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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Microsoft Power BI Embedded

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AA solution from Microsoft to provide customer-facing reports, dashboards, and analytics in applications by using and branding Power BI as one's own. Designed to reduce developer resources by automating the monitoring, management, and deployment of analytics, while getting full control of Power BI features and intelligent analytics.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    Much more powerful and complete
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded is more cost effective and easier to deploy to the masses but lacks the functionality and sophistication of the IBM products. In general, it gives many more people access to valuable information, albeit with less flexibility, that would be otherwise …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Microsoft Power BI is simple and easy to configure than IBM Cogno. Cortana an added advantage
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    13 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    92%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    7.5
    2 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports7.6129 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.0136 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5131 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Drill-down analysis7.4136 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.3139 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.397 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6133 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.836 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.2132 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.833 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2134 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.918 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    9.0
    1 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9121 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0114 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.7110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.947 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5129 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.5127 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.4127 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.257 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6111 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.4
    109 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.8104 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application6.390 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.696 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Microsoft Power BI Embedded
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    3% below category average
    REST API7.683 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Javascript API7.779 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    iFrames9.912 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Java API10.013 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.915 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.99 Ratings3.01 Ratings
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    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    GoodData.AI
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Reveal
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    GoodData.AI
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    8.0
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    6.0
    (2 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.5
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.3
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsMicrosoft Power BI Embedded
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
    Microsoft
    This product is very convenient to use and implement and is considered a "de facto" standard in the Business Intelligence sphere. First of all, it contains numerous features in terms of visualization, data provisioning, data source integration which makes it a perfect tool for the development of BI analytics. Secondly, it provides great capabilities for the development of data markets for the whole development team. Thirdly, the sharing capabilities of dashboards that are updated in a real-time manner provides great incentives for end-users
    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
    Microsoft
    • It is very easy to connect multiple data sources for a single report. You can use CSV, Excel, database integration, etc.
    • Power Bi supports Python as well, which makes it a lot easier for us as it is known by most of our team.
    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
    Microsoft
    • Similar to how Excel has VBA, Microsoft Power BI uses PowerQuery (M/DAX). Though DAX is similar to Excel in terms of how it is written, I just think it's something that would be difficult for new users to figure out.
    • Something I would like to see done differently in Microsoft Power BI is the ability to have presets for sorting/arranging of visualizations. Though it is nice to arrange the dashboard freely, it would also be nice to have preset arrangements based on visualizations (for those of us bad at making dashboards look appealing).
    • With Microsoft Power BI, it is hard to show others your dashboard using the free platform (unless you show them from your computer/account). This can cause issues if your firm is trialing Microsoft Power BI before purchase.
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    It's easy to use for what is presented in the reports that have been developed and presented. It's not so easy to customize those reports, "make them your own" and save them for later reuse.
    Incentivized
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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
    Microsoft
    I haven’t used any other software that can be compared to this and that is a good thing as this means that this software is the best one on the market. Tough other apps may exist we only use Microsoft Power BI because it is simply the best app out there.
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Microsoft
    • Saved a significant amount of time for reporting current rollout status to project stakeholders
    • Project stakeholders were able to view the live dashboards at any time so felt they had a better understanding of the rollout status
    • Project stakeholders found it beneficial that they were able to set their own filters. For example, to view rollout status for their own departments.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

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