IBM Watson Explorer vs SAS Analytics comparison

IBM and SAS are both solutions in the Data Mining category. IBM is ranked #10, while SAS is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 0.8% mindshare in DM, compared to SAS’s 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of SAS users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Watson Explorer and SAS Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Mining solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

IBM SPSS Statistics

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Data Mining category, the mindshare of IBM SPSS Statistics is 14.5%, up from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Watson Explorer is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Analytics is 6.9%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Mining

Featured Reviews

AbakarAhmat

Software Engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees

Enhancing survey analysis that provides valued insightfulness

I used traditional tools where I would prepare data, click through menus, and use SQL Server for data visualization. We switched to IBM SPSS because it offers strong certification and aligns well with the standards we prioritize in our surveys. In terms of popularity, it stands out as the top choice in the market, especially in the research and university domains. Many different organizations and institutions use SPSS for statistical analytics. While there are other tools like MCLab and similar options available, SPSS is the most renowned and widely used among them.

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it_user840897

Head of Commercialization at Woodside Energy

Ingests, retrieves information from a range of sources; enables dissecting questions in context and answering them

WEX is more a platform, I believe, than it is the application. I could talk about what I'm looking for in the application. We've done visualizations and we can do basic analysis with the system as it stands. Where we're looking to take it is implementing it into workflows, so the workers on the line can actually understand the risks that they're exposing themselves to and then address them on the fly. So that's fantastic. And then the final one is, it's not prediction, but maybe anticipation. So when people are put at risk, we'll be implementing solutions shortly that will help people anticipate the risks and the dangers they're exposing themselves to so they can control them.

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Tanin U

Assistant Vice President at AEON Thana Sinsap

Provides comprehensive data analysis tools and functionalities, but its higher pricing and potential stability issues may present drawbacks

SAS Analytics plays a vital role in enhancing our decision-making processes, particularly in areas such as customer segmentation and operational efficiency. While our current setup operates smoothly, certain partners still rely on another platform, specifically the virtualization dashboard. I believe it's a significant improvement compared to the traditional approach I've been using for the past ten years. Previously, when management had inquiries, they would create documents or memos, and IT would then track down the data, interpret it, and provide feedback. This process involved explaining the data structure, database, and definitions in the data warehouse. Now, with SAS Analytics, the workflow is much smoother and faster. IT is more streamlined, allowing for quicker access to data, and managers can directly access and utilize the sales reports.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"They have many existing algorithms that we can use and use effectively to analyze and understand how to put our data to work to improve what we do."

"The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information in it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it."

"You can quickly build models because it does the work for you."

"It is perfectly adequate if all you need are the results and not the trail of evidence."

"SPSS can handle whatever you throw at it, whether your data set contains 10,000, 100,000, or a million objects. It's like the heavy artillery of analytical tools."

"Custom tables and macros: They allow us to create useful reports quickly for a broad audience."

"Most of the product features are good but I particularly like the linear regression analysis."

"The best part is that they have an algorithm handbook, so you can open it up and understand how it works, and if it is useful, this is very important."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pros

"The valuable feature of Watson Explorer for us is data entities, and to see the hidden insights from within unstructured data."

"For me, as a user, the most valuable feature is the ability to ingest and then retrieve information from a range of separate sources; the ability to dissect questions in context and actually answer them."

"We take natural language that was happening in our repositories and our application and then feed it to the Watson APIs. We receive JSON payloads as an API response to get cognitive feedback from the repository data."

"The ability to easily pull together lots of different pieces of information and drill down in a smarter way than has been possible with other analytics tools is key. Watson is all based on a set of AI and deep learning, machine-learning capabilities, and it is looking behind the scenes at some relationships that you likely would not have spotted on your own. It's pulling things together, categorizing some things, that are not something that you might have seen on your own."

"Ease of use is pretty good as is the standardization of not actually having to have my own natural learning algorithms, just to use the Watson APIs."

"I have found the auto-generated document very useful as well as the main keywords that are highlighted, which are used for the search functionality within IBM Watson Explorer."

