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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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Learn from top reviewers

Cognos Visualizing Statistical Innovation

Rating: 9 out of 10
April 15, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Indeed, our organizing work with this platform has increased the possibilities of risk assessment. It does not have variations in calculations when making various reports. Sch...
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Astrid Ortega
Analyst - Finance and Accounting
Data Analyst and Risk Assessor
Banco Bci
IBM Cognos Analytics1 year of experience

represents a significant advance compared to previous versions

Rating: 8 out of 10
April 11, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
It has allowed me to create interactive reports and dashboards that convert complex data into intuitive visualizations. This has helped me quickly understand trends and patter...
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Josepe Bonfante
Professional - Social Media
Social Media Strategist
Barzza 
IBM Cognos Analytics2 years of experience

Fantastic Enterprise Reporting Platform

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 30, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Our team works across all industry verticals implementing IBM Cognos Analytics solutions for other companies. Working with our clients, we design and implement Cognos into th...
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David Shadbolt
Director - Information Technology
Technical Architect | Data Engineer | Director
DataVisual Ltd
IBM Cognos Analytics16 years of experience

Give me a 60th of an hour and I’ll give you sales!!

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 28, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
Cognos is used company wide to analyze sales. The convenience it provides for drilling down into different metrics is terrific. It can be used to send out last year sales by d...
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Byron Conner
Manager - Other
Assistant General Manager
Bass Pro Shops
IBM Cognos Analytics4 years of experience

IBM Congnos Analytics tool

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 25, 2025
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
It addresses problems related to data warehousers, help with poor decision making, and difficulties in identifying trends and other potential opportunities. We utilize the too...
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Tony Higgins
Consultant - Information Technology
System operations
DP Wagner
IBM Cognos Analytics5 years of experience
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How IBM Cognos Analytics Differs From Its Competitors

Most Valuable Capabilities

Automation is the best as it's incredible when it comes to reporting, saving marketing teams time and resources and ensuring we always have access to up-to-date information.providing the marketing team and the area with a wide range of tools for data collection and analysis
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Achievements Enabled

Artificial intelligence now incorporates AI capabilities that allow customers to perform active analysis, discover patterns, and obtain automated recommendations for data visualizations and analysis.These enhanced visualization tools allow our employees to create more interactive and personalized …
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Most Valuable Capabilities

One powerful feature not really talked about is Event Studio. It is a bit awkward to use, but it has some extremely powerful features. As the name implies, Event Studio operates on events. So certain tasks can be automatically run when defined conditions are met. For example, you can create …
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Achievements Enabled

Completely transparent to me, IBM Cognos Analytics would use the product type that I clicked on to filter the detailed report. Other tools have equivalent functionality, but I feel the parameter passing is more customizable and robust on IBM Cognos Analytics. I provided a simple example, but in …
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Most Valuable Capabilities

The most useful features are the advanced drilling functionalities, which enable the user to analyze deeper into the result set. Conditional alerting functionalities track important factors. Interactive scenario analysis tools change the paradigm of stress testing. The report bursting feature …
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Achievements Enabled

These are capabilities that generally were not possible with the preceding platforms. The creation of a complex dashboard is performed in several hours rather than days. The integration of the data source in software has helped a lot in the assessment. The committee presentations have thus adopted …
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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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Most Valuable Capabilities

The ability to drill down into a category to view sales per item is very valuable. You can build futures off of the acquired data and maximize every basket ring through migration or suggestive merchandising. Cognos also is valuable because you can align your unstuck levels based off of cyclical …
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Achievements Enabled

The amount of data at your fingertips is almost unimaginable. in the past, we had the ability to look at sales, but not on such a grand scale. The fact that you can drill down to a single item in a category that may contain 40,000 SKU numbers and compare trends year to year all on one screen is …
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Most Valuable Capabilities

I feel confident using Cognos because every stakeholder gets their data version, avoiding accidental overwrites. The security features ensure that access is well-managed across admins, staff, and customers, making it far more reliable than traditional spreadsheets.
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Achievements Enabled

I don’t need to write SQL queries or code, which saves a lot of time. Building reports and dashboards is simple using the drag-and-drop interface, and data preparation driven by artificial intelligence pushes the envelope and simplifies difficult chores greatly.
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Most Valuable Capabilities

access preparee xploreand present information.When using IBM Cognos Analytics you can perform data discovery and then quickly assemble that information into interactive, visually appealing dashboards New Feature - AI Agents Good, Tagents are the future because they can replace all the manual work …
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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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Most Valuable Capabilities

the capabilities of IBM COGNOS analytics i find most valuable is the ability to integrate with Deltek Costpoint. My organization used Costpoint and without cognos we are unable to pull reports!
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Self-Service

Having the ability to use IBM Cognos Analytics as a self service has really helped me out. I am able to quickly and easily pull data to track my purchase order services/software spend as well as track data for our federal reporting for small business spend. I do not need to wait on anyone, I am …
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Data Security and Quality

It's helpful because only certain areas of the organization has access. It keeps us with the ability to control who can see what data and making sure they come to Procurement and finance to access.
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Self-Service

