Overview
What is IBM Cognos Analytics?
IBM Cognos is a full-featured business intelligence suite by IBM, designed for larger deployments. It comprises Query Studio, Reporting Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio, and Cognos Administration along with tools for Microsoft Office integration, full-text search, and dashboards.
Good BI tool for advanced analytics.
It's like a Swiss Army knife for our data
IBM Cognos Analytics Review
Great Data Visual tool that's let down by lack of integrations & customer support.
IBM Cognos for Automation, Business Performance Insights, and Advanced Learning
Unlocking Business Insights with IBM Cognos Analytics
IBM Cognos Analytics: The best blend of PowerBI, Tableau & Qlik
Best Business AI Tool
IBM Cognos Analytics
Great for data analysis
Best translation of AI into Business Analytics
Powerful and reliable BI tool
IBM Cognos Analytics Review
Data unification capacity, great help to the end user in the creation of the final report.
How IBM Cognos Analytics Differs From Its Competitors
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
The data we collect is to make sure we make earth a better place to live hence we go a extra mile to make sure the data is secured and only the authorised persons have access the the data.
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
It offers tremendously helpful capabilities for row level and role level security on top of already powerful single sign on and multi factor authentication …
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
The AI assistant natural language processing is also a great tool to fill the knowledge gap that is normal for clients using these kind of tools.
Data Security and Quality
Proper content management and data quality features improved the confidence in the quality of the data.
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Formatting capabilities (102)8.181%
- Drill-down analysis (101)8.080%
- Report Delivery Scheduling (100)7.979%
- Customizable dashboards (99)7.878%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $10 per month per user
Product Demos
IBM Cognos Analytics Product Tour
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 8.5Pixel Perfect reports(92) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 7.8Customizable dashboards(99) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 7.4Report Formatting Templates(96) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 8Drill-down analysis(101) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8.1Formatting capabilities(102) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 7.8Integration with R or other statistical packages(71) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 8.4Report sharing and collaboration(99) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 8.3Publish to Web(27) Ratings
- 8.7Publish to PDF(97) Ratings
- 8.6Report Versioning(26) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 7.9Report Delivery Scheduling(100) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
- 8.1Delivery to Remote Servers(12) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 8Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(88) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 8.2Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(85) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 8.1Predictive Analytics(81) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
- 8Pattern Recognition and Data Mining(20) Ratings
Pattern recognition and data mining mean the ability to recognize hidden patterns in large quantities of data.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 8.4Multi-User Support (named login)(95) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 8.3Role-Based Security Model(94) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 8.2Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(94) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 8.4Report-Level Access Control(23) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
- 8.3Single Sign-On (SSO)(76) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 7.9Responsive Design for Web Access(75) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 7.3Mobile Application(66) Ratings
A dedicated app for iOS and/or Android.
- 8.1Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(72) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another
- 7.2REST API(57) Ratings
REST is an architecture style for designing networked applications
- 7.5Javascript API(56) Ratings
A Javascript API is a type of API
- 8.3iFrames(9) Ratings
An iFrame is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website
- 6.9Java API(11) Ratings
A Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK)
- 7.1Themeable User Interface (UI)(10) Ratings
A themeable user interface means that a specific visual them can be applied to it
- 7.8Customizable Platform (Open Source)(7) Ratings
A customizable, open source API Gateway is a fast and scalable type of API
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is IBM Cognos Analytics?