"Modeling ones and figures, such as PROC LIFETEST, PROC LOGISTICS, PROC GPLOT. PROC FREQ and PROC MEANS, are also among the valuable features."

"I use SAS daily to analyze data, produce reports, and other outputs."

"They have provided virtually everything we have needed to accomplish our task, as well as continuously improving our accuracy."

"I use it to replicate our entire financial system to verify/duplicate calculations."

"It has facilitated timely analysis results with quality work and meaningful output."

"It has also been around for an extremely long time, has a strong history, and good market penetration."

"It has improved the level of efficacy and validity of our reports."

"The team immediately resolves the issues."

More SAS Analytics pros

Cons

"Technical support needs some improvement, as they do not respond as quickly as we would like."

"I would like SPSS to improve its integration with other data-filing IBM tools. I also think its duration with data, utilization, and graphics could be better."

"IBM SPSS Statistics could improve the visual outputs where you are producing, for example, a graph for a company board of directors, or an advert."

"I feel that when it comes to conducting multiple analyses, there could be more detailed information provided. Currently, the software gives a summary and an overview, but it would be beneficial to have specific details for each product or variable."

"SPSS slows down the computer or the laptop if the data is huge; then you need a faster computer."

"The solution needs more planning tools and capabilities."

"If there is any self-generation data collection plan (DCP), it would be helpful in gathering data. It would also be useful if there is a function to scale it up to, let's say, UiPath and have it consolidate and integrate into a UiPath solution."

"Needs more statistical modelling functions."

More IBM SPSS Statistics cons

"More cognitive feedback would be good. The natural language analysis is great, the sentiment analyzers are great. But I would just like to see more... innovation done with the Watson platform."

"It is a little bit tricky to get used to the workflow of knowing how to train Watson, what can be provided, what can't be, how to provide it, how to import, export, and what it means every time you have to add a new dictionary"

"Small businesses will probably have a little harder time getting into it, just because of the amount of resources that they have available, both financial and time, but it really is a solution that should work for them."

"Stability is actually one of the areas that could use improvement. Setting it up is always tough. Setting Explorer requires experts, but also the underlying platform is not that stable. So it really needs a good expert to keep it running."

"Much of IBM operates this way, where they have sets of tools that are in the middleware space, and it becomes the customer's responsibility or the business partner's responsibility to develop full solutions that take advantage of that middleware. I think IBM's finding itself in that spot with Watson-related technologies as well, where the capabilities to do really interesting and useful things for customers is there, but somebody still has to build it. Is that going to be the customer? Are they going to be willing to take on that responsibility themselves"

"The solution is expensive."

"I would say, give some kind of a community edition, a free edition. A lot of companies do, even Amazon gives you some kind of trial and error opportunities. If they could provide something like that, it would be good."

"It needs better language support, to include some other languages. Also, they should improve the user interface."

"The installation could also be easier, and the price could be better."

"The graphing and visualization features could be enhanced, in my opinion. I would especially stress improving the visualization capabilities."

"The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved."

"There is potential for enhancement, particularly in the virtualized dashboard's capability to generate reports."

"One of the things that can be simplified is self-service analytics, especially for a citizen developer or a citizen data scientist."

"The training for SAS Business Intelligence is often difficult to arrange. It is often cancelled due to not enough people being enrolled."

"They could enhance the AI capabilities of the product."

"Support at universities used to be limited, but I hear this is changing."

More SAS Analytics cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licence is on a yearly renewal basis. While pricing is not the primary concern in our evaluation, as products are assessed by whether they can meet our user needs and expertise, the cost can be a limiting factor in the number of licences we procure."

"We think that IBM SPSS is expensive for this function."

"SPSS is an expensive piece of software because it's incredibly complex and has been refined over decades, but I would say it's fairly priced."

"The price of IBM SPSS Statistics could improve."

"While the pricing of the product may be higher, the accompanying service and features justify the investment."

"The pricing of the modeler is high and can reduce the utility of the product for those who can not afford to adopt it."

