Important Note: SPSS does not work with Windows XP Home Edition. It requires Windows XP Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Professional, Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Enterprise.

IBM SPSS Statistics is the ultimate tool for managing your statistics data and research.

This super-app affords you complete control over your data. It allows you to make complex graphs and illustrations from statistics and is firmly aimed at professionals who want to solve business and research problems. To facilitate this, SPSS features a wide range of analytical functions that take the pain out of collating data.

SPSS offers detailed analysis options to look deeper into your data and spot trends that you might not have noticed. You can test out hundreds of different variables on your data to see how figures or performance would change under different circumstances, while the app contains multiple advanced features that will allow you get the max from your data.

An array of features

Among these features are excellent sharing options, automated models, the ability to operate server versions of IBM SPSS Statistics Base and modules on IBM mainframe servers, a syntax editor, integration with Microsoft Office, and much, much more. In order to get a better idea of the functions and features, take a look here.

Obviously, such power comes at a price. The SPSS download is pretty large, and once you do have the program installed, it’s a pretty steep learning curve until you find your feet. You could argue that SPSS is actually a glorified version of Excel, but with far more options and power behind it, it’s an impressive beast. As a result, domestic users may be intimidated and would be better off getting started on a simpler data management app.

If you’re serious about statistics, then SPSS is as good as it gets.