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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Analytic Solver

    Score7 out of 10
    N/AFrontline Systems Analytic Solver is an Excel add-on for performing data mining, and predictive analytics from within Microsoft Excel.N/A

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score7.7 out of 10
    N/AIBM 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.

    $11.25

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    Frontline Systems
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    Features
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings7.6129 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings8.0136 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.5131 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings7.4136 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.3139 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.397 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.6133 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings9.836 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.2132 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings9.833 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.2134 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings9.918 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings7.9121 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.0114 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings6.7110 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings6.947 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings7.5129 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings7.5127 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings7.4127 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.257 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.6111 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.4
    109 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings6.8104 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings6.390 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings6.696 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Analytic Solver and IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    Analytic Solver
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    REST API00 Ratings7.683 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.779 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings9.912 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings10.013 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings9.915 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SAS Enterprise Guide
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    SAS Enterprise Guide
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    Data Sources
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (6 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (5 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Analytic SolverIBM Cognos Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Frontline Systems
    Based on my limited experience and use, and therefore limited global knowledge of the software, I would recommend it especially if the data that will be used as inputs to the model has previously worked on a spreadsheet such as Excel. I would also recommend it to analyze problems of medium and small size. Given the experience I have had when I have used it with large problems, there have been noticeable decreases in the speed of response (which are not associated with the size of the system of equations involved in the calculation). Excellent for processing linear programming models.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    For Transaction monitoring, we build reports for executive management, providing insights into the number of alerts, the types or categories of detection scenarios, the risk profile, and a snapshot of high- or urgent-priority cases to be reported to AUSTRAC. Congos helps to build the report by ingesting alert data exported from SAS datasets. It joins with other data from Teradata and Customer Hub (Oracle).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Frontline Systems
    • Easy to use and learn.
    • Strong optimization platform for business and supply chain problems which can be modeled in Excel
    • It can handle multiple objectives and more than 8000 decision variables in a problem.
    • Lots of tutorial and examples are available to solve the problem
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • Enterprise reporting - Create, customise, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, etc.
    • Dashboard creation and data exploration & analysis - Using drag and drop feature to create ad-hoc visualisation. Additionally, using AI powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input (formation of pie, bar, line charts). It's useful for no-technical person to put queries around the spreadsheet data to get quick answers.
    • Building insights for accurate decision making - Package reports with data backed insights for stakeholders in pdf, and Excel format to support business ad-hoc cases, forecasting and strategic recommendations on relevant asks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Frontline Systems
    • On the few occasions when I have used it to deal with problems of optimization of relatively large parameters (with a large number of restrictions and decision variables), the program has been slower, not substantially but slower, than programs such as the WinQsb, even when the latter runs on 32-bit machines and not 64. That has caught my attention, even though it is not a real problem for the uses I give to the program.
    • Given my partial function as a university professor, it has been much more effective and practical to use other software, due to the limited options that the educational license associated with the software has.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • IBM Cognos Analytics enables customer data segmentation, which is essential for marketing, improving and streamlining purchasing behavior and preferences. This helps companies create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
    • Our clients Through data analysis, we can identify and observe trends in the behavior of other clients, allowing us to anticipate needs and adjust strategies to avoid consequences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    For an existing solution, renewing licenses does provide a good return on investment. Additionally, while rolling out scorecards and dashboards with little adhoc capabilities, to end users, cognos is very easily scalable. It also allows to create a solution that has a mix of OLAP and relational data-sources, which is a limitation with other tools. Synchronizing with existing security setup is easy too.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    We have a strong user base (3500 users) that are highly utilizing this tool. Basic users are able to consume content within the applied security model. We have a set of advanced users that really push the limits of Cognos with Report and Query Studio. These users have created a lot of personal content and stored it in 'My Reports'. Users enjoy this flexibility.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Reports can typically be viewed through any browser that can access the server, so the availability is ultimately up to what the company utilizing it is comfortable with allowing, though report development tends to be more picky about browsers and settings as mentioned above. It also has an optional iPad app and general mobile browsing support, but dashboards lack the mobile compatibility. 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
    Read full review
    Performance
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Overall no major complaints but it doesn't handle DMR (Dimensionally Modeled for Relational) very well. DMR modelling is a capability that IBM Cognos Framework Manager provides allowing you to specify dimensional information for relational metadata and allows for OLAP-style queries. However, the capability is not very efficient and, for example, if I'm using only 2 columns on a 20-column model, the software is not smart enough to exclude 18 columns and the query side gets progressively larger and larger until it's effectively unusable.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Why is their web application not working as fast as you think it should? They never know, and it is always a a bunch of shots in the dark to find out. Trying to download software from them is like trying to find a book at the library before computers were invented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Onsite training provided by IBM Cognos was effective and as expected. They did not perform training with our data which was a bit difficult for our end-users.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    The online courses they offer are thorough and presented in such a way that someone who isn't already familiar with the general design methodologies used in this field will be capable of making a good design. The training environments are provided as a fully self contained virtual machine with everything needed already to create the environments. We've had some persisting issues with the environments becoming unavailable, but support has been responsive when these issues arise and straightening them out for us
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    Make sure that any custom tables that you have, are built into your metadata packages. You can still access them via SQL queries in Cognos, but it is much easier to have them as a part of the available metadata packages.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Frontline Systems
    We believe in building the models in Excel. A limitation with Excel is that Excel Solver can not take more than 200 decision variables with multiple constraints. It is cheap in terms of license and maintenance fees against other softwares which are available in the market.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Power BI is stronger for quick ad-hoc analysis and dashboards, but IBM Cognos Analytics is better when consistency, precision, and mass distribution matter. Tableau is best for interactive analysis, while IBM Cognos Analytics is better for standardized, repeatable enterprise reporting. Sigma shines for customizable dashboards and drill-down analysis while IBM Cognos Analytics holds an edge in data discovery and visualization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Frontline Systems
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    We rate IBM Cognos Analytics a 9 out of 10 for overall scalability. The platform handles large numbers of users, reports, and analytical workloads very reliably. We have experienced strong performance even in demanding enterprise environments with substantial data volumes. Its architecture provides sufficient flexibility to scale resources according to demand, making it well suited for large, business-critical deployments.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Frontline Systems
    • - It has allowed finding ways to optimize (minimizing costs or times) the field processes involved in various projects.
    • It has even allowed, in specific cases where it was used for that purpose, to optimize the allocation of resources (people) to work in different jobs that present weekly variations of the activity that these people must perform.
    • It has allowed the sensitivity analysis of projects to changes in the decision variables related to them, which, and in very dynamic and changing environments, resulted in substantial decreases in money losses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The platform can be pretty pricey.
    • Convoluted contracts and they fine you for any breach during audits.
    • Things are changed between releases without any warning and break.
    • It is second to none at being able to customize list and crosstab type reports.
    • You can easily set up a report to be emailed out every day and even have it export the report to a shared folder.
    • On-prem environments can be scaled up pretty much as much as you would like.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

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