"More affordable training for new staff members."

"If it requires lot of data processing, maybe switching to IBM SPSS Clementine would be better for the buyer."

More IBM SPSS Statistics pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive."

"Prices were comparable with alternative solutions."

"The pricing tends to be higher, and there are additional expenses involved."

"Our licensing covers the usage for around 50 data analysts."

"The cost for SAS Business Intelligence can prove to be a little prohibitive."

"Licensing was rather straightforward."

"I rate the product’s pricing a one out of ten."

"I think that the cost-benefit ratio is okay."

"SAS is very expensive."

More SAS Analytics pricing and cost advice

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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

University

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

18%

Educational Organization

13%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Educational Organization

10%

University

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM SPSS Statistics?

The software offers consistency across multiple research projects helping us with predictive analytics capabilities.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM SPSS Statistics?

The cost of IBM SPSS Statistics is managed by organizations, not individual researchers. It is a very expensive produ...

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What needs improvement with IBM SPSS Statistics?

IBM SPSS Statistics does not keep you close to your data like KNIME. In KNIME, at every stage, you can see the result...

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What do you like most about SAS Analytics?

I like that it is quickly embedding interactive reports and dashboards into a website, Outlook Mail, or even a mobile...

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What needs improvement with SAS Analytics?

The natural language querying and automated preparation of dashboards should be improved. The cost and accessibility ...

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What is your primary use case for SAS Analytics?

This is an application I use for data prep, data exploration, BI reporting, and some basic automated analytics.

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Compared 36% of the time

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Compared 28% of the time

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Compared 38% of the time

Weka vs SAS Analytics

Compared 23% of the time

IBM SPSS Modeler vs SAS Analytics

Compared 14% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SPSS Statistics

November 2024

Download IBM SPSS Statistics product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer

November 2024

Download IBM Watson Explorer product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Mining

October 2024

Download SAS Analytics product report

Also Known As

SPSS Statistics

IBM WEX

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SAS

Overview

IBM SPSS Statistics is a powerful data mining solution that is designed to aid business leaders in making important business decisions. It is designed so that it can be effectively utilized by organizations across a wide range of fields. SPSS Statistics allows users to leverage machine learning algorithms so that they can mine and analyze data in the most effective way possible.

IBM SPSS Statistics Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy IBM SPSS Statistics include:

Ease of use. SPSS Statistics enables users to simply and intuitively take control of their statistical needs. The solution is designed so that analysts who do not know how to code can easily make full use of the various tools and capabilities that SPSS Statistics has to offer. Its command language is so straightforward that it does not require users to undergo special training before they use it.

Comprehensive and flexible build. SPSS Statistics is designed to be both a comprehensive and highly flexible analytics solution. It enables users to utilize a variety of integrations that make it easy for users to add features that they might feel they are missing.

Automation. SPSS Statistics makes it simple for users to automate basic tasks that they might otherwise devote too much time worrying about. Tasks like calculation or data gathering can be delegated to the system while more conceptual tasks like data analysis are given to an organization’s analysts to handle.

IBM SPSS Statistics Features

Intuitive user interface. SPSS Statistics enables users to deploy an intuitive interface that makes the process of system management simple. Among the other components of this interface is a drag-and-drop feature that makes analysis and management possible for anyone who wants to use it.

Advanced data visualizations. Analysts that employ SPSS Statistics gain access to tools that empower them to create and export data visualizations. These visualizations can be formatted in many different ways depending on what the user needs.

Local data storage. SPSS Statistics has the ability to securely store data on a user’s computer. This enables them to add layers of security that would not necessarily be present if the data was stored in the cloud.

Reviews from Real Users

IBM SPSS Statistics is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are the wealth of functionalities that it provides and its high level of accessibility.

An Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at a university writes, "The most valuable feature of IBM SPSS Statistics is all the functionality it provides. Additionally, it is simple to do the five-way analysis that you can in a multidimensional setup space. It's the multidimensional space facility that is most useful."