We have not used the AI assisted data preparation as the amount of the data that we collect is on a larger scale and we are in the very beginning of implementing AI on a broder scope in our organization
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Data Security and Quality

We are very much concerned about our data as we are a global organisation. The data we collect is to make sure we make earth a better place to live hence we go a extra mile to make sure the data is secured and only the authorised persons have access the the data.
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Self-Service

The self-service analytics have immensely contributed to independent data handling. It has fully enabled the organization to own and control data that is processed within the enterprise without assistance from third parties. Efficient reporting capabilities have enhanced comprehensive decision …
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Data Security and Quality

The system has fully customized security system that detects data threats. The platform does not breach set enterprise security policies that keeps each data under unique protocols. Effective data governance has maintained data integrity aligned with set regulatory requirements. I have experienced …
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Self-Service

With the help of IBM Cognos, users can create faster reports without relying on IT, which reduces wait time and increases organization productivity. With the help of self-service analytics, users can explore data and get answers to questions without requiring extensive technical help. It also …
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Data Security and Quality

Data governance controls are essential for data quality, security, and compliance within the organization; they ensure data quality, accuracy, and consistency. It also provides data security to protect sensitive data from theft and damage. it also protects from regulatory compliances and provides …
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Self-Service

It's not easy at all. I'm still struggling with some implementation steps. Self-service capabilities are great, but they're not as easy as they sound on a daily basis.
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Self-Service

Data cleasing has provided quality data to enable effective decisions which in turn has saved money on CSR calls, AI assistants have introduced automation to ease the burden on manual call handling, visualization has helped marketing to launch new products which are more customer focused and have …
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Data Security and Quality

Ours a heavily regulated industry. Any leaks in controls can violate regulations and lead to a hefty fine. Enabling efficient governance has not only help to implement layered security in terms of data classification but also to maintain access, transparency and quality of data needed to make …
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Self-Service

IBM Cognos Analytics is very easy to learn and implement , the self service capabilities of it is very easy to learn for a beginner level of skilled person which helps to fast-pace the learning and get more out of the tool. The ai powered assistant is also a good utility.
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Data Security and Quality

IBM Cognos Analytics provides a rich set of security features and also provides a very isolated level of data handling and access permission and this helps to control the level of access granted to users and their permissions. the quality of data collected and their usage is already communicated …
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Self-Service

AI assisted data cleansing and connecting data have helped in the process of preparing and transforming data for analysis. Automated dashboard creation supports users to quickly generate interactive dashboard without the need of technical support. Self service feature in cognos analytics helped …
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Data Security and Quality

It helps in defining and imposing security policies for different levels, be it groups or individual levels. It implements data governance controls which helps in data quality management and also helps in improving accuracy, and consistency of data. When user know their data is secured and their …
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Self-Service

These self-service capabilities have enhanced the company's activities by allowing the creators and users of the information the freedom to take an idea they have and run with it. They can use the AI Assistant to take their ideas and create a visualization that helps get their point across and …
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Data Security and Quality

By allowing the enhanced security controls the company has been able to make sure that all relevant data is limited to the users that need it most and it is locked down appropriately. This gives Management peace of mind that the right people are looking at the right data and the risk of the …
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Self-Service

These features have streamlined some manual work and further advanced automation, but validation and further accuracy-checking is still needed as we gain confidence in the platform and want to ensure confidence.
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Self-Service

Its advanced AI capabilities help us immensely in data analysis as its very fast in analyzing large amounts of data in lower time frame. and as its running with the help of ai it means we can deploy our resources somewhere else.
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Data Security and Quality

By data governance IBM Cognos Analytics ensures our data remains safe. It only allow authorized individuals with access of confidential data. with its accurate data analytics capabilities we are ensured that our data received from it is consistent and accurate. and because of that we are really …
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Self-Service

IBM Cognos Analytics' data modules allow for basic data prep tasks and continue to evolve. They provide a good web-based environment to manage metadata and build out calculations and filters, which help improve self-service analytics for end users. The AI assistant is a nice enhancement in recent …
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Data Security and Quality

Data governance and controls are vital when rolling out an enterprise reporting, dashboarding, and analytics platform. IBM Cognos Analytics has always provided good and effective controls in this respect, which continue to be supported in newer releases. Security control also remains a strong …
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Self-Service

When used properly, the AI features do provide productivity gains. However, they won't do all the work for you. They alleviate some of the most tedious tasks and help speed things up overall.
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Data Security and Quality

Those functionalities are must-haves in any large organization, where you can not allow everybody to access every data set. However, I wish there were more options for user authentication.
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Self-Service

1. We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very much in line with real-life scenarios. 2. Options of customizing & scheduling reports as per our requirements basis. 3. With limited options, API integration is not up to the mark.
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Data Security and Quality

1. We use the tool for data modeling as it helps in predictive data analysis for complex data, which is very much in line with real-life scenarios. 2. Options of customizing & scheduling reports as per our requirements basis. 3. Has a mobile application that works seamlessly. 4. Laptops gets …
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Self-Service

This is always what characterizes this software; it is possible to link tools that help to work with different data sources and AI, and it is also possible to visualize the data in a personalized control panel with a direct or indirect classification to all the obtaining system Automated data …
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Data Security and Quality

