SPSS vs. SQL Server 2005
Can anyone provide me with any insight or personal experience with the SPSS data mining product, vs. what's available in SQL Server 2005? Also, what's available in little ol' Express in terms of BI and mining?
Someone has contacted me, looking to bring an existing SPSS and Excel survey data solution in-house, as their consulting statistician has passed away. They are leaning towards using SPSS because they wish to avoid getting into anything overly proprietary, to remain compatible with as many of their clients as possible. (I suppose one could always set up an SPSS/SQL Server import/export process ...)
They may or may not have a Standard or better installation available via another project. They may only have Express available.
I appreciate any input, thanks in advance!
--Andrew
SQL Express doesn't have any BI capability with possibly the exception of using a report control on top of local data. Standard Edition is the minimum requirement for SQL BI functionality.
I think it's odd that SPSS is chosen for the reason of "not being overly proprietary" as there are many more installations of SQL Server than SPSS. Also, your clients may want to know that they can install SQL Server Analysis Services - the part that contains the data mining capability - by itself and they can mine data directly from any major database. Also, the cost (at least for Standard if not Enterprise) is much lower.
Regarding transferring between SPSS and SQL Server Data Mining, it is possible to export tree models from SPSS using PMML and importing them into SQL Server Analysis Services.
HTH
-Jamie
Hi Jamie-
Thanks much for the reply. You've echoed some of my own sentiments.
I don't think they're even really looking for anything truly BI-ish, now that I've got more information. It sounds like relatively simple statistics, taking survey results, and respondent demographic information, and providing typical analysis on raw numbers, trends, etc. etc. across those concepts.
I'd like to implement this with SQL Server alone, as the client will need training either way, whether it's SPSS or a .NET solution. I'd much rather be training them on my software, than on software I've not used extensively. And I think I can deal with their "proprietary" concerns with a robust import/export facility.
It turns out they haven't priced out an SPSS solution yet either; I'm working with SPSS now to attempt to define their actual needs a bit, and see what that package, plus training, would cost. I'm not even certain if they're looking to use SPSS as the datasource, or attach an SPSS package to an existing DB. I think it's the former, as apparently that's what their former consultant was doing. Which probably also explains the push towards SPSS.
--Andrew