IBM Cognos Analytics Features
BI Platform Features
- Supported: Administration via Web Interface
- Supported: Live Connection to External Data
- Supported: Snapshot of External Data
- Supported: In-memory data model
- Supported: OLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
- Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
- Supported: ETL Capability
- Supported: ETL Scheduler
Supported Data Sources Features
- Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
- Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
- Supported: Oracle
- Supported: MS SQL Server
- Supported: IBM DB2
- Supported: MySQL
- Supported: ODBC
- Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
- Supported: IBM Netezza
- Supported: SAP Hana
- Supported: Salesforce
- Supported: SAP
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
- Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
- Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Mobile Application
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features
- Supported: REST API
- Supported: Javascript API
Additional Features
- Supported: AI Forecasting
IBM Cognos Analytics Integrations
IBM Cognos Analytics Competitors
IBM Cognos Analytics Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
Supported Countries | Global |
Supported Languages | English, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, Urdu, Farsi |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(577)Attribute Ratings
- 9.7Likelihood to Renew27 ratings
- 8.6Availability4 ratings
- 9Performance5 ratings
- 8Usability8 ratings
- 10Support Rating8 ratings
- 8Online Training4 ratings
- 8.7In-Person Training4 ratings
- 7Implementation Rating7 ratings
- 8Configurability2 ratings
- 8.3Product Scalability3 ratings
- 7.3Ease of integration3 ratings
- 7Vendor pre-sale1 rating
- 7Vendor post-sale1 rating
- 2.5Data Visualization4 ratings
- 8.3Data Sources40 ratings
- 8.6Data Sharing and Collaboration40 ratings
- 8.7IBM Cognos Reporting 4.14.2157 ratings
- 8.3IBM Cognos Data Modeling 4.14.212 ratings
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)IBM Cognos
- Active report dashboard for Tablets and Cell Phones
- Multi-Dimension Cubes
- Metric Studio Models to analyse and monitor the metrics across organization
- Drill from Totals in Analysis Studio
- Decreases in turn around in almost all the departments
- Financial Performance improvement
Meghdeep
- Framework Manager (metadata modeling tool) is a pretty flexible tool for any complex data modeling.
- With use of Report Studio you can handle any business logic for reporting.
- Event studio is used for event based scheduling.
- Business Insight advanced is used for ad-hoc reporting.
- Query studio out-of-the-box is a bit primitive. It is used for ad-hoc reporting, but if something is changed in Query Studio by and end user, it's not possible to see what exactly was changed without going into Report Studio. This is problematic as it means that end users need licenses for Report Studio which is not feasible.
- Metric studio we have not used at all, and don't know exact purpose of it.
Need better performance monitoring tool.
It would also be great if there were an option to rename columns and query subjects without modifying all existing reports.
- Single version of truth. We have centralized all reporting to one tool.
- Market Basket Analysis.
- Email canned reports.
- Single version of truth.
- Implemented in-house
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
- Various .Net based applications.
- SAP ECC 6.0.
- Amazon cloud.
An Analytics Consultant's Perspective
- Dynamic Query Mode with a large number of Relational and OLAP database compatibility such as Oracle and Essbase, Microsoft SQL Server and Analysis Services, SAP BW, IBM DB2, Teradata, etc. makes for efficient backend queries no matter if the front end metadata is relational or multidimensional.
- Compatibility mode queries allow for custom ODBC and JDBC connection to made, so even if there is no native compatibility other databases can still be used as a source if needed.
- Dynamic Cubes are capable of querying against millions of rows in seconds when properly set up with sufficient hardware resources.
- Standard Reports are snappy, returning data and rendering quickly, as long as the pagination is kept to reasonable quantities.
- Active reports can be run offline and incorporate animation and dynamic filters. Keep in mind that the data doesn't refresh until the report is retrieved from the server again.
- Great interoperability between the different studios in the suite. Something made in Analysis or Query Studio can be converted to Report Studio easily. Workspace Advanced natively creates and opens Report Studio reports as well.
- Report Studio can convert a regular report into an active report. The reverse is not possible though.
- Workspace can take in individual charts or whole reports from other tools as widgets and even customize them for the specific dashboard being built.
- End users can make their own copies of a pre-built dashboard and adjust things such as changing conditional color labels or adding new calculated members.
- Interoperability with other IBM Cognos tools allows TM1 and SPSS to be used as data sources for reports, as well as directly used as widgets in Workspace dashboards.
- Centralized content store allows the different desktop tools to use the same logins and access the same shared resources as the server, such as data sources.
- Framework Manager is a very powerful tool that can create both dimensional and relational models simultaneously from the same underlying database.
- Framework Manager can work on any database design, it does not have to be a Kimball star schema.
- Framework Manager has built in tools for validating a model without having to do a complete publish
- Security for roles, users, etc. can be built directly into the model without any need for extra programming
- Framework Manager is a visual tool, and only requires rudimentary SQL knowledge to use effectively.
- Localization is supported natively and can be added to any model.
