IBM Cognos Analytics, in my opinion, legacy leader modern laggard
Primarily used for Dashboard and Report development with some level of self service capabilities.
Starting at $10 per month per user
View PricingOverview
What is IBM Cognos Analytics?
IBM 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.
Recent Reviews
How IBM Cognos Analytics Differs From Its Competitors
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Popular Features
- Formatting capabilities (102)8.181%
- Drill-down analysis (101)8.181%
- Report Delivery Scheduling (100)8.080%
- Customizable dashboards (99)7.878%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
On Demand - Standard
$10.00
Cloud
per month per user
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
On Premise
per month per user
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.ibm.com/products/cognos…
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $10 per month per user
Product Demos
IBM Cognos Analytics Product Tour
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Product Details
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- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is IBM Cognos Analytics?
Cognos Analytics is an AI-fueled business intelligence platform that supports the entire analytics cycle, from discovery to operationalization. Cognos Analytics gives users — whether data scientist, business analyst or non-specialist — more power to perform relevant analysis in a way that ties back to organizational objectives. It aims to shorten each user’s journey from simple to sophisticated analytics, allowing them to harness data to explore the unknown, identify new relationships, get a deeper understanding of outcomes and challenge the status quo. Users can visualize, analyze and share actionable insights about data with anyone in the organization.
IBM Cognos Analytics Features
BI Platform Features
- Supported: Administration via Web Interface
- Supported: Live Connection to External Data
- Supported: Snapshot of External Data
- Supported: In-memory data model
- Supported: OLAP (Pre-processed cube representation)
- Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
- Supported: ETL Capability
- Supported: ETL Scheduler
Supported Data Sources Features
- Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
- Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
- Supported: Oracle
- Supported: MS SQL Server
- Supported: IBM DB2
- Supported: MySQL
- Supported: ODBC
- Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
- Supported: IBM Netezza
- Supported: SAP Hana
- Supported: Salesforce
- Supported: SAP
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
- Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
- Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Mobile Application
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features
- Supported: REST API
- Supported: Javascript API
Additional Features
- Supported: AI Forecasting
IBM Cognos Analytics Integrations
IBM Cognos Analytics Competitors
IBM Cognos Analytics Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows, Linux, Mac |
| Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
| Supported Countries | Global |
| Supported Languages | English, French, German, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, Urdu, Farsi |
Frequently Asked Questions
IBM 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.
IBM Cognos Analytics starts at $10.
Tableau Public, Tableau Server, and Microsoft Power BI are common alternatives for IBM Cognos Analytics.
Reviewers rate Publish to PDF highest, with a score of 8.7.
The most common users of IBM Cognos Analytics are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(579)Attribute Ratings
- 9.7Likelihood to Renew
- 8.6Availability
- 9Performance
- 8Usability
- 10Support Rating
- 8Online Training
- 8.7In-Person Training
- 7Implementation Rating
- 8Configurability
- 8.3Product Scalability
- 7.3Ease of integration
- 7Vendor pre-sale
- 7Vendor post-sale
- 2.5Data Visualization
- 8.3Data Sources
- 8.6Data Sharing and Collaboration
- 8.7IBM Cognos Reporting 4.14.21
- 8.3IBM Cognos Data Modeling 4.14.21
Reviews
(26-50 of 126)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
IBM Cognos Analytics offers the ability to drive the productive growth of our company, with its versatile features that optimize decision making that positively impact the performance of the company, allowing to adjust plans and forecasts in real time. We use this platform to optimize future actions to be taken, based on accurate and reliable data. It allows us to create visually pleasing dashboards, presenting data that significantly facilitates its analysis, processed with a high level of security. This platform offers real-time information that allows you to adapt strategies based on accurate and reliable data.
