Why use a data analysis package like SPSS when you could use Excel? I’ve just come across an interesting marketing piece from SPSS that goes into benefits one gets from using a dedicated data analysis package instead of trying to do all of your analysis in a spreadsheet. While it would be fair to expect that this isn’t necessary an unbiased comparison, it might offer some food for thought to those of you trying to figure out why you should bother to upgrade.

Key reasons offered by “Discover Secrets Your Spreadsheet Can’t Tell You”:

• Easy access to descriptive statistics and frequencies: True. while you can do descriptives in Excel using some of the built-in functions and the data analysis add-in, it is a lot easier and faster in SPSS.
• Wider variety of charts & graphs: True, although I tend to find Excel easier to manage
• Better, more flexible pivot tables  Sortof true. That is, true if you have SPSS Tables. If you don’t, then in my opinion Excel pivot tables are easier to work with. SPSS Tables, on the other hand, is extremely easy to use and lets you do a lot more things that you can’t do with Excel Pivot Tables.
• Full set of statistical tests: True. While it is definitely possible to run statistical tests in Microsoft Excel, they’re much harder to find and work with compared to SPSS, where they pretty much come “free” with every function you run.
• Easy to run similar reports and graphics for subsets: True. Using the “Split” function in SPSS, it is relatively easy to create tables and charts for subsets without doing any extra work. Or you can create syntax (SPSS’s macro language) that lets you reuse your tables and codes over and over again.
• Labels instead of codes in your reports: I love this feature. Just because your survey software makes Male=1 and Female=2 doesn’t mean you want to see lots of 1s and 2s in your reports. And while it isn’t difficult to use search/replace in Excel to change all of your 1s to Male and your 2s to Female, SPSS lets you keep your values intact.
• Accurate results when some data is missing: Sortof true. For this item, they point to the benefits you get from using the SPSS Missing Value Analysis add-on module (an extra $800 or so). This tells you whether the questions that were skipped by your respondents will impact your analysis, and will even estimate what these values should have been. Obviously Excel can’t do anything like that, but keep in mind you need to buy the extra module to get it to work.
•  Helps you spot data-entry errors or unusual data points: Certainly SPSS can help with this one, but I think you can get these types of results pretty easily in Excel.
• Easy import functions: I’m not sure that I completely agree with this one. It is true that it is easy to bring in text files. And they do provide functionality to bring in ODBC databases, including Excel spreadhsheets, Access tables and SPSS databases. But the interface for doing so is a little funky and the experience isn’t as clean or smooth as it is with Excel.
• Unlimited rows: This point describes how SPSS can handle an unlimited number of rows while Excel can only handle 65,000. Microsoft Excel 2007 can handle unlimited rows too, but SPSS’s assertion may have been true when the article was published.
• Using SPSS saves time and increases productivity: I suppose that really depends on what it is that you’re trying to do. There are a lot of analysis that I find easier to do in Excel. But certainly if you’re doing statistical analysis it is easier and faster in SPSS.
• SPSS makes it easy to understand statistical results. SPSS has added a lot of extra help files and tutorials that explain how you can/should interpret a lot of the statistical jargon that the software spits out. Excel obviously does not.

A few reasons why I still do a lot of stuff in Excel:

• For most people, the learning curve is much less steep with Excel: Learning SPSS was initially an unpleasant experience. It has a lot of options that don’t make sense until after you’ve spent a lot of time with the program. Once you’ve learned the software you’ll be amazed that you ever lived without it (or some other data analysis package) but until then you’ll spend a lot of time cursing it.
• It’s expensive. Especially if you already have Excel. Expect to spend over $1,700 for a copy.
• Charts are easier to manage/control in Excel: In my opinion. While SPSS has a lot of neat charting features, they aren’t as dynamic as Excel’s chart functionality — that is, when creating a presentation, I often need to go back in and tweak the charts or rearrange the data or rearrange the bars. In Excel, this is as easy as editing the underlying spreadsheet, which would automatically update the Powerpoint. In SPSS, you have to recreate the chart and recopy it into the presentation.
• More flexible use of functions: Excel has a lot more functions than SPSS and gives you more flexibility in how you use them.

Read “Discover Secrets your Spreadsheet Can’t Tell You”

How long should your online survey be? I’ve seen and participated in a number of discussions on this topics over the last several years. After all, you want to collect as much information as possible from your respondents but at the same time you don’t want to annoy them to the point where they quit the survey half-way through. I’ve compiled a list of four factors/questions which determine how long your online survey can reasonably be to avoid dropouts. [Read More]

Most survey software systems offer the ability to send out invitations to your potential respondents on your behalf. But how many of the e-mails actually get through, and how many end up in the spam folder? If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years, you can’t assume that your survey software provider will offer the same level of e-mail deliverability management as an e-mail vendor. [Read More]

A lot of web site recommend a “favorite” survey software program. Some of these sites are, of course, set up by the survey software company they are recommending and some of them are genuine. The reason that I don’t recommend one survey package overall of of the rest is two-fold: (1) I haven’t tried them all yet, so it wouldn’t be fair and (2) it really depends on your own personal need and financial situation. [Read More]

Not for nothing, but I’ve just developed a new web site completely unrelated to MarketResearchTech for my dentist, who wanted to get onto the web. It takes a different approach than most dental related web sites and I’d certainly welcome your feedback before it goes live. The site can be reached at the following link:

• Online Center for Dentures and Dental Implants

Bertolt Meyer has written a not-so-happy review of SPSS for the Mac 16.0. His general thesis is that it is the “most insulting piece of software” he has ever come across. He felt that it didn’t look nor act like an Macintosh application; it isn’t properly internationalized; and more than a dozen bugs. [Read More]

The founders/employees of QuestionPro maintain an interesting company blog that, in addition to describing specific features of their service, also includes a variety of more useful, general information that anyone can theoretically use with any survey service. It’s always nice to see a company that isn’t just focused on getting more clients but is also willing to add to the general knowledge available online. [Read More]

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So let’s say that you need to get 500 survey responses. Which is going to be more efficient: sending a list of potential respondents a $5 gift cards along with a request to take a survey or them the promise of a $10 gift certificate if they take your survey? In 2002 Alhoscha Kaplan and Glenn White of Ernst & Young published a paper in which they did such a test and their results were a little surprising. [Read More]

David Alison, the creator of WebSurveyor survey software, last week wrote a blog entry describing his process for writing the software, launching it, and getting a partner. His account consists of two posts: first describing the startup period, followed by a second post describing the company’s growth. [Read More]

San Francisco-based MarketTools announced today that their survey software product, zTelligence has been given a variety of new features designed to make the product easier to use including several new advanced capabilities. New features include interactive video tutorials, frequently asked questions, a regular live training sessions; new authoring features designed to make survey development go faster; and new reporting features that improve flexibility. [Read More]

SPSS announced recently to its Mac-based customers that SPSS 17.0 for Mac would not be released for the PowerPC based Mac, effectively discontinuing SPSS development for the PowerPC. PowerPC Mac users presently represent about 3% of all online computer users, down from 4.2% back in 2006 when the Intel based Mac was released. This based on the following letter which was recently e-mailed to SPSS for Mac users: [Read More]

I spend a lot of time working in SPSS, and occasionally I need answers about various techniques and methods that aren’t readily available in the included documentation. Fortunately, there is a tremendous amount of free SPSS information and training materials scattered all over the web. Here are a few of my favorites. [Read More]

Qualtrics survey software from Utah-based Qualtrics is an excellent web-based survey software package that offers a fantastic array of question types, a well-designed survey development interface, good fielding/survey promotion capabilities and a powerful reporting engine. It has both panal management features and multi-users capabilities and should definitely be a contender if you’re a corporate research department or academic organization looking for a survey system.  [Read More]