- Dynamic Query Manager can automatically create aggregation for Dynamic Cubes to optimize runtime.
- Reporting Bursting can be set up to send prefiltered reports via mail or some other means on regular intervals or when triggered by certain events, such as a particular number being too low.
- Administration for Multi-tenanted environments is built directly into Cognos
- Connecting multiple LDAP and AD systems simultaneously is supported, allowing users to use their normal company usernames and passwords
- Mobile support add on allows standard and Active reports to be displayed with a mobile device friendly interface automatically without requiring creating a separate version.
- Cognos Mashup Service can be used to embed reports in outside applications or provide data for external visualizations and tools.
- All tool interfaces are designed with the standard IBM patterns, so users already familiar with other IBM tools should be able to pick it up quickly..
- The server can run in most typical server environments such as Windows, Linux, Solaris, etc.
- Clustering across multiple machines is supported.
- Real Time Monitoring add on allows for visualization of up to the second data feeds.
- Drill down/up can be automatically implemented on reports using a Dimensional data model
- Drill through definitions can be set up to allow users to find related reports and automatically open them on the highlighted data.
- Reports and models made for the more lightweight Cognos Express can be fully utilized by the full Cognos server if upgraded later.
- Cognos Insight can be deployed via the server and individual Insight dashboards can be stored on the server. Insight may even be included as part of the particular licenses purchased.
- Initial setup isn't as simple as running the installer and turning it on. Adjustments to the server setup may be necessary before it is up and running.
- Browser support can be touchy. Compatibility is best with Internet Explorer, but certain browser setting changes can cause issues. Other browsers' compatibility can be questionable due to their significantly more regular updates.
- The technology that allows active reports to be packaged into .mht files is a proprietary Microsoft format, so other browsers cannot natively open them. There are 3rd party extensions for firefox and chrome.
- Standard reports are rather flat and bland to look at to keep them efficient and clear. It makes it hard to really "Wow" someone when presenting it compared to other products.
- Due to Active Reports packaging all of the data in the file and prerendering charts, file size can get quite large (easily several megabytes) and the initial load time can be quite long when opening it. It is best used for basic overviews and other times when some "flash" is needed, but not a large amount of data.
- Configuring the interoperability with TM1 and SPSS is a little more on the technical side than most other tasks.
- You could call the development process "Front heavy" meaning most of the development will be modeling. This means that it will take longer to end up with visualized data than other tools.
- It works best with actual databases, and not so well with csv or other file formats. Using an ODBC or JDBC driver can be used to treat files like databases, but native support is rather limited.
- The desktop tools such as Framework Manager that are part of the suite are all built for 32-bit windows only, despite the availability of 64-bit and other operating systems for the actual server.
- Using external ODBC drivers can be done with 32-bit drivers only.
- Because of the way Cognos installs on a system, trying to keep a sandbox environment on a developer's personal machine isn't feasible.
- Dynamic Cubes are very hardware intensive, so when dealing with large data sets (millions of rows and up) the amount of memory and resources that need to be dedicated to a single cube to keep the query time within seconds can get high (possibly hundreds of GB of memory).
Of course, smaller companies that don't have heavy reporting needs will probably find the suite to be beyond their current needs, so something more lightweight like Cognos Express might be a better choice, or even the stand-alone Cognos Insight if their needs don't currently go beyond a few users manipulating their spreadsheets.
- SpagoBI
- Qlikview
- Tableau
- Completeness of tool's capabilities
- End-user ease of use
- Development ease across a wide variety of scenarios
- Quality of support for both us and client
- Cost effectiveness for its capabilities
- Pixel Perfect reports
- 100%10.0
- Customizable dashboards
- 100%10.0
- Report Formatting Templates
- 80%8.0
- Reporting
- Visualization
- Data Exploration
- Dashboarding
- Vendor implemented
- Implemented in-house
- Online training
- Self-taught
From the End User side, navigating to a report or dashboard is as simple as clicking through the directory structure. With a little poking around in Cognos Workspace, it shouldn't take long to figure out how to customize a dashboard to their own liking.
What keeps it from getting a higher score is the desktop tools that are vital to the development process. The compatibility with only Windows when the server has a wide range of compatibility can be a real sore point for a company that outfits its employees exclusively with Mac or Linux machines. Of course, if they are planning on outsourcing the development anyways, it's a rather moot point.
