TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score7.9 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
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Free Trial
    Yes
    Free/Freemium Version
    No
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    Yes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptional
    Additional Details—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    I have also used Microsoft Power BI and Tableau. Power BI and Tableau excel at interactive dashboards and visual exploration, while IBM Cognos Analytics is particularly strong for governed, repeatable enterprise reporting, scheduled distribution, and standardized Finance …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    we can deploy schema model using IBM Cognos Analytics framework manager. Users are able to build reporting use cases using the packages.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    I can always get the same answer using IBM Cognos Analytics but with Power BI and Tableau, my answer can vary.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Power BI works well within Excel but didn't have the modeling or formatting capabilities required.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    For standard BI reporting, IBM Cognos Analytics is far superior than other tools in the market for handling large data sets with live queries. Other tools depend on data extracts, but IBM Cognos Analytics works directly with your data sources which provided better insights.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Better governance and better report lineage.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    This IBM Cognos Analytics tool is powerful to build complex reports and data models compare to Tableau Cloud and Power BI
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Is a tool with a different adaptation to créate sqls
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Well they work hand in hand. Cognos was like the gateway product so it got our feet wet so to speak. watsonx is like a powerup for Cognos. with all the marvelous things Cognos can do, watsonx puts it all together with greater ease and without the need to be "Technical"
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Data modeling with framework is more robust
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    CA PA INTEGRATION
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Formulas and reporting is easy to audit. Changes can be versioned and are traceable.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos Analytics is the better Enterprise reporting tool and has encompassing platform approach. Tableau and Power BI have advantages in some analysis situation, however, the platform security and metadata management features of Cognos Analytics far outweigh its competition …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Cognos Analytics completes these other software as an enterprise-ready BI reporting tool.
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Havent used any competitive products
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Four years ago, when we were looking at which BI platform to use, we thought about Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. Tableau's data visualisation is great, and Power BI's self-service features and seamless integration with the Microsoft ecosystem are also impressive. For our use …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Just simplicity and ease. Salesforce was out of my scope of ability to integrate with our home-built CRM on so many levels, and the tech team was too understaffed to be able to handle my requests. HubSpot has fantastic reporting, and I LOVE it for sales, but it fell short for …
    Incentivized
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Cognos has the edge over Crystal Reports because you have to create any ODBC/JDBC setups. Cognos provides the ability to created scheduled reports where as SAP requires additional parameters to achieve this functionality. This next thing that I'm about to mention serves as a …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    126 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    111 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    126 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    76 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    87 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.3
    172 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports8.4163 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.5165 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.2159 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.3
    166 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Drill-down analysis8.2163 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.7166 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.6112 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.8160 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.8
    163 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Publish to Web9.457 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.7157 Ratings
    Report Versioning7.758 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.7158 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.437 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.0
    151 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9146 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.5140 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics7.8133 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.668 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.3
    155 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.9152 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model8.1150 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.9152 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.481 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.9133 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.8
    129 Ratings
    12% below category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access7.3123 Ratings
    Mobile Application7.0107 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile7.2114 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    8.2
    105 Ratings
    6% above category average
    REST API7.2100 Ratings
    Javascript API7.392 Ratings
    iFrames9.225 Ratings
    Java API7.325 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.231 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.223 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zendesk Explore
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (194 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.2
    (8 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.5
    (6 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.6
    (5 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    We did have a couple of moments where the NLP got a little too literal with some of the vagueness, but that was rectified with an update. Our company has been using IBM Cognos Analytics for more than four years to bring all our different data sources and reports together into one place.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Just simplicity and ease. Salesforce was out of my scope of ability to integrate with our home-built CRM on so many levels, and the tech team was too understaffed to be able to handle my requests. HubSpot has fantastic reporting, and I LOVE it for sales, but it fell short for all other departments. Salesforce was also similar in that regard. Gainsight was too retention based.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    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
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    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

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot