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IBM Cognos Analytics

IBM Cognos Analytics

Overview

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.

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Recent Reviews

IBM Cognos Analytics

8 out of 10
March 20, 2024
Incentivized
This technology is a great way for our business to see the scope of the work we are doing in one large dashboard. The data driven insights …
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How IBM Cognos Analytics Differs From Its Competitors

Self-Service

The self-service capabilities of this platform allow users to build their own dashboards, reports and scorecards in a simple, intuitive and secure way. It also provides ease of use for advanced data analysis.
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Self-Service

It is a software with power in the detection of problems through data analysis, artificial intelligence is perfect because it saves us time by automatically analyzing the data, protects us from any failure that occurs and generates detailed reports that allow us to know the problems. The whole …
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Self-Service

I believe the features before mentioned such as AI assistant have allow the tool to become more effective and helpful, suggestions and options are more customer related and tailored to specific situations.
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Data Security and Quality

In times like that that data and information security has become so critical, having IBM Cognos support that capabilities brings much peace of mind to the administrator, not to be confused to delegated the security to Cognos, the company must always be accountable for the security but in case of a …
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Self-Service

End users and vendors brought external data which IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson was easily able to cleanse, model and integrate with existing metadata models. The NLP capabilities of the tool helped for quicker implementation and insight generation of the external data for analysis and decision …
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Data Security and Quality

The RBAC or Role based access control helped implement object level as well data level security control which is a critical feature required due to multiple business units and various users having access to the single enterprise Bi tool. This allowed for controlled access and provide a peace of my …
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Self-Service

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is designed to enable business user self-service, with support for data cleansing and connecting the data automatically. We can work on different filetypes like json, csv, xlx etc and generate datapoints from these different filetypes easily. It automatically …
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Data Security and Quality

The data stored is highly secure as IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson enables divisional, group, and individual-level security controls to ensure proper content management and maintain data quality. It is easily accessible from the IBM account as well as the mobile application. It is confidential …
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Self-Service

It offers certain features, for example, simulated intelligence helped information arrangement, robotized dashboards, and the AI intelligence Collaborator which permits clients to pose inquiries in plain language and get suggested representations. These self-administration abilities are …
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Data Security and Quality

The execution of safety controls in IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson has empowered us to keep up with the most elevated levels of information quality and trustworthiness. These controls permit us to guarantee that main approved work force approach delicate information, and that all information is …
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Self-Service

Its makes reporting and scheduling task much efficient as compared to using AS400 for creating reports
its a time saver and changes in at any point of time is best part.
its query studio is very simple and dynamic.
we got many adhoc and in built functionality as well here .
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Self-Service

Still the end user find it difficult to build reporting. This is also related that they don't know their own data. To help the users with this should be te focus. (like in Story telling) give the user more help and insight to their possibilities, this also with local language support. For most of …
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Self-Service

Data is automatically displayed in a way that makes sense to the user. The suggested reports and dashboards are very helpful. The templates make it very easy to create dashboards. It truly is a self-service tool and is easy for users of all levels to use. The AI assistant is helpful.
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Data Security and Quality

The different security levels are very important and easy to use. It's nice to be able to use groups to give access to whole content areas to a very large amount of people. We have thousands of reports and managing the permissions of each one individually would be a nightmare. It's nice that you …
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Self-Service

They helped a lot like I am now used to accessing the reports or data I want directly from the dashboard. The parameter selection and the feature to formatting the data is really helpful in day-to-day deliverable. The language use is understandable.The analytics part is so accurate even it is …
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Data Security and Quality

In the research field, the security of the data is the top priority thing and I think IBM Cognos Analytics is very reliable with security of the data.Like the Read, only access feature in IBM is top notch it really help for auditing purpose and the quality of the data is excellent.
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Self-Service

Self-service has without a doubt improved our productivity and reduce complexity as a data platform. Our staff can easily generate reports with little assistance from the IT team unless it's on complex ODBC.
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Data Security and Quality

Because we are in finance, confidential data is shared all the time which means data security is a priority. With a secure licensed governance system, data is handled by a trusted source.
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Self-Service

