Data Analysis using Software Study materials

Data Analysis
Data analysis is one of the most flourishing fields, right now as businesses around the world
are trying to make sense of their data. However, there are a number of data analysis tools
available in the market. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) one of the
most-used statistical analysis tools.
What is SPSS Software?
It is a suite of software programs that analyses scientific data related to the social sciences.
SPSS offers a fast-visual modelling environment that ranges from the smallest to the most
complex models. The data obtained from SPSS is used for surveys, data mining, market
research, etc.
SPSS was originally launched in 1968 by SPSS Inc., and IBM acquired it in 2009.
SPSS is popular because of its simplicity, easy-to-follow command language, and well-
documented user manual. Government entities, educational institutions, survey companies,
market researchers, marketing organizations, health researchers, data miners, and many others
use it for analysing survey data.
What are the Core Features of SPSS?
The core functionalities offered in SPSS are:
• Statistical program for quantitative data analysis – It includes frequencies, cross-
tabulation, and bivariate statistics.
• Modeler program that allows for predictive modeling. It enables researchers to
build and validate predictive models using advanced statistical procedures.
• Text analysis helps you derive insights from qualitative inputs through open-
ended questionnaires.
• Visualization Designer allows researchers to use their data for a variety of visual
representations.
Apart from the above four functionalities, SPSS also provides data management solutions. Its
data management solutions enable researchers to perform case selection, create derived data,
and perform file reshaping.
SPSS features that make it a must-have analysis tool:
SPSS is a popular tool for research, experimentation, and decision-making. It is one of the most
widely used statistical software worldwide in the world for its attractive features. Here are some
of them:
1. Using SPSS features, users can extract every piece of information from files for
the execution of descriptive, inferential, and multiple variant statistical
procedures.
2. Thanks to SPSS’ Data Mining Manager, its users can conduct smart searches,
extract hidden information with the help of decision trees, design neural networks
of artificial intelligence, and market segmentation.
3. SPSS software can be used to solve algebraic, arithmetic, and trigonometric
operations.
4. SPSS’s Report Generator feature lets you prepare attractive reports of
investigations. It incorporates text, tables, graphs, and statistical results of the
report in the same file.
5. SPSS offers data documentation too. It enables researchers to store a metadata
directory. Moreover, it acts as a centralized information repository in relation to
the data – such as relationships with other data, its meaning, origin, format, and
usage.
Statistical methods that can be leveraged in SPSS:
• Descriptive Statistics – It includes methodologies such as cross-tabulation,
frequencies, and descriptive ratio statistics.
• Bivariate Statistics – It includes methodologies such as means, nonparametric
tests, correlation, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• Predicting numeral outcomes such as linear regression
• Methodologies such as cluster analysis and factor analysis which is great for
prediction for identifying groups
Two SPSS Types
There are two SPSS types:
1. Variable View
2. Data View
Variable View
• Name: It is a column field that accepts a unique ID that helps in sorting the data.
Some of the parameters for sorting data are name, gender, sex, educational
qualification, designation, etc.
• Label: It gives the label and allows you to add special characters.
• Type: It is useful to differentiate the type of data that is being used.
• Width: The length of the characters can be measured here.
• Decimal: It helps us understand how to define the digits required after the
decimal.
• Value: The user enters the value here.
• Missing: Data that is unnecessary for analysis will be ignored.
• Align: As the name suggests, it is for alignment-left or right.
• Measure: It measures the data that is being entered in the tools, such as cardinal,
ordinal, and nominal.
• The data has to enter in the sheet named “variable view”. It allows us to customize the
data type as required for analysing it.
• To analyze the data, one needs to populate the different column headings like Name,
Label, Type, Width, Decimals, Values, Missing, Columns, Align, and Measures.
• These headings are the different attributes which, help to characterize the data
accordingly.
Data View
The data view is displayed as rows and columns. You can import a file or add data manually.
Following are the Steps for importing Excel file into SPSS.
The first step is to click on File
=> Open
=> Select Data
=> Dialog Box
=> Files of type
=> .xls file.
After selecting the excel file that will be imported for performing the data analysis, we need to
ensure that in the dialog box that we selected is “read variable names from the first row of
data”.
