring. One of most daunting …

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PS Imago Pro – an overview of additional charting capabilities not available in IBM SPSS Statistics

PS Imago Pro is a statistical analysis and reporting solution based on IBM SPSS Statistics. Indeed, apart from the inclusion of an additional menu, users of SPSS Statistics may find that the data analysis module of PS Imago Pro looks almost identical to its SPSS counterpart. However, as Figure 1 shows, this additional menu contains …

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Using the find all() Function to search for nodes

Most SPSS Modeler scripts include code that locates an existing node e.g.: stream = modeler.script.stream() typenode = stream.findByType(“type”, None) However, some scripts need to search for all nodes – maybe by node type but also matching some other criteria. The Modeler scripting API documentation (PDF) mentions a findAll() function: d.findAll(filter, recursive): Collection filter (NodeFilter) : the node filter recursive …

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An overview of the four main approaches to predictive analytics

This infographic provides an overview of the four main families of approaches to predictive analytics. Prediction encompasses applications that aim to estimate or predict the values of a key target field. Segmentation refers to techniques such as cluster analysis which attempt to find the most ‘naturally occurring” groups within a dataset. Association modelling discovers groups …

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Using SPSS Modeler’s cache_compression setting to speed up your modelling

There are a number of configuration settings associated with IBM SPSS Modeler Server that control its behaviour. The default settings aim to ensure that stream execution will complete successfully even if the host machine is being used by a number of other applications i.e. Modeler Server is trying to be a “good citizen”. However, if …

Using SPSS Modeler’s cache_compression setting to speed up your modelling Read More »

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