These self-service capabilities are easy to use and allow business users to create their own reporting content for their business requirements. It has tremendously reduced work for developers and application administrators to engage with other productivities.
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Self-Service

Automated dashboard creation is a great feature and time-saving. The AI is largely dependent on the quality of the data being analyzed and the structure of the data. The ability to identify patterns and drivers through the use of Decision trees and sunburst diagrams is also useful
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Data Security and Quality

data governance and controls are essential and often the key differentiator between Cognos Analytics and desktop tools like Power BI and Tableau for example, which can result in multiple data versions. Cognos Analytics ensure there is one trusted source of data within the organization
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Self-Service

We deliver reports via email to users. Some reports are pdf or excel format. Also, users are able to log in with their own credentials and run reports manually at any time.
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Data Security and Quality

Data quality is very important ant to our organization. With reporting, we can quickly identify issues or improvements. There is always a chance someone may enter data incorrectly and by the use of reports, we can identify those incorrect entries quickly. Additionally, reporting business …
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Self-Service

Creating and getting customizable dashboards that can be easily linked with reports generated and data collected from external sources is fascinating. The interface is easy to use. The analytical capabilities of the software have been enhanced by connecting data with sources like Salesforce.
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Data Security and Quality

Super safe. It integrates with many platforms and software products that businesses already use, like Salesforce, these integrations help us connect, access, and unify data across sources. It can also be combined into a dynamic view so that several different data sources can be compared at once.
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Self-Service

Dashboarding is very easy to start for beginners. It's very user-friendly and drags n drop works well with AI assistant because it automatically recognizes data which is the best visualization for it. Cognos Analytics front page is customizing itself with the reports I use most.
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Data Security and Quality

Securing data is the best part. It's only one reporting source for all users, but you can many ways to limit data visibility for users and groups. For example company lead can see every data aspect, area controllers can see only their own region, the project manager can see their projects, etc. …
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Self-Service

It provides effective solutions, including being able to easily consult and process analytical data. Being able to work through compelling, fully visual charts and dashboards is exceptional.
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Self-Service

The AI assistant is still fairly new. My current clients have evaluated it but have not yet implemented it. The big issue is their primary data source is based on a complicated TM1 cube, and the AI ontology cannot accurately match requests to specific tuples.

Once IBM implements it, we'll …
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Data Security and Quality

Governance is extremely important to my client. The reports are grouped into different sections, access to which is defined through the users' AD groups. Individual reports are designed to filter differently based on who the user is and even present different aggregation levels based on user …
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Self-Service

It provides practical data analysis to all departments of the company and provides the ability to access, understand and analyze data faster. What's more, it provides an analytics solution that is very easy to customize, integrate, and deploy.
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Self-Service

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is the best BI tool. It has helped me understand trends and gain insights from the data I have collected. All the data is hosted in the IBM Cognos cloud securely, and I can easily access the data whenever I want no matter where I am. I just need to connect to the …
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Data Security and Quality

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson enables seamless cloud transformation, virtual data engineering, and more. At the same time, it has excellent security, scaling, and control options to meet the needs of any company or user, allowing you to take complete control of your data.
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Self-Service

I am an end-user, so I don't really get to touch all of this. I get to make reports and publish them. I actually took pleasure in building reports and dashboards because of the very well-built interface. It also makes my co-workers more interested in the data when it's presented in some of these …
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Self-Service

AI assistance is good and a novel feature. However, the natural processing is limited and might not understand what the user wants. There is room for improvement. However, the recommended visualization is a good feature and can save time for the user. Same for the dashboard creation as well, you …
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Data Security and Quality

Data governance control is the most important security measure in any enterprise organization. When you have multiple departments or multiple users with different designations then we would like to make sure that only the person who is authorized to view the data should be able to view the data. …
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Self-Service

Self-service has enabled users to be able to create reports on their own without having to ask IT to do it for them. The user interface is very intuitive and overall an easy tool to work with. Self-service was the number one reason why this tool keeps getting selected.
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Data Security and Quality

The security controls that IBM Cognos provides are key for easier deployment. It allows for easier report deployment as well. It allows the users to only see what they are allowed to see and we don't have to give them full access to everything. All in all, the security options in IBM Cognos allow …
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Self-Service

Allowing business users the ability to build their own reports reduces the burden on the developers within the IT department and demonstrates how Cognos provides a fantastic return on investment.
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Data Security and Quality

Security of the reports and platform is critical when rolling out any reporting solution. With Cognos seamlessly integrating with Active Directory and having Single Signon, security can be handled in one location and modified accordingly as part of the joiners, movers and leavers process.