SPSS by Industry: Use Cases
SPSS statistics is one of the most commonly used statistical analysis tools in the business
world. Thanks to its powerful features and robustness, its users can manage and analyze data
and represent them in visually attractive graphical forms. It supports a graphical user interface
and command-line, thereby making the software more intuitive.
SPSS makes the processing of complex data pretty simple. It is not easy to work with such
data, and it is also a time-consuming process.
Major industries where SPSS is primarily used
1. Market Research
Businesses want actionable insights using which they can make tough and effective business
decisions. There are tonnes of data generated by businesses, and scanning them manually is
not the right way to analyze them.
• For market researchers who are looking for a reliable solution that will help them understand
their data, analyze trends, forecast, plan, and arrive at conclusions, SPSS is the best tool out
there.
• By using sophisticated statistical analyses, SPSS helps market researchers get actionable
insights from your customer data. Thanks to its powerful survey data analysis technology, it is
possible to get accurate information about market trends.
• Perceptual mapping, preference scaling, predictive analysis, statistical learning, and a bunch
of other advanced tools such as stratified, clustered, and multistage sampling help with the
decision-making process.
2. Education
Educational institutions have to bear the pressure of enrolling students and retaining them each
year. Not to mention the fact that they need to attract new students every year. This is where
SPSS comes in.
• More than 80% of all US colleges are currently using SPSS software.
• SPSS software’s ability to focus on patterns lets them identify the chances of a student’s
future success. It uses a combination of factors that tells them about students who are at risk.
• The institution’s faculty can use SPSS software to analyze a plethora of complex data sets to
uncover hidden patterns.
3. Healthcare
We need to solve a lot of issues to provide great healthcare. In healthcare institutions, outdated
practices in patient delivery and misaligned incentives for caregivers are some of the biggest
issues. This is where analytics can be a life-saver, literally at that. Applying SPSS’ statistical
analysis for healthcare delivery has a number of use cases.
• When it comes to the healthcare sector, the data of patients is sacrosanct. Not only can wrong
data result in terrible outcomes, but they are also timely, sensitive, and instant.
• With the help of SPSS, healthcare organizations can implement a patient delivery program
using data. It will not only drive better patient outcomes but also reduce the costs involved.
• For data sets that have complex relationships, univariate and multivariate modelling
techniques can be used.
4. Retail
The retail industry relies heavily on analytics for everything from initial stock planning to
forecasting future trends. Customers have a lot of leverage when it comes to retail products,
thanks to the advent of social media, forums, and review sites.
Customers are taking their decisions based on the brand’s reviews online. So it is imperative
that retail businesses give the best that can be offered. Thankfully, statistical analysis is a savior
for the retail industry.
• Retail businesses generate a lot of data and it needs to be collected, analyzed, and converted
into actionable insights. By using the data effectively with SPSS software, businesses will end
up providing excellent experiences for their customers.
• SPSS analysis lets retailers understand their customers, provide them with the right solutions
and deliver them using the perfect channels.
• From understanding how different segments of customers behave to why they make certain
buying decisions, everything can be found with the help of SPSS analysis.
• Using the previous spending and behavior patterns, SPSS statistics will profile customers. By
leveraging this data, it will come up with customer preferences and give them an analysis of
what makes customers turn from casual browsers into shoppers.
5 Ways SPSS Predictive Analytics Benefits All Industries
1. Improves customer satisfaction
• When businesses reduce the time taken to investigate fraud or are able to predict issues even
before they occur, customers are the ones who will benefit immensely from it.
• With the help of SPSS Predictive Analytics, marketers can segment their offerings to
different sets of customers.
• By doing so, customers will only get the right offers they are looking for, and such
personalization increases the satisfaction of customers.
2. Increases ROI
• Predictive analytics increases the profitability and efficiency of an organization.
• With predictive analysis, businesses will not indulge in activities that will not increase their
bottom line. Instead, they will concentrate on what is utmost necessary.
• Consequently, they will reduce the costs involved in going after mundane activities.
3. Defend against risks effectively
• Risks can be detrimental to the good health of businesses. Tey will concentrate more on
alleviating the risk rather than focusing on what’s pivotal at that point for the organization.
• With the help of predictive analytics using SPSS, businesses can identify the vulnerabilities
earlier so that they can find out which are the risks that are acceptable and which are not.
4. Saves money
• By using SPSS analysis, businesses can save a lot of money.
