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.
Good BI tool for advanced analytics.
It's like a Swiss Army knife for our data
IBM Cognos Analytics Review
Great Data Visual tool that's let down by lack of integrations & customer support.
IBM Cognos for Automation, Business Performance Insights, and Advanced Learning
Unlocking Business Insights with IBM Cognos Analytics
IBM Cognos Analytics: The best blend of PowerBI, Tableau & Qlik
Best Business AI Tool
IBM Cognos Analytics
Great for data analysis
Best translation of AI into Business Analytics
Powerful and reliable BI tool
IBM Cognos Analytics Review
Data unification capacity, great help to the end user in the creation of the final report.
How IBM Cognos Analytics Differs From Its Competitors
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
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.
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
It offers tremendously helpful capabilities for row level and role level security on top of already powerful single sign on and multi factor authentication …
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
The AI assistant natural language processing is also a great tool to fill the knowledge gap that is normal for clients using these kind of tools.
Data Security and Quality
Proper content management and data quality features improved the confidence in the quality of the data.
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
Self-Service
Data Security and Quality
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
- 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
On Demand - Premium
$40.00
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
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
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 8.5Pixel Perfect reports(92) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 7.8Customizable dashboards(99) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 7.4Report Formatting Templates(96) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 8.1Drill-down analysis(101) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8.1Formatting capabilities(102) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 7.8Integration with R or other statistical packages(71) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 8.4Report sharing and collaboration(99) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 8.3Publish to Web(27) Ratings
- 8.7Publish to PDF(97) Ratings
- 8.6Report Versioning(26) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 8Report Delivery Scheduling(100) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
- 8.1Delivery to Remote Servers(12) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers
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.
- 8Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(88) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 8.2Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(85) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 8.1Predictive Analytics(81) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
- 8Pattern Recognition and Data Mining(20) Ratings
Pattern recognition and data mining mean the ability to recognize hidden patterns in large quantities of data.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 8.4Multi-User Support (named login)(95) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 8.3Role-Based Security Model(94) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 8.2Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(94) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 8.4Report-Level Access Control(23) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
- 8.3Single Sign-On (SSO)(76) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 7.9Responsive Design for Web Access(75) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 7.3Mobile Application(66) Ratings
A dedicated app for iOS and/or Android.
- 8.1Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(72) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another
- 7.3REST API(57) Ratings
REST is an architecture style for designing networked applications
- 7.5Javascript API(56) Ratings
A Javascript API is a type of API
- 8.3iFrames(9) Ratings
An iFrame is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website
- 6.9Java API(11) Ratings
A Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK)
- 7.1Themeable User Interface (UI)(10) Ratings
A themeable user interface means that a specific visual them can be applied to it
- 7.8Customizable Platform (Open Source)(7) Ratings
A customizable, open source API Gateway is a fast and scalable type of API
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is IBM Cognos Analytics?
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
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(579)Attribute Ratings
- 9.7Likelihood to Renew27 ratings
- 8.6Availability4 ratings
- 9Performance5 ratings
- 8Usability8 ratings
- 10Support Rating8 ratings
- 8Online Training4 ratings
- 8.7In-Person Training4 ratings
- 7Implementation Rating7 ratings
- 8Configurability2 ratings
- 8.3Product Scalability3 ratings
- 7.3Ease of integration3 ratings
- 7Vendor pre-sale1 rating
- 7Vendor post-sale1 rating
- 2.5Data Visualization4 ratings
- 8.3Data Sources40 ratings
- 8.6Data Sharing and Collaboration40 ratings
- 8.7IBM Cognos Reporting 4.14.2157 ratings
- 8.3IBM Cognos Data Modeling 4.14.212 ratings
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Meghdeep
- Framework Manager (metadata modeling tool) is a pretty flexible tool for any complex data modeling.
- With use of Report Studio you can handle any business logic for reporting.
- Event studio is used for event based scheduling.
- Business Insight advanced is used for ad-hoc reporting.
- Query studio out-of-the-box is a bit primitive. It is used for ad-hoc reporting, but if something is changed in Query Studio by and end user, it's not possible to see what exactly was changed without going into Report Studio. This is problematic as it means that end users need licenses for Report Studio which is not feasible.
- Metric studio we have not used at all, and don't know exact purpose of it.
Need better performance monitoring tool.
It would also be great if there were an option to rename columns and query subjects without modifying all existing reports.
- Single version of truth. We have centralized all reporting to one tool.
- Market Basket Analysis.
- Email canned reports.
- Single version of truth.
- Implemented in-house
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
- Various .Net based applications.
- SAP ECC 6.0.
- Amazon cloud.
Cognos
- Mobile Capabilities: Cognos 10 Mobile supports multiple mobile platforms - iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. The mobile platform is able to filter and report data based on GPS coordinates.
- Integrated Search: Both report content and metadata are searchable and this capability is included in the toolset, and available at no additional cost, in version 10.
