Item: IBM Cognos Analytics
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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

Return on Investment

Time saved from data preparation
Time formatting reports
Easier creation of dashboards
Reduced costs from fewer analytics tools
Easier access to business data
Easy security options
Easily scheduled reports

Alternatives Considered

Tableau Desktop and Microsoft Power BI

We selected IBM Cognos because it has all of the features our organization needs for reporting. There are multiple report and dashboard options. Security and scheduling options are good. Tableau does not have good tools for advanced reporting besides dashboards. Power BI does not have as many features as IBM Cognos.

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.

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 can manage individual permissions for each dashboard if needed.

Reporting

IBM Cognos makes it very easy to format reports so that they are personalized and look nice. Templates are easy to use. I did not give it a 10 because sometimes the formatting comes out weird and it takes a long time to figure out what is wrong. You also sometimes have to find "hacks" to make it look the way you want it to.

Other Software Used

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Cognos Analytics delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Cognos Analytics's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Cognos Analytics live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of IBM Cognos Analytics go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy IBM Cognos Analytics again?

Yes

Great Reporting Software

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson