SPSS has announced the release of SPSS Dimensions 5.0, an upgrade to last year’s version 4.5. Although in my opinion this feels more like an incremental release, it does have some notable new features including the SPSS Desktop Author, a new customizable question wizard, better integration with SPSS Predictive Enterprise Repository and SPSS Report. (more…)
I recently received a request for information about the available data tabbing (cross-tab, table generating) software that is available out there and thought I might share what I know. Personally I was a little surprised that there aren’t more software packages out there that do this kind of work — the ones that are available are fairly expensive.
The idea of this type of software is that you can take a data set (perhaps in SPSS format or some other standard or not so standard format) and almost automatically generate tables for each of the questions in the dataset. Usually each table would feature a number of columns representing different market segments (the "banner") while the various responses to each question would be shown in each row.
Such software is usually capable of automatically doing various statistical tests, sometimes including but not necessarily limited to t-tests, z-test, ANOVA and Chi-Square. Some programs can also weight and sort the data, as well as merge data sets, provide sample balancing, generate charts to go with each table, and provide output into a number of different formats ranging from text files to Excel spreadsheets to Powerpoint templates.
WinCross is perhaps the most well known of the bunch, and has been around a long time (it is presently at version 7). It is entirely compatible with SPSS 15.0, allows for 32,000 data columns and up to 3,000 rows per table; offers a number of different statistical tests; and can important export in a number of formats. My biggest complaint is that the user interface seems like it was developed about 10 years ago, and that it costs $1,995 per copy (the more copies you buy, the less it costs). Learn more at the WinCross web site.
Version 2 of GMI Research Analyzer was recently released by Global Market Insite. It will also take your data set, crosstab it, create reports, and export it into a number of different formats — but it also allows you to do drag-and-drop analysis of you data and has a much friendlier interface. It can be purchased from the GMI web site for $995 per copy.
MarketSight is a completely online tool for analyzing your data and is sold as a subscription service for $995 per year. It offers much of the same data analysis and reporting capabilities as the WinCross or GMI tool, and it has the added advantage of being accessible from anywhere you havea web connection. There are some limits to the size of the files you can upload yourself (only 50,000 records) but if you’re looking for a fairly easy to use program that doesn’t require a lot of effort to learn, visit the MarketSight web site.
SPSS Desktop Reporter was recently released as an integrated member of the SPSS Dimensions suite of products. Based on my limited experience with the program it appears to be a very user-friendly tool that can be used independently of the other Dimensions products. If you’ve ever used mrTables — well, this is like mrTables, except that you have all of the data available on your desktop and there are many more options. SPSS Desktop Reporter has all of the features of the other software packages, plus especially easy integration with other SPSS products. It sells for about $2,800 per copy. More information is available at SPSS.com.
If you are on a "budget" (and I use that term loosely) and already have SPSS, you may be able to get SPSS Tables (a module available for SPSS) to do many of the things you need, albeit with the requirement that you do a lot of it manually. It sells for only $800 a copy and can be found on the SPSS web site.
Another package worth considering if you are on a budget is Memphis Market Intelligence’s Survey Explorer. Different versions of the software are available which offer the ability to work with differently sized datasets — at different prices. So if you are dealing with a medium sized data set (50 questions, with no more than 2500 respondents) you could get the "Personal" edition of the software for only $519, the "Professional" edition for $579, or the "Enterprise" edition for $749. There most advanced version of the software allows for an unlimited number of questions, an unlimited number of waves and up to 20,000 respondents and can be purchased for $1,439. Although I haven’t had a chance to play with it, it appears to offer many of the features of the more expensive packages and is worth looking into at the Memphis Software web site.
If there are any other packages that you would recommend, please don’t hesitate to send them to me.
SPSS recently announced the release of SPSS Dimensions 4.0, the latest incarnation of its enterprise survey and analysis suite that does everything from helping you create surveys to analyzing the data to generating reports. Before looking into the new features introduced in version 4.0, I thought it might first be interesting to explore the basic features of the system. In other words, what is SPSS Dimensions?
SPSS Dimensions isn’t so much an individual software package as much as it is a platform of several independent software packages that are able to work together in a relatively seamless fashion. Sort of like how each of the programs within Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, etc) can work independently (and be purchased independently) but also work very well together. Like Office, most of the packages that work with Dimensions are published by SPSS — although the platform has been designed to accommodate the integration of software written by 3rd party developers (and several such packages do exist).
Some of the programs that work with Dimensions include:
At the core of SPSS Dimensions is the Dimensions Data Model, a set of components (openly documented and supported) which allow for accessing information about questionnaires and respondent data. It also deals with keeping track of changes to the questionnaire (versioning), translating both questions and data from one format to another, and managing data stored in multiple formats and platforms.
Visual representation of the Dimensions Data Model
(from the SPSS presentation "Using the SPSS MR Data Model")
The table above describes the role of the data model well. Data can be collected from multiple sources. Instead of each collection program storing the data in its own database, it instead sends it to the Dimensions Data Model which puts it into its own special format. When another program, such as a data processing program or a data analysis program needs the data it requests it from the Dimensions Data Model using standardized request formats (that just about any program can use).
Consider a project in which you need to collect data using three different survey techniques including a phone survey, a web-based survey and a paper survey. Even though you’re going to ask the same basic questions in each survey, you are still going to have to develop three completely different questionnaires in order to compliment each of the mediums, which further means you’re going to have to program the survey three different times (perhaps four, if you consider that you may be using scanning software to read some of your paper surveys).
Even though the question is the same, it needs to appear different
across modes and across functions (from the SPSS presentation
"Improving Government Programs with Comprehensive Data Collection")
After you’ve finished collecting the data (using three separate data collection tools, all of which store the data in their own, separate proprietary format that exports into the frustratingly simple CSV format, you’ll then have to combine all of the data into one file which you’ll then need to clean and prepare for analysis. Following analysis, you’ll export your results into yet another program.
Using the SPSS Dimensions Suite (or more specifically, software that is integrated into the Dimensions Suite) makes the process go much faster by optimizing the mechanics of designing and fielding your questionnaire and analyzing and reporting on the data.
Dimensions reduces the time it takes to conduct a complex research project
(Source: SPSS presentation "Discover it with Dimensions")
SPSS Dimensions has been developed based on the notion of "Design Once, use Many" so once you have created your initial questionnaire (either using a simple, graphic user interface found in mrInterview or the more advanced script driven interface provided by mrStudio — either package will allow you to import the text of your survey from MS Word), you can then quickly (and easily) set it up to deploy using multiple modes (paper, web, CATI, etc).
Perhaps one of the most exciting features of SPSS Dimensions is its multi mode deployment capabilities. Most surveys today require some amount of programming to deal with skipping, piping, the incorporation of outside data, and other advanced options. Ordinarily, each mode would require its own programming. SPSS Dimensions is designed so that you only need to write the script once and it will work the same in each context.
SPSS Dimensions allows you to program your survey once
and have it work on multiple platforms. (from the SPSS presentation
"Improving Government Programs with Comprehensive Data Collection")
Dimensions not only helps you design and execute your survey, it also manages security, translating the survey into multiple languages, and manages multiple versions of your survey as well.
External databases containing participant details can be added at any time, and it can be used both in the survey and during analysis. Data from outside sources can be reviewed during the survey to check for inaccuracies, and it can even be updated based on responses given in the survey.
All of the data that is collected, regardless of how it is collected, goes into one SPSS Dimensions database where it can then be analyzed and reported on. Although Dimensions is an open platform that will allow analysis to be conducted in any program (it will export data into a variety of formats for other programs to use), the suite is optimized to work with several SPSS-published programs, such as mrStudio, mrTables, SPSS for Windows and Clementine. Results can then be automatically turned into interactive web-based reports or analyzed using Excel, Word or PowerPoint. Dimensions integrates all of the major capabilities provided by SPSS’s various data analysis packages, including SPSS Base for statistical analysis; Clementine for data mining, and SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys for text analysis and categorization as well as a variety of SPSS and 3rd party data collection and reporting tools.
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