- Allows you to easily create interactive and intuitive dashboards
- Its user interface is visually very pleasant and easy to use
- Allows to obtain very complete reports, which improves our planning process
- Provides accurate forecasting powered by artificial intelligence
- Its cost which is significantly high
- It requires training for beginners to handle its full potential
It is a software with a good and simple user interface, it has artificial intelligence that provides a good and precise predictive analysis, since the implementation we improved our productivity, the creation of reports is adequate, we achieved better data analysis, which allowed us to make the best decisions based on the data obtained through this platform, achieving better results that could not be obtained before.
- Predictive data analysis is intuitive and with real-time results.
- Easy obtaining and customization of reports.
- Better decision making, is a software capable of simplifying our work and improving our productivity, since errors are minimized.
- It's not a very flashy looking piece of software, but it ticks the boxes for functionality, and for first-time users, just a quick workout is easy to pick up.
- Expert help should be sought for configuration.
February 24, 2023
Excellent solution even for Medium & Small Startups
We started using Cognos because we were looking for a tool to data mining, report and build dashboards, have been using for a couple of years and really helped our company. Our operations everyday transactions are processed effortlessly which allow valid, clean, and real data into our tool and producing great reports and dashboards.
- Clean data
- Produce ad-hoc reports
- Dashboards
- Data analysis
- Marketing
- Better Excel integration
- Price
February 24, 2023
Versatile and next generation BI tool.
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is being used as next generation BI tool and visualization application. This is solving the operational and analytical requirements of the organization. IBM Watson analytics has enabled self-serve for multiple business units and vendors as well who would like to invest data for their strategic business Operations view. The tool has embedded AI capabilities which helps in what-if scenarios as well as alerting based on threshold that business teams define from time to time. It is easy to bring external data and extrapolate with existing data hosted via models hosted and published on the IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson. The geographical integration and multiple graphs help with next generation visualizations. These are then used for higher management or executive representation in an ongoing way. The tool is providing capabilities to integrate with the custom application that the organization has built for customer services easily. The support for multiple authentication mechanisms makes it easy to implement authentication mechanism with every changing security and regulatory compliance needs of the organization. Lower per person end user license helps continue with the tool for longer term strategic use for the organization.
- IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson has enabled self-serve for multiple business units and vendors as well who would like to invest data for their strategic business Operations view.
- geographical integration and multiple graphs help with next generation visualizations.
- Can have better integration options for MS native tools which may be .net based while Cognos is Java based.
- Easier process to import external data and model examples that can be used for different industries.
- Greater flexibility to be able to move from in-Prem to cloud and retention of the features brought from in-Prem version of the tool like query studio etc
February 21, 2023
IBM Cognos- Data Visualisation Tool and more
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos Analytics has helped me to visualize and present Data in a very insightful manner to my clients. It helps in making charts, graphs and predictions of data which is very useful for us when talking to a vendor. It helps in analysing the needs and demands of different clients through different data points and making plans accordingly.
- Integration of different file formats
- Easy to use interface
- Easily sync able to cloud so you can access the files with your IBM account anywhere.
- The interface is easy but it is somewhat inferior when compared to other analytics softwares
- The price is expensive in comparison to peers
- Requires fast internet to operate smoothly. No desktop version
February 10, 2023
Worthy intelligence and analytics tool
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson to dissect huge arrangements of information and reveal bits of knowledge that can help our business. By incorporating this tool, we can foster complex reports and dashboards that empower us to rapidly evaluate our ongoing position and pursue informed choices in light of exact data. The business issues we can address with this innovation expanding productivity for tasks, further developing consumer loyalty, and acquiring a superior comprehension of the market. We are likewise ready to utilize this innovation to distinguish areas of chance, like new business sectors, new items and administrations, or new client portions.
- It utilizes AI and normal language handling to prescribe experiences and activities to clients, assisting us with settling on better choices quicker.
- It consequently identifies examples and patterns in information, so we can rapidly uncover significant experiences with negligible exertion
- It gives a scope of perception choices, so we can rapidly and effectively envision the information and gain bits of knowledge that may somehow be challenging to uncover
- It has a few in-built incorporations, however they are normally restricted to a couple of items and administrations.
