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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

    SAP Concur

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASAP Concur is a SaaS expense report management product, and handles corporate travel booking, expense report automation, reimbursement, audit, and business intelligence, and corporate card integration.

    $7

    per month

    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 11.25
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 44.90
    per month per user
    Base
    $7.00
    per report (average price)
    Plus
    $11.00
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    Chose IBM Cognos Analytics
    IBM Cognos stood out presumably because of the target market - we have been doing it in telco market so IBM Cognos could be a good fit due to its powerful capacity to establish the reports and data sets.
    Incentivized
    SAP Concur
    Chose SAP Concur
    I felt Concur was more intuitive and less buggy then Cognos when I used it years ago.
    Incentivized
    Chose SAP Concur
    During the comparison I looked at Expesnsify, SAP's T/E module and a few others. There is simply no match for Concur. I would say that many other products can rival Concur in the expense area but the two particular areas to be aware of are 1) Travel (compliance and prices) 2) …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    92 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    732 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    586 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    738 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    385 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    64 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    419 Answers
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    138 Ratings
    6% below category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.9
    138 Ratings
    1% below category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    136 Ratings
    11% above category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    124 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    130 Ratings
    8% below category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.3
    109 Ratings
    21% below category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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 SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    9.2
    87 Ratings
    17% above category average
    SAP Concur
    -
    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
    Expense Management
    Comparison of Expense Management features of IBM Cognos Analytics and SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    SAP Concur
    8.4
    565 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Employee Expense Reporting00 Ratings8.4557 Ratings
    Corporate Card Reconciliation00 Ratings8.3421 Ratings
    Payment Management
    Comparison of Payment Management features of IBM Cognos Analytics and SAP Concur
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    SAP Concur
    8.2
    496 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Customizable Approval Policies00 Ratings8.2435 Ratings
    Financial Document Management00 Ratings8.5370 Ratings
    Payment Status Tracking00 Ratings8.6430 Ratings
    Payment Audit Trail00 Ratings8.3401 Ratings
    Duplicate Bill Detection00 Ratings7.6359 Ratings
    Advanced OCR00 Ratings8.2313 Ratings
    Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings8.4288 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Brex
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Expensify
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    Emburse Expense Enterprise (formerly Chrome River)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (158 ratings)
    8.3
    (1015 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (31 ratings)
    8.4
    (48 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (10 ratings)
    8.2
    (245 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    8.3
    (16 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    6.8
    (13 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.0
    (9 ratings)
    7.8
    (45 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    5.9
    (7 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.2
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    7.9
    (16 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    8.1
    (10 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)
    8.1
    (63 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.4
    (5 ratings)
    8.9
    (62 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.0
    (9 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.6
    (10 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsSAP Concur
    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
    SAP Concur
    Most other products don't offer solutions for US statutory compliance. Concur handles it natively by localizing legal requirements and VAT reclamation. Another key benefit is that it enforces formal authorizations before an employee can even book a ticket. It can also enforce strict spending caps and mandatory justification for specific fields.
    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
    SAP Concur
    • Self service and easy to navigate
    • Available on all mobile devices
    • Provides travel options such as airlines for the destination with several options
    • Automatically define check in and check out dates and time for hotels
    • Reminds users to book other travel related activities
    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
    SAP Concur
    • It is not very straightforward on how to add in loyalty programs. I've had several instances where my loyalty programs don't carry through with my booking
    • Expense reports are tedious to build, especially when you have several expenses to enter from a company trip
    • The new AI functions for reading uploaded receipts has never worked for me, requiring me to do it manually anyways
    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
    SAP Concur
    Now that we are fully on Concur, switching is not an option. Concur has become ingrained in our expense reporting process. Furthermore, Concur continues to improve its offering. Each month, they release updates and changes, many of which were client requested. Concur's constant evolution means it is adapting with my business
    Incentivized
    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
    SAP Concur
    I think it is very easy to use, especially once you are acquainted with it. I think the UX could be improved so some things, like accessing old reports, are more intuitive once you learn it though it is not difficult to replicate.
    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
    SAP Concur
    In prior years I would have given them a 9.5 for availability. Unfortunately in 2015 so far this rating has dropped to a 7 overall.
    We have experienced far too many interruptions - from admins to employees who rely on it for day to day booking of travel and submission of expense reports. Server errors, slow system response time and spinning wheels are too common place. Those things should be a rare occurrence, not a daily interruption.

    While Conur still has great product offerings overall, they are currently not offering world class or best in class product (and customer service) availability. Remaining hopeful they step up and get their A game going again soon.
    Incentivized
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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
    SAP Concur
    Performance-wise, it's good, loads pages quickly, and reports are highly accurate and easy to understand. Also, we can generate custom reports as needed, and we have integrated with a few other apps, and we have not seen any downgrade in performance.
    Incentivized
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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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    SAP Concur
    I have never had to use customer support when using Concur Expense - the UX could be a bit nicer on the eyes or easier to understand, but there have never been any problems when using Concur Expense that I have had to ask or reach out to customer support to help me with anything.
    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
    SAP Concur
    My Seniors were the ones who taught me about Concur. Concur Support team has sent me training links and answered me in their tickets too. Usually they are helpful and knows their stuff. There are times when webex meetings is conducted for reporting training. They were very patient and took down all the details from me.
    Incentivized
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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
    Read full review
    SAP Concur
    The person on the online training was very through and helped us with all questions. The trainer was excellent—very knowledgeable, engaging, and easy to understand. If you'd like, I can tailor it for a formal evaluation or add specific strengths
    Incentivized
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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.
    Read full review
    SAP Concur
    There are different implementation teams for each module of the product you purchase, so implementation is not a 'one size fits all' environment. Also, the different implementation teams have different ways of doing things, so Concur could stand some standardization and streamlining in this area. A Project Manager can make or break an implementation so don't be scared to ask for a new one if things are rocky.
    Incentivized
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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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    SAP Concur
    Expensify and Zoho Expense work for small and mid-size businesses. Big multinationals do not receive benefits from the apps. Coupa is good as a solution for organizations with non-SAP leading systems. If you plan to use SAP ERP as the main/lending system then SAP Concur is the best solution, mainly for its native integration with SAP ecosystem.
    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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    SAP Concur
    This program has been very helpful, user friendly and has been a great asset to use to assist with time management. Not only are leadership involved with using this program but all staff as well. This is also a great way to hold each accountable. Easy startup with not many means for hands on training
    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
    Read full review
    SAP Concur
    • It makes the entire process of expense management crystal clear and thus helps in maintaining the trust of the employees, and thereby having good rapport of the company among the employees.
    • It helps in detecting the duplicate bills, thereby saving lots of money of the company.
    • It also helps in payment audits and thereby it helps in improving the overall process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot

    SAP Concur Screenshots

    Screenshot of a picture of a receipt snapped from a smartphoneScreenshot of analytics from SAP ConcurScreenshot of the integrated travel and expense applicationScreenshot of the SAP Concur mobile app