SPSS Rolls Out Clementine Version 11

Published: January 30, 2007

by Alex Woodie

Business intelligence software developer SPSS recently unveiled a new version of Clementine, the data mining software that's often deployed alongside CRM systems to help detect customer patterns, like fraud. Version 11 includes better data cleansing and transformation capabilities, many new calculations, and improved output.

Clementine is one of several predictive analytics products from SPSS that help companies improve their visibility into their customers' buying trends and habits. In a nutshell, the software accomplishes this little feat of magic by analyzing information on past circumstances along with present events, and projecting their future actions, such as whether they might stop being customers, or try to rip somebody off.

With version 11, SPSS is aiming to make predicting the future even easier. The product includes new algorithms for credit scoring, complex pricing models, CRM and response modeling, forecasting, and rule-based models that incorporate users' business knowledge, the company says.

Future predictions will arrive earlier than before, thanks to better tooling with Clementine, according to SPSS. The new release includes more robust transformation capabilities, more automated data cleansing, and the use of "optimal binning" to enable more predictive power, the company says. What's more, the new Binary Classifier feature makes it easier to build multiple models simultaneously, so that the user can pick the best one.

The future is also clearer with Clementine 11.0 thanks to a new graphics engine that makes it easier to generate and edit images, and closer integration with SPSS statistical products.

Unfortunately for iSeries shops, the OS/400 version of Clementine is still several months away from general availability, according to SPSS officials; the Windows version is available now. Stay tuned for more coverage of Clementine for iSeries in an upcoming issue of this newsletter.

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