- Another region where it could be improved is the versatility of its examination capacities. IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson offers a few strong insightful capacities, yet they are not generally so far reaching as a portion of its rivals
January 02, 2023
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson Review
Earlier in my previous company we were using RPG AS400 for developing the business reports then we migrated our all projects to Cognos, developing all new reports and migrating old one using Cognos.
prior to that I don’t have any knowledge about Cognos so got in-house training.
I don’t found it very difficult to learn and adapt.
Actually its very easy to learn and we can get everything we want under one roof.
prior to that I don’t have any knowledge about Cognos so got in-house training.
I don’t found it very difficult to learn and adapt.
Actually its very easy to learn and we can get everything we want under one roof.
- Reporting
- Scheduling
- Framework manager
- Visually less appealing as compared to tableau
December 27, 2022
Cognos Analytics to the Next Level and Beyond
Relative time comparisons of measures
Forecasting
Automated delivery of reports
Report bursting
Forecasting
Automated delivery of reports
Report bursting
- Dashboarding
- Reporting
- Forecasting
- Ease of installation
- Features of Motio PI, such as change of schedule run credentials, should be part of the product.
December 14, 2022
Organisation data Search engine
Financial analysis, Transactions analysis, Corporate customers statistics and analysis
- Corporate business hierarchical analysis
- Deposit and Loans Scenario
- Customer transaction trend analysis
- Integrated channels performance analysis
- Deviation analysis
- Income and expenditure analysis
- Graphical representation similar to Qlikview and Microsoft
- Graphs are slightly difficult to use
- Large size data not supported sometime
- On prem SSAS connectivity issues
- SAP Sybase connectivity issues
- Procs having #tables can not accessible in query
- 64bit JDBC with SQL Server is missing
December 05, 2022
Good product, deserves more attention
BI Tool is never the solution to the needs of the users it's the process how the organisation uses the product en strives to continue improvement.
- AI New now with local languages supported
- Releases frequent releases
- Total Integration from dat to insight
- Administration tools (require urgent improvement)
- Eventstudio
- More focus on user needs instead focus on improvement of the user interface. (This cost 4 releases....)
September 13, 2022
Great Reporting Software
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos is a tool that is used across my whole organization. I work at a University so we have a lot of data and a lot of departments who are using data. IBM Cognos allows us to view and analyze data across departments. IBM offers a lot of great resources for learning how to use the tool.
- Good for combining data sources
- Good data visulizations
- Easy to manage permissions
- You have to really understand the underlying data structure before you use it
- It can be hard to learn at first
- It can be glitchy sometimes
July 26, 2022
The Real AI and automation in Data Analytics Market
I use IIBM Cognos Analyticss for pulling reports on a daily basis like Missing Pages Report, Query Report which helps the business or the study team to know the current status of the study and by that data creating a structured outline of actions that need to be done to resolve that data. It really helps to reach the outcomes that we need and by anaylzing the data we can know where we are lacking. I think it is most advance system and easy to use system in my deliverables.
- Extracting huge amount of data in a precise manner.
- The time taken to get a report is pretty less compares to other
- And the automation and the AI is really advanced the system knows what I really want
- If a report got malfunctioned it need so much time to resolve that issue.
- Server Log out issue if using two study at a time
- Sometimes the data analytics part stuck in between
April 30, 2022
Models Optimization in a Robust Approach.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use the IBM Cognos set for data analytics on our multi-cloud architecture to automate AI lifecycles. I have more engagement with the IBM Watson studio and I use it frequently for code-based visual data science, working smoothly with the TensorFlow framework. I'm able to monitor the implemented AI models used across the company in accounting, and customer relations for consistent results/output.
- IBM explainable AI makes it easy to to comprehend the AI models.
- Optimization dashboards allow sharing of the models' results with the team to enhance collaboration.
- Search engine displaying data elements is still not available on version 11.1.7.
March 31, 2022
Powerful BI tool with AI capabilities
I use IBM Cognos Analytics extensively for developing queries, reports, dashboards, visualizations, FM models, data models, and administration and scheduling automations for reporting objects. It's widely used across the business on different levels and helping business users and stack holders with analyzing data, decision making, budgeting, and administrative processes.
