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SPSS Inc. is combining its NetGenesis Web analytics and Clementine predictive-modeling applications to give users more-sophisticated customer-profiling and predictive-analysis capabilities. The Predictive Web Analytics system helps Web-site operators go beyond analyzing historical data and predict site visitors' behavior.

NetGenesis, which SPSS acquired in 2001, collects and scrutinizes Web data for basic metrics such as page-view counts, as well as more complex analysis such as what content drives sales. With Clementine added to the mix, analysts can analyze the historical data to predict customer behavior, such as scoring their propensity to respond to an offer.

FT.com, the Web site for the Financial Times, has used NetGenesis for three years to measure the site's performance. But because the site gets an average of 55 million page views a month, the large volume of data collected was becoming more difficult to analyze. "It's put an enormous load on our NetGenesis software," says Chris Catchpole, head of FT's database services.

Last month, FT began using Clementine to identify the most relevant data for analysis. For example, Catchpole's group is using the NetGenesis-Clementine combination to understand how paying customers take advantage of services in the subscription-only portion of the Web site, such as stock-portfolio management and article archive searches. The database-services group uses that knowledge to convince surfers of the site's free content to become subscribers. The software is also being used to predict which subscribers may not renew their subscriptions.

Pricing for Predictive Web Analytics starts at $135,000 and is based on the size and complexity of the deployment. The system is available now and supports Windows 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Sun Solaris 7 and 8, and Oracle8i Standard and Enterprise editions.