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IBM Cognos Analytics vs. Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)

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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

    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AOracle's Business Intelligence Discoverer is an ad- hoc query and analysis reporting tool oriented for end users to have easy access to relational and multi-dimensional data. The product is now end of life. The vendor has stated that Discoverer 11g release 11.1.1.7.0 is the terminal release of Discoverer.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    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 AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    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 AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    7.9
    20 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports7.6129 Ratings8.017 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.0136 Ratings7.717 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5131 Ratings8.020 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    7.9
    22 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Drill-down analysis7.4136 Ratings7.021 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.3139 Ratings8.022 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.397 Ratings7.514 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6133 Ratings9.020 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    8.3
    22 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Publish to Web9.836 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Publish to PDF8.2132 Ratings9.020 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.833 Ratings9.018 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.2134 Ratings8.022 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.918 Ratings7.716 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    8.0
    16 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9121 Ratings8.416 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0114 Ratings7.815 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.7110 Ratings7.815 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 Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    9.7
    22 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5129 Ratings10.022 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.5127 Ratings10.020 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)7.4127 Ratings9.021 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.257 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)8.6111 Ratings10.017 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.4
    109 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    8.0
    16 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access6.8104 Ratings7.915 Ratings
    Mobile Application6.390 Ratings7.811 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile6.696 Ratings7.811 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Oracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    7.5
    9 Ratings
    3% below category average
    REST API7.683 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Javascript API7.779 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    iFrames9.912 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Java API10.013 Ratings7.08 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.915 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.99 Ratings6.08 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    8.0
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 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)
    8.0
    (21 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    9.0
    (21 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 AnalyticsOracle Discoverer (discontinued)
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Discoverer is well suited as a reporting tool where data integration doesn't play a major role. Discoverer suits very well situations where a user has to run a query every day. Discoverer reports can be scheduled and the user can just view the data instead of running the query manually. Also, Discoverer takes away the pain of managing the database credentials. Discoverer is not well suited to situations where the whole enterprise wants to view the same dashboard. Discoverer is more of a departmental BI tool. Discoverer doesn't offer many options to integrate data unless one has to create and handle integration using PL/SQL.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • SQL friendly which allows for fast adoption for those users who know how to write in SQL. This makes integration with other programs much easier.
    • Accessing data is very fast even with larger data sets.
    • The layout is clean and organized similar to a spreadsheet which allows for easier viewing and analyzing of the data.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • There is always room for more scalability and optimization of performance.
    • Oracle BI changes a lot from version to version. A smoother transition into a new version would be very helpful.
    • Oracle BI's reporting tool is a little hard to use at first. The UI/UX of the tool can use improvement.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
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    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    Discoverer was already in place when I joined the company so I was not involved in the selection process. However, I have been involved in the review of Discoverer as compared to alternatives including Business Objects, OBIEE, and SSRS. On a cost benefit analysis Discoverer always came out on top. Changing to another tool never provided enough additional functionality to overcome the cost of conversion and ongoing maintenance.
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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
    Discontinued Products
    • We have used Discoverer to respond to state sales and use tax audits and saved the company more than the cost of the product. Discoverer has thus assisted in our objective of managing costs.
    • Discoverer is used to provide reports for EEOC reporting assisting our goal of complying with all government requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

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