Implementi…
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 30 features
  • Formatting capabilities (102)
    8.1
    81%
  • Drill-down analysis (101)
    8.0
    80%
  • Report Delivery Scheduling (100)
    7.9
    79%
  • Customizable dashboards (99)
    7.8
    78%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Banking Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Verified User
Program Manager in Product Management
Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees
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Pricing

View all 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
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Product Demos

IBM Cognos Analytics Product Tour

Walnut.io
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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

7.9
Avg 8.1

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8.1
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8.3
Avg 8.3

Data Discovery and Visualization

Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.

8.1
Avg 8.0

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

8.3
Avg 8.5

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

7.3
Avg 7.9

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another

7.5
Avg 7.9
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Product Details

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 TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish, 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).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(577)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(26-38 of 38)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 23, 2016

IBM Cognos Business Intelligence. Puts back intelligence in the corporate world....

Sandy Midili | TrustRadius Reviewer
Sandy Midili
Business Analytics Training Manager
QueBIT Consulting (Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Data Integration
10
The technical configuration of hitting the data sources isn't the problem. The problems arise if you haven't invested in a data management implementation. Data warehouses should be required because ERP systems don’t store the data in a manner that supports analysis and reporting. Nor do they always gather all available data because of system incompatibilities and increasing amounts of information from systems external to the enter­prise. The purpose of data warehouses is to extract data from disparate sources, cleanse it and align it so that it can be aggregated, compared and analyzed to enable business decisions. Then it is stored in a single common platform optimized to support enterprise-wide data analysis. Your reporting, visualizations, dashboards will only be as good as the source.
February 19, 2016

COGNOS is a great and vesitile tool.

Brent Curia | TrustRadius Reviewer
Brent Curia
Business Intelligence COGNOS Developer
Boeing (Aviation & Aerospace, 10,001+ employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Data Integration
8
The problem at my company is that they over complicate many of the data streams, e.g. they try to merge some non-compatible systems prior to COGNOS. This has resulted in hundreds of hours of wasted time trying to make reports work by putting band aids all throughout the report just to get it to work. Often the reports fail on a regular basis and have to be redone. In addition, they have created multiple data packages with the same information and have not kept them current. So I can't blame the results on COGNOS. However, the data packages that are create straight from the data source work very well. Ease of merging can be difficult. I think this is another area to look into simplifying.
February 17, 2016

Cognos the Congo!!!

Verified User
Engineer in Customer Service
Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Data Integration
10
This is best feature cognos has, where any one can join two disjoint datasets and still present it as a single report which many of the reporting solutions tend to fail. Real time solutions can be constructed with an ease where any custom dataset can be created mapping to real time objects (tables, views etc) connecting to any third party database (SQL, Oracle etc) which is a greatest selling point.
September 11, 2014

IBM Cognos: A Real Life Review from a Disappointed User

Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Data Integration
2
IBM Cognos (at least the way we have it configured via our hosted provider) does not allow us to connect to other data sources, so I am not entirely familiar with how well or how bad it connects to these other data sources. I do like how everything is laid out for me in the EAM Database and it is easy to choose tables and fields that I need for any given report.
September 10, 2014

Cognos - Adequate for Reporting, Needs A Friend or Two for Analysis

Joseph Frank, PhD, CCP, GWCCM | TrustRadius Reviewer
Joseph Frank, PhD, CCP, GWCCM
Human Resources Consultant/Compensation (and HR Analytics) Services
Washington University School of Medicine (Human Resources, 10,001+ employees)
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Data Integration
3
IBM Cognos does not make it easy to connect multiple data sources. I typically pull the data out using the Excel export option, then work with data in a database environment or in statistical software in order to answer complex business questions.
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