There are more than ten groups with central administrative permissions that are working with this software only in my department; in other areas, different permissions have also been established for each job according to each data source; this significantly helps the individual performance of each …
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Self-Service

If it is possible for all users to clearly understand the generated reports, the information panels are easy even for non-technical staff; it is not necessary to ask for help to export information to components or modules that are required, and it is also easy to change the location and report …
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Data Security and Quality

Documents and reports are shared in all departments only with Latin permissions for password management and encryption when required; there is a person in charge in each department who has the authorization; in the same way, this product has additional security features with advanced verification. …
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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

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Pricing

View all pricing

On Demand - Standard

USD 10.00

Cloud
per month per user

On Demand - Premium

USD 42.40

On Premise
per month per user

On Demand - Standard

USD 10.60

On Premise
per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://ibm.biz/Cognos_Analytics_Pricing

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

How to get started with IBM Cognos Analytics

www.ibm.com

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.

7.5
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

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

7.6
Avg 8.0

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8
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.

7.5
Avg 7.9

Access Control and Security

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

7.9
Avg 8.5

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

7.1
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

7.6
Avg 7.8
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Product Details

What is IBM Cognos Analytics?

Cognos Analytics is an AI-fueled business intelligence (BI) platform that helps users create reports, dashboards, visualize, analyze, integrating reporting, modeling, dashboards, data exploration and share actionable insights.

Cognos Analytics 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

IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of a natural language query, used in IBM Cognos Analytics to get AI-powered insights from data.Screenshot of AI-generated insights and forecasts that can be added with just a click of a button.Screenshot of a dashboard that can be generated automatically using IBM Cognos Analytics by uploading or selecting data.Screenshot of an AI-generated dashboard from a spreadsheet that was just uploaded. This offers a great starting point for the creative process.Screenshot of where to import data to IBM Cognos Analytics from CSV files and spreadsheets. Users can connect to cloud or on-premises data sources, including SQL databases, Google BigQuery, Amazon, and Redshift.Screenshot of a sample operational dashboard of a coffee shop created using IBM Cognos Analytics.

IBM Cognos Analytics Video

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 Report Versioning highest, with a score of 8.6.

The most common users of IBM Cognos Analytics are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews From Top Reviewers

View all reviews
(1-5 of 136)

represents a significant advance compared to previous versions

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized
April 11, 2025
JB
Josepe Bonfante
Social Media Strategist
Barzza  (Market Research, 51-200 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos Analytics
2 years of experience
View profile
Pros
  • It allows you to connect and combine data from different sources, providing a holistic view of the organization.
  • It can help me predict future trends and consumer behaviors with artificial intelligence, allowing our organization to anticipate changes in the market.
Cons
  • 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.

IBM Congnos Analytics tool

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized
March 25, 2025
TH
Tony Higgins
System operations
DP Wagner (Logistics & Supply Chain, 11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos Analytics
5 years of experience
Pros
  • We can make dozens of dispatchers all focusing on different types of workloads.
  • Friendly user interface, without the need for coding or complicated editing.
  • Highly functionality reporting tools.
  • We can easily create trigger when a certain threshold are met sending reports or alerts to needed parties.
Cons
  • Have to regularly checking official IBM channels or newsletters for updates and changes.
  • The availability to work in a sandbox environments or trial versions of IBM Cognos Analytics to practice.
  • Better for On-Prem vs cloud.
  • The pricing is higher than some of their competitors.

Cognos Visualizing Statistical Innovation

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
April 15, 2025
AO
Astrid Ortega
Data Analyst and Risk Assessor
Banco Bci (Banking, 10,001+ employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos Analytics
1 year of experience
View profile
Pros
  • This platform significantly differs because it uses AI to discover previously unknown patterns in data.
  • Natural language querying lets users, especially those not very conversant with computers or information technology, process large databases.
  • Self-service enables analysts to create, make, and distribute risk visualization in their own time without involving the technical department.
Cons
  • The mobile experience is not as rich as it could be in the desktop one because some options are not available.
  • Template creation for the first time is more challenging compared to other similar tools, but may not be a severe drawback.
  • It is less than ideal to apply custom branding elements and see how those are being visualized in relationship to each other.

Fantastic Enterprise Reporting Platform

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized
March 30, 2025
DS
David Shadbolt
Technical Architect | Data Engineer | Director
DataVisual Ltd (Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Cognos Analytics
16 years of experience
View profile
Pros
  • Advanced reporting
  • Scheduling and burst report distribution
  • Simplified development for end users with its drag and drop functionality
  • Delivery in multiple formats
  • Works across multiple databases and flexibility to join data
Cons
  • License costs. Far too expensive for the small to medium size businesses.
  • Visualizations. Lacking when compared to Power BI.
  • Stability and bugs. Whilst it's inventible there will be bugs, the fix lists for v11 series contain far too many issues that should really have been detected during their QA testing. This becomes a major issue for clients that have thousands of users and cannot constantly be applying fix pack after fix pack.
  • No completely free version for developers. IBM should follow Microsoft's approach with Power BI
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