- Self Services Reporting.
- Scheduling and automations.
- Reporting and Data Visuals.
- Better compatibility with available browsers.
- Companion applications are restricted to use with Firefox only.
February 26, 2022
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson..More than a dashboard
Cognos Analytics is more than a Dashboarding tool and is used to understand data patterns, trends, and drivers. The explore and AI capabilities are typically used to get more insights into data, and dashboarding and reporting are used to distribute the result in a pixel-perfect output with strict governance and control. Reports are automatically burst based on certain criteria
- AI - The Assistant
- Explore Capabilities
- Forecasting using AI
- The range of visualisations needs to be expanded
- Report modules need to be easier
February 14, 2022
IBM Cognos Analytics get reports the way you need them.
Cognos is used for reporting analytical data from our ERP system that is hosted on OS400 BMI
- Reporting
- Schedule report delivery
- Many different ways and formats for reports.
- Users are able to schedule there own reports.
- Dashboard for users.
- Administration interface needs improvement.
- It would be nice f reports had more of a drag and drop for users to create reports.
February 12, 2022
A reliable BI solution.
It allows us to stay connected and updated through your control panel. I can easily access IBM COGNOS for the purpose of sharing data or information with other people within the same company. MS Excel has direct integration with IBM which makes it easy to share important details with other colleagues. Accessing reports and analytics directly from my phone is great, I can quickly view reports from anywhere. As a professional, I can say that IBM has helped us grow continuously through data collection, data analysis, and reporting. Since the reports help us detect weaknesses to continue improving.
- Visualization tools.
- Connects to hundreds of data sources.
- Easy to execute queries.
- Easy to create charts, graphs and reports.
- Not a good IDE for Python/R
February 12, 2022
Cognos Analytics is great tool, but creating complex reports requires time and competence
I use Cognos Analytics bi-weekly to report and analyze time spent of employees from external working time tracking software. I look for more detailed information about billable vs non-billable hours and find possible trends from it. If the time spent is non-billable, what are the reasons for that, is it for example warranty work or possible prospects for new opportunities.
- Dashboard
- Multi-page reporting
- Report distributing
- Data connectivity options
- AI assistant
- Easier ways to manage very complex reports
- Prompts should be more dynamic and way to make dynamic pre-select for example based on the current calendar year.
- Dimensional reporting
February 12, 2022
Sharing reports is possible, easy and effective.
This platform offers a full range of BI software to address business goals. It helps to create easy-to-use and run detailed reports for data analysis, provides the ability to edit current data along with alerts, schedules, etc. in real-time. Also, there is flexibility in data import and reporting in this tool, it can manage large data sets, it also offers an option to export reports in XML or PDF format.IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson also gives us the ability to use interactive dashboards, create business reports, explore data, etc. very easily.
- It is a reliable and scalable platform.
- It offers data connectors including SQL Server, CSV, Excel, and more.
- Multiple integrations.
- Flexible deployment options.
- Does not provide a free trial.
- It is difficult to learn.
- It is not easy to use and implement for non-technical users.
As an IBM business partner, I implement IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson for various IBM customers. These customers span almost every industry, from manufacturing to government, research to finance, and everything in between.
My current client is a large pharmaceutical company who uses IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson across multiple divisions. I've been brought in to help with the finance team.
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is flexible enough to make their reporting do everything they want. A major focus was ensuring high visibility reports work on mobile devices. Because IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson allows JavaScript and lets authors directly define HTML, I can make responsive reports that behave perfectly for any sized screen.
Another focus was expanding the default functionality in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson through a series of JavaScript controls. Writing back directly to TM1, sending users emails from a button inside the report, or exporting reports to PowerPoint, the API available in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson makes writing these controls quick and easy.
My current client is a large pharmaceutical company who uses IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson across multiple divisions. I've been brought in to help with the finance team.