- External Data: Data from external sources can be imported, combined with warehouse data, and used in reports without saving the external data in the warehouse.
- Offline Reports: Active Reports allows users to save interactive dashboards that can be viewed offline. Disconnected use of complex reports is a feature many large organizations ask for.
- Microsoft Excel Compatibility: Cognos Analysis allows end users to pull in and analyze data into Excel which may then be imported back into standard Cognos reports and dashboards. What’s more, reports and analysis can be directly pulled into other Microsoft Office products such as Word and PowerPoint.
- Limited options for charts, graphs and other visualizations.
- Used extensively for enterprise reporting.
- Executive KPI dashboards.
- Implemented in-house
- Professional services company
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
- Internal Website.
- The Report and Query Studio tools are nice for sophisticated power users. This allows power users to query and report on data which has already been modeled.
- The architecture of the application can be tiered nicely for performance. This allows us to scale the application to support our growing user base.
- Mobile features are more mature than other comparable products
- Licensing for Cognos is difficult to understand. It is based upon a proprietary 'PVU' or Processor Value Unit calculation which has been created by IBM. This effectively licenses each server by the number of processing cores.
- The software licensing is expensive.
- The product requires very technical staff to maintain and support. This adds greatly to the TCO of IBM Cognos that many overlook.
- Even with version 10.2.1 - browser compatibility is an issue for Report and Query Studio users. For example, they still don't work in Google Chrome. This causes a lot of confusion.
- IBM Cognos is currently serving approximately 2000 unique logins per month across 18,000 interactive report executions.
- Access to structured data is more widely available to our audiences
- Ad-hoc query capability is extended through the use of Cognos Query Studio
- Ad-hoc report generation is supported through the use of Cognos Report Studio
- IBM Cognos drives corporate reporting for the university. Primarily, it serves the Student community by reporting on Ellucian Banner and ODS data.
- Ability to query structured data in an ad-hoc way via Query Studio
- Access to data on-the-go with Cognos Mobile
- Security data at a fine grain across multiple functional areas and multiple campuses
- I've been pleased with the innovation around dashboards. We're now exploring further uses of the new Workspace functionality.
- Cognos Mobile adoption will grow very quickly. Cognos Mobile now supports push notifications to the status IOS status bar in the iPad app – users can now be notified when a new version of their report is available, further reducing the latency in decision making on the go.
- We are also looking at ways to support further data export and integration capability. Cognos 10.2.1 now allows increased spreadsheet maximums to 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows. It also adds an Excel output format called Excel 2007 Data which is perfect for lightweight data transfer to Excel without any report formatting.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
- Defining data security
- Data governance
- Data access requests
- In-person training
- Basic reporting
- Data exporting
- Cognos Mobile
- Report and Query Studio are easy to use, but require training. It would be more difficult to pick up these tools without any prior experience.
- We have integrated data from numerous systems in Cognos
- Ellucian Banner
- Ellucian ODS
- PeopleSoft Financials
- Workday HCM
- Sage Milennium
- Workday Financials
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- Javascript widgets
- ETL tools
- Report output is now not stored in the Content Store.
- 32-bit to 64-bit performance improvements
- Visualizations
- Improved Workspace functionality
- Extended Excel output capability - spreadsheet maximums to 16,384 columns by 1,048,576 rows. Cognos 10.2.1 also brings a brand new Excel output format called Excel 2007 Data which is perfect for lightweight data transfer to Excel without any report formatting.
- Improved performance
- Better visualizations
- Extended Excel output
IBM Cognos makes BI smarter.
- The IBM Cognos BI Suite provides a full-service set of reporting and tracking capabilities.
- The UI was attractive and easy-to-use for a wide variety of user levels.
- For the costs involved, it provided the best reporting capabilities for the money that we could find.
- The upgrade process was relatively easy given the pervasiveness of our integration with the product. The zero-client footprint meant that we didn't have to upgrade 200 users separately. We upgraded the servers, tested the implementation and then ported over the new product version to production with minimal hiccups.
- The transition to IBM was a bit rough. The IBM site was very difficult to navigate. It wasn't user-friendly. Finding information on support took much longer than it did before.
- While upgrading was relatively easy, the way they structured the upgrade cost, we were almost forced to pay a cost to upgrade or else face having our implementation be completely unsupported (and still forced to upgrade anyway).
- We were able to see very easily the KPIs from a variety of business channels, thereby allowing us to make quicker decisions. Increased response to key sales opportunities.
- The product allowed us to create production alerts to help us keep the product working smoothly. Reduced downtime and adverse impact to our clients.
- We were able to hot swap cubes, which kept real-time reporting available to the front-line sales staff. Decreasing time to respond to important sales trends.
- Provides a vehicle for easy financial reporting (even though the source information is stored elsewhere).
- Used for call center performance dashboarding.
- Provided marketing performance metrics.
- Ad-hoc reporting on a variety of business needs (specific marketing, operational, or sales needs).
- Implemented in-house
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught