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IBM Cognos Analytics vs. Salesforce Agentforce Marketing

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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

    Agentforce Marketing

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AMarketing Cloud is a cloud-based digital marketing platform, used by marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.

    $1,250

    per month per installation

    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    Account Engagement
    $1,250
    per month
    Engagement
    $1,250
    per month
    Intelligence
    $3,000
    per month
    Loyalty Management
    $20,000
    per month
    Personalization
    $100,000
    per year
    Data Cloud for Marketing
    $108,000
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    84 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    72 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    89 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    58 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports7.6129 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards8.0136 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.5131 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis7.4136 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.3139 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.397 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration8.6133 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    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 Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.9121 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.0114 Ratings00 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 Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)7.5129 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.5127 Ratings00 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 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.4
    109 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    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 Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    -
    Ratings
    REST API7.683 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API7.779 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames9.912 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API10.013 Ratings00 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)9.915 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.99 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    7.3
    171 Ratings
    6% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings7.4122 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings8.1153 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings6.3112 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings7.6121 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings7.0151 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings6.7111 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings7.3132 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings8.1129 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings7.295 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    8.1
    124 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings8.8109 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings8.1110 Ratings
    Data quality management00 Ratings7.3116 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings8.2101 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    7.3
    114 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Calendaring00 Ratings7.3103 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings7.497 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    7.4
    88 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings7.383 Ratings
    Social profile integration00 Ratings7.539 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    7.6
    124 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.1118 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings7.3123 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.3100 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Marketing
    7.5
    124 Ratings
    0% below category average
    API00 Ratings6.790 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings6.689 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings6.9111 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings7.6113 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings8.914 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings8.611 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.524 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    8.2
    (329 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    8.1
    (114 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    8.5
    (37 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.6
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    7.0
    (36 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.1
    (7 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    3.0
    (17 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 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)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.3
    (5 ratings)
    7.5
    (40 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsAgentforce Marketing
    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
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    Salesforce
    I think the product, by definition, is meant for marketing — and we use it exactly for that, for running campaigns. That’s the best-suited use case for the product. I don’t think it’s really meant to be used for anything else — that’s just not how it’s designed.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Salesforce
    • Filter relevant content so you can priorize those that are more relevant and resolve it first
    • Measure the traffic in the different social networks, as well as the response rate, average response time and other relevant metrics
    • Configure automation rules to order the work of those who must interact with the customer
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Salesforce
    • The email builder does not offer any way to catch/check bugs across different email service providers
    • Creating SQL is not as easy as drag-and-drop; a lot of technical knowledge is required
    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud is sold as a marketing tool, but to be honest, you need a LOT of technical IT support to run the tool
    • Einstein metrics are across the board; if you have multiple audiences in one instance of Salesforce Marketing Cloud you can't segment the data.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Salesforce
    As of right now we have not seen any other program that integrates as seamlessly into our Salesforce platform. We have barely scratched the surface of all the features and use cases. It would be irresponsible to make a move to another platform in the near future. We have not come up against any limitations that would prompt a need to switch
    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
    Salesforce
    You won't find another solution that has as many features as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio. We all know Salesforce, we all know how big they are and it's not for nothing... Their tools do most of the things you want, need and even imagine. Using it is complicated, but the usability is infinite.
    Incentivized
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    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
    Salesforce
    Upgrades and timing of the upgrades were communicated well and planned during off hours for our work. If we did have a campaign scheduled during that time, it would kick-off after the system was back active. There were a few unplanned system down times, but it was a rare occurrence and those times were also short in duration.
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    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
    Salesforce
    Though the make up of MA apps is not built this way today, it would be nice to see them become more real-time. The integration between Salesforce and Pardot is not a true real-time integration. If I modify something in Salesforce, those changes are not automatically reflected in Pardot immediately. There is a delay of about 15 minutes before the systems sync. This delay, although not long, is less than ideal We would love the systems to be integrated real time such that changes are propagated from one system to the other immediately.
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    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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    Salesforce
    They are really responsive and more than not solve the problem or give you insight to how you can manage the solution yourself. I do find however sometimes a long delay on the more complex issues when they need to loop in other departments. but overall a good experience with support
    Incentivized
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    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
    Salesforce
    The trainers at the Pardot user conference (Elevate and Connections) were very knowledgeable and presented the material well. Again, the content was targeted to more of a new user audience, and was not really relevant for folks who had been using the product for 2+ years.
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    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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    Salesforce
    Pardot's online training touches on all topics briefly and vaguely without much indepth exploration into how a final outcome could look, such as Nurturing Campaigns, Email templates, landing page templates, etc... The only true way to uncover Pardot's full capabilities is to have Front End design and coding experience. Without this key skill set, I would not recommend Pardot to another business.
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    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.
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    Salesforce
    From an IT perspective, once you set up the Javascript beacon and start collecting data there is a waiting game. During this time you can start labeling your site actions which can be labor intensive for a single person, but you don't really have the final end-users on the platform yet. We did a lot of training so users were experienced, but it wasn't until they had their first tasks to accomplish that they started using the system and had questions. I'd recommend setting up some immediate goals for an end-user to start segmenting for the purpose of displaying message campaigns so you can jump start end-user action.
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    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
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    Salesforce
    We use Salesforce Marketing Cloud for lead management, generating reports, tracking customer and dealer information, inputting orders, and more. I prefer HubSpot for email marketing and automation because it is easier to use and the emails are designed much better. We currently use Salesforce and HubSpot, and we are very happy to have both, as they have different pros/cons.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    was not involved with this part but i have not heard about clompaints
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Salesforce
    Prior to this, we had no solution and literally were doing things on paper in a world where technology is outpacing paper. Having this process optimized has made it easier for the sales and marketing people to change information. From the training perspective, it has allowed us to see holes in where we could create additional support training, so the ROI here has been a lot more than just the optimization of a process.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Salesforce
    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to more efficiently reach out to a higher number of prospects.
    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to nimbly communicate important messages in a timely fashion to facilitate conversion.
    • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to track who is opening our messages so that we can stop sending to those not interested and focus on the most engaged audiences.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    Agentforce Marketing Screenshots

    Screenshot of Pardot Analytics - Pardot's reporting and analytics can be used to perform true revenue impact analysis and closed-loop reporting.Screenshot of Pardot Email Analytics - The reach and impact of  email marketing efforts are displayed in real-time with advanced reporting and analytics by device, and email client.Screenshot of Pardot Forms and Landing Pages - Pardot's form and landing page builders are used to turn online traffic to leads with targeted offers and content marketing.Screenshot of Pardot Email Marketing - Lead nurturing flows are defined via an interface that enables definition of the simplest or most complex segmented and targeted campaigns.