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is flexible enough to make their reporting do everything they want. A major focus was ensuring high visibility reports work on mobile devices. Because IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson allows JavaScript and lets authors directly define HTML, I can make responsive reports that behave perfectly for any sized screen.
Another focus was expanding the default functionality in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson through a series of JavaScript controls. Writing back directly to TM1, sending users emails from a button inside the report, or exporting reports to PowerPoint, the API available in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson makes writing these controls quick and easy.
- Pixel perfect reports. If a client can provide a pixel-perfect mockup, I can make the report indistinguishable from the mockup.
- Data security. It doesn't matter who the user is; when they log in and run a report, they will only see the data they are permitted to see.
- Performant reports on large data. Many tools have issues running on tables containing only a few million rows. Cognos can consistently run reports on multi-billion row tables without issue.
- Embedding reports in third-party tools. With Cognos Mashup Services, it is possible to build a report in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson and call it programmatically. Need straight HTML? No problem. JSON? Atom? All good.
- Data modules still can't match the flexibility of the framework manager. When dealing with large data models, or multi-grain, FM still wins.
- The new native graphs, while pretty, still can't match the version 10 graphs in terms of flexibility or options. It is possible to import third-party graphs, but it's a pain.
- Some functionality, like version control, is only available through third parties. Motio or BSP.
February 11, 2022
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson - adaptable to different situations and data processing environments.
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson helps us understand our data. It is adaptable to different data processing scenarios and environments support various tools for back-end tasks such as data warehousing, data integration, data management, query language, ETL process, etc. Easily integrates with MS Excel and spreadsheets. Its amazing reporting feature helps to create very attractive custom dashboards. It allows powerful visualizations from our computer in a few seconds.
- Integrated ETL tools.
- Data export in multiple formats (PDF, Excel and CSV)
- Fast and accurate data recovery.
- Less expensive.
- Scalability and flexibility to work.
- Does not support multidimensional analysis.
February 10, 2022
You can efficiently discover, access, and merge your data with IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson
IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson makes it easy to share pervasive insights and visualize classified and unclassified data instantly. Its interface is super intuitive, which makes it easy for us to work with tables, graphs, and other visualization tools. It is compatible with mobile and desktop devices. We can import data from SQL servers, Hadoop clusters, on-premises, and Excel spreadsheets and transform, refine, and visualize it in a more organized and centralized way.
- data connectors.
- Collaboration.
- Data preparation.
- NLP consultations
- Integration with Excel.
- Cloud-ready reports.
- Support in other languages is of limited access.
February 07, 2022
A great tool for end-users with exceptional potential.
Although I'm a beginner in this whole analytics cycle, Cognos made it really simple for me as an end-user. Using the dashboards, reports, and automated stories really made my job easier. I really felt like Cognos with Watson was guiding me in the right direction and it felt very user-friendly.
- Data visualization.
- Predictive analytics.
- Automatically finding relationships.
- The price is a little high from what I've gathered. It's not really an option if you're not at least a mid-sized organization.
February 06, 2022
Pixel Perfect Enterprise Reporting Tool
IBM Cognos is used for meeting the reporting needs of the university. It is used to display data from the data warehouse. It is the single destination for the user to get data in a simple, clear, easy to read, and quick way. It is also used to generate timely reports on a schedule for a group of users.
- Importing and modifying metadata
- Create queries for use in GUI
- Print Friendly Report
- The new UI requires more clicks compared to previous version
- Dashboards require more color options
- Learning curve to use is still high compared to other products
January 28, 2022
IBM Cognos Analytics for Business Users
We help customers make the best use of IBM Cognos to help them understand their business in key areas of the organization. From areas of Orders, Invoices, and Inventory. In addition, we cover areas in finance such as AP, AR, and GL. The other areas are also in purchasing and service. All of this is against a data source coming from SAP Business One.
- Analyze data
- Reporting
- Dashboarding
- Self service
- Adhoc capability
- Improve Excel integration
- Improve dashboard experience
- Better online training videos