IBM offers a 0% APR loan to qualified businesses that allows it be paid out in monthly installments over the course of a year. Any work bought as part of the Cognos licensing can also be put under the loan. Individual resellers may offer their own loans or payment plans as well.
OEM pricing is more flexible and can be tailored more towards the pricing models of the system that Cognos is intended to be embedded in.
Cognos
- Mobile Capabilities: Cognos 10 Mobile supports multiple mobile platforms - iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. The mobile platform is able to filter and report data based on GPS coordinates.
- Integrated Search: Both report content and metadata are searchable and this capability is included in the toolset, and available at no additional cost, in version 10.
- External Data: Data from external sources can be imported, combined with warehouse data, and used in reports without saving the external data in the warehouse.
- Offline Reports: Active Reports allows users to save interactive dashboards that can be viewed offline. Disconnected use of complex reports is a feature many large organizations ask for.
- Microsoft Excel Compatibility: Cognos Analysis allows end users to pull in and analyze data into Excel which may then be imported back into standard Cognos reports and dashboards. What’s more, reports and analysis can be directly pulled into other Microsoft Office products such as Word and PowerPoint.
- Limited options for charts, graphs and other visualizations.
- Used extensively for enterprise reporting.
- Executive KPI dashboards.
- Implemented in-house
- Professional services company
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
- Internal Website.
- The Report and Query Studio tools are nice for sophisticated power users. This allows power users to query and report on data which has already been modeled.
- The architecture of the application can be tiered nicely for performance. This allows us to scale the application to support our growing user base.
- Mobile features are more mature than other comparable products
- Licensing for Cognos is difficult to understand. It is based upon a proprietary 'PVU' or Processor Value Unit calculation which has been created by IBM. This effectively licenses each server by the number of processing cores.
- The software licensing is expensive.
- The product requires very technical staff to maintain and support. This adds greatly to the TCO of IBM Cognos that many overlook.
- Even with version 10.2.1 - browser compatibility is an issue for Report and Query Studio users. For example, they still don't work in Google Chrome. This causes a lot of confusion.
- IBM Cognos is currently serving approximately 2000 unique logins per month across 18,000 interactive report executions.
- Access to structured data is more widely available to our audiences
- Ad-hoc query capability is extended through the use of Cognos Query Studio
- Ad-hoc report generation is supported through the use of Cognos Report Studio
- IBM Cognos drives corporate reporting for the university. Primarily, it serves the Student community by reporting on Ellucian Banner and ODS data.
- Ability to query structured data in an ad-hoc way via Query Studio
- Access to data on-the-go with Cognos Mobile
- Security data at a fine grain across multiple functional areas and multiple campuses
- I've been pleased with the innovation around dashboards. We're now exploring further uses of the new Workspace functionality.
- Cognos Mobile adoption will grow very quickly. Cognos Mobile now supports push notifications to the status IOS status bar in the iPad app – users can now be notified when a new version of their report is available, further reducing the latency in decision making on the go.
- We are also looking at ways to support further data export and integration capability. Cognos 10.2.1 now allows increased spreadsheet maximums to 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows. It also adds an Excel output format called Excel 2007 Data which is perfect for lightweight data transfer to Excel without any report formatting.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
- Defining data security
- Data governance
- Data access requests
- In-person training
- Basic reporting
- Data exporting
- Cognos Mobile
- Report and Query Studio are easy to use, but require training. It would be more difficult to pick up these tools without any prior experience.
- We have integrated data from numerous systems in Cognos
- Ellucian Banner
- Ellucian ODS
- PeopleSoft Financials
- Workday HCM
- Sage Milennium
- Workday Financials
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- Javascript widgets
- ETL tools
- Report output is now not stored in the Content Store.
- 32-bit to 64-bit performance improvements
- Visualizations
- Improved Workspace functionality
- Extended Excel output capability - spreadsheet maximums to 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows. Cognos 10.2.1 also brings a brand new Excel output format called Excel 2007 Data which is perfect for lightweight data transfer to Excel without any report formatting.
- Improved performance
- Better visualizations
- Extended Excel output