Ellucian CRM Advance vs. IBM Cognos Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Ellucian CRM Advance
Score 5.2 out of 10
N/A
Ellucian CRM Advance is a nonprofit constituent relationship management software solution offered by Ellucian, Inc.N/A
IBM Cognos Analytics
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
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.
$10
per month per user
Pricing
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM 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
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.9
103 Ratings
4% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.594 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings7.8101 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings7.498 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
105 Ratings
0% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.1103 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.1104 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings7.873 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.4101 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
105 Ratings
1% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings8.327 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.799 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.0102 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.112 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.1
95 Ratings
0% above category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.090 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.287 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.183 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings8.022 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
8.3
100 Ratings
4% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.497 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.396 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.296 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.425 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.378 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.3
83 Ratings
9% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.977 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings7.368 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings8.174 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Ellucian CRM Advance
-
Ratings
IBM Cognos Analytics
7.5
62 Ratings
5% below category average
REST API00 Ratings7.359 Ratings
Javascript API00 Ratings7.658 Ratings
iFrames00 Ratings8.39 Ratings
Java API00 Ratings6.911 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.110 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings7.87 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
Small Businesses
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bloomerang
Bloomerang
Score 9.0 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Blackbaud CRM
Blackbaud CRM
Score 7.5 out of 10
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(3 ratings)
8.1
(128 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(27 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(8 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(8 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)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Ellucian CRM AdvanceIBM Cognos Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Ellucian
A potential student calls in and we can enter all the information in CRM right then. Ellucian CRM Advance makes it easy for when we go back a week later to see all the notes on the student rather than asking them all over again. Admissions takes the call and enters all info into CRM Advance and then Academics can just log in and see all the notes Admissions took on the student.
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IBM
Our first and most basic scenario was to automatize the creation and publication/sharing of business reports that used to be created manually by employees throughout our organization. Using Cognos for that first use case worked well. The advanced analytics functionalities we used on the aggregated data were also as expected. However, the user interface is not always intuitive, and there is a steep learning curve, so I would recommend Cognos only to large organizations where there is a need for the most advanced functionalities (AI analysis/prediction).
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Pros
Ellucian
  • Ties fundraising efforts to alumni.
  • Seamless integration from Ellucian Colleage or Banner.
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IBM
  • We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very similar to real-life scenarios.
  • Options of customizing & scheduling reports as per our requirements basis.
  • Has mobile application which works seamless.
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Cons
Ellucian
  • Some of the data is not in the most intuitive location.
  • The initial learning curve of the system was a bit steep, but after working with the system exclusively, our users got proficient very quickly.
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IBM
  • Sometimes there might be performance issues when dealing with large and complex data.
  • Although IBM provides full documentation but sometimes it's difficult to find answers to questions and connect with their customer support.
  • It relies on external tools for data cleaning, transformation and also for some integration tasks. It can also improve on providing wider range of data sources for integration.
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Likelihood to Renew
Ellucian
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.
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Usability
Ellucian
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.
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Reliability and Availability
Ellucian
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
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Performance
Ellucian
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.
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Support Rating
Ellucian
CRM Advance is very efficient and overall a great product. We have been using CRM for many many years with really no complaints. It fits our needs.
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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.
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In-Person Training
Ellucian
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.
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Online Training
Ellucian
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
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Implementation Rating
Ellucian
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
Ellucian
We actually recently dropped CRM Advance and are now live with Raisers Edge. Raisers Edge was much more user friendly and built around the fundraising experience. Integration was possible through a secure FTP interface with Ellucian Colleague. Other Blackbaud products have since been purchased to further enhance fundraising and gift giving.
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IBM
In the past Management had used Excel and Workiva capabilities to create the reporting dashboards that were being used to make decisions. Since switching to IBM Cognos Analytics the Company has been much more efficient and decision making has been streamlined. IBM Cognos Analytics was chosen due to its reputation and data visualization capabilities and neither have been wrong.
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Scalability
Ellucian
No answers on this topic
IBM
The Cognos architecture is well suited for scalability. However, the architecture must be designed with scalability in mind from day one of the implementation. We recently upgraded from 10.1 to 10.2.1 and took the opportunity to revamp our architecture. It is now poised for future growth and scalability.
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Return on Investment
Ellucian
  • We are now able to do a more effective review of applicants and see overall trends of characteristics such as source locations. This helps to focus other efforts such as marketing to support those areas and increase others.
  • There is now a full picture of the needs of our students. By being able to view information in a logical progression, trend data can be identified and reacted to.
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IBM
  • High ROI with well designed solutions. Supported by scalable deployment, robust security model and ability to create valuable content.
  • High ROI where well designed data models can be deployed with a common metadata layer to a variety of users and use cases.
  • High ROI in an environment that includes a variety of vendors and best of breed products within the overall platform
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ScreenShots