• For example, customers in the banking and insurance industries saved more than $2.4
million as they thwarted a motor insurance fraud syndicate within four months of using the
SPSS tool.
5. Avoid problems before they happen
• One of the biggest advantages of using SPSS software is its ability to predict the frequency
of operational failure or downtime.
• Downtime has a significant impact on the bottom line of an organization and will affect how
customers perceive the brand.
• SPSS software helps predict costly issues before they occur as it optimizes production line
uptime and decreases downtime.
Advantages of Using SPSS
The statistical analysis tool makes it possible to import and export data files from other
programs. Some of its data handling procedures are excellent, as its ability to merge files, no
matter whether it is the same subjects and different variables or different subjects and the same
variables, is excellent.
In SPSS, users are not forced to work with syntax, even though syntax files can be saved and
modified as needed. When there are saved syntax files, it helps immensely with documentation
and also gives an idea of how the new variables were calculated and how values that were
missing were handled.
• It offers reliable and fast answers
• It’s dynamic and has useful tables and graphs
• Since it offers a wide variety of languages, a lot of people can access
• Effective data management
• Doesn’t require a lot of effort to start using the software
• Useful for both quantitative and qualitative data
• The chances of errors are little with SPSS
• One of the easiest statistical tools to analyze data
• SPSS users can select the graph type which matches their data distribution
requirement
Limitations of Using SPSS
One of the biggest disadvantages of using SPSS is that you cannot use it to analyze a big data
set. There are certain fields where there is a huge trove of data present. In such industries, using
SPSS might not be the best option out there.
• If researchers collect data using faulty or biased methods, then the resulting statistical
analysis will not give the right answers. If the gap between the sample and the actual
population is negligent, then there is no issue. But if the difference is big, then it will
produce misleading data.
• When researchers do not measure the exact thing that they want to measure, then the
SPSS analysis will not fail.
• One more issue with using a statistical analysis tool such as SPSS is that it ends up
giving you simple answers for complex issues.
What is SPSS and its Importance in Research & Data Analysis?
SPSS (Statistical package for the social sciences) is the set of software programs that are
combined together in a single package. The basic application of this program is to analyze
scientific data related with the social science. This data can be used for market research, surveys,
data mining, etc.
With the help of the obtained statistical information, researchers can easily understand the
demand for a product in the market, and can change their strategy accordingly. Basically, SPSS
first store and organize the provided data, then it compiles the data set to produce suitable output.
SPSS is designed in such a way that it can handle a large set of variable data formats.
How SPSS Helps in Research & Data Analysis Programs:
SPSS is revolutionary software mainly used by research scientists which help them process
critical data in simple steps. Working on data is a complex and time consuming process, but this
software can easily handle and operate information with the help of some techniques. These
techniques are used to analyze, transform, and produce a characteristic pattern between different
data variables. In addition to it, the output can be obtained through graphical representation so
that a user can easily understand the result. Read below to understand the factors that are
responsible in the process of data handling and its execution.
1. Data Transformation: This technique is used to convert the format of the data. After
changing the data type, it integrates same type of data in one place and it becomes easy to
manage it. You can insert the different kind of data into SPSS and it will change its structure as
per the system specification and requirement. It means that even if you change the operating
system, SPSS can still work on old data.
2. Regression Analysis: It is used to understand the relation between dependent and
interdependent variables that are stored in a data file. It also explains how a change in the value
of an interdependent variable can affect the dependent data. The primary need of regression
analysis is to understand the type of relationship between different variables.
3. ANOVA( Analysis of variance): It is a statistical approach to compare events, groups or
processes, and find out the difference between them. It can help you understand which method
is more suitable for executing a task. By looking at the result, you can find the feasibility and
effectiveness of the particular method.
4. MANOVA( Multivariate analysis of variance): This method is used to compare data of
random variables whose value is unknown. MANOVA technique can also be used to analyze
different types of population and what factors can affect their choices.
5. T-tests: It is used to understand the difference between two sample types, and researchers
apply this method to find out the difference in the interest of two kinds of groups. This test can
also understand if the produced output is meaningless or useful.

Conclusion
SPSS helps scientists, researchers, business analysts, managers, and marketers during the entire
analytics process, starting from planning, data collection, data analysis, report creation, and
deployment. No matter what your business objectives are if you have a bunch of data that you
want to analyze, SPSS is one of the best statistical analysis tools that you can use.