A Director of Systems Management & MIS Operations at a university, says, “The SPSS interface is very accessible and user-friendly. It's really easy to get information from it. I've shared it with experts and beginners, and everyone can navigate it.”

IBM Watson Explorer is a cognitive exploration and content analysis platform that lets you listen to your data for advice. Explore and analyze structured, unstructured, internal, external and public content to uncover trends and patterns that improve decision-making, customer service and ROI. Leverage built-in cognitive capabilities powered by machine learning models, natural language processing and next-generation APIs to unlock hidden value in all your data. Gain a secure 360-degree view of customers, in context, to deliver better experiences for your clients.

SAS was founded in 1976 and actually began as a project at North Carolina State University to analyze agriculture research. It has since become a global company that is recognized for its innovation in data analytics and business intelligence. SAS is redefining what's possible with data analytics through greater efficiency, strong information value chains, effective collaboration tools, and state-of-the-art visualization software. SAS Analytics is designed for use in a variety of industries including government, manufacturing, higher education, defense & security, banking, automotive, communications, and much more. SAS Analytics is a business intelligence (BI) solution that has the ability to reveal patterns and anomalies in data, identify relationships and different variables, and predict future outcomes. Users of SAS Analytics will benefit from making more sound, better informed business decisions based on company data and market trends. Data mining, data visualization, text analytics, forecasting, statistical analysis, and more are all available through SAS Analytics. Staples, which boasts $27 billion in sales across the globe, has a business philosophy that prioritizes customer loyalty and satisfaction. In order to better engage their customers, Staples utilizes SAS Analytics to plan finely tuned marketing campaigns. Through forecasting and advanced analytics, Staples has been able to rely on fewer contractors, and cut their marketing budget, while improving their customer retention rate.

Sample Customers

LDB Group, RightShip, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Capgemini Consulting, TEAC Corporation, Ironside, nViso SA, Razorsight, Si.mobil, University Hospitals of Leicester, CROOZ Inc., GFS Fundraising Solutions, Nedbank Ltd., IDS-TILDA

RIMAC, Westpac New Zealand, Toyota Financial Services, Swiss Re, Akershus University Hospital, Korean Air Lines, Mizuho Bank, Honda

Aegon, Alberta Parks, Amway China, Axel Springer, Bank of America, Belgium Special Tax, CAP Index, CareSource, CBE Group, Cemig, Center for Responsible Lending, CESCE, Ceska sporitelna, Chantecler, Chico's, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, CIGNA Thailand, City of Wiesbaden, Germany, Confused.com, Creditreform, Des Moines Area Community College, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DIRECTV, Dow Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, Dun & Bradstreet, EDF Energy, Electrabel GDF SUEZ, ERGO Insurance Group, Erste Bank Croatia, Farmers Mutual Group, Finnair, Florida Department of Corrections, Geneia, Generali Hellas, Genting Malaysia Berhad, Grameenphone, Grandi Salumifici Italiani, HealthPartners, Highmark, Hong Kong Efficiency Unit, HP, Hyundai Securities, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family ServicesInc Research, ING-DiBa, Institut Pertanian Bogor, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), IOM, Kelley Blue Book, Lenovo, Lillebaelt Hospital, Los Angeles County, Maspex Wadowice Group, National Bank of Greece, New Zealand Ministry of Health, New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, Nippon Paper, NMIMS, North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), Oberweis Dairy, ODEC, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, Oklahoma State University, OneBeacon, Orange Business Services, Orange County Child Support Services, Organic, Orlando Magic, OTP Bank, Plano Independent School District, Project Odyssey, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, RSA Canada, SCAD, Scotiabank, Singapore National Library Board, Sobeys Inc., SRA International, Staples, Statistics Estonia, Swisscom, SymphonyIRI Group, Telecom Italia, Telef‹nica O2, Town of Cary, Transitions Optical, TrueCar, Turkcell Superonline, UniCredit Bank Serbia, University of Alabama, University of Missouri, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service

Buyer's Guide

IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics

October 2024

Free Report: IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Watson Explorer vs. SAS Analytics and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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