IBM Cognos Analytics - The Best BI Platform on the Market
Updated November 16, 2025

IBM Cognos Analytics - The Best BI Platform on the Market

Dion Paul | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Report Studio
  • Query Studio
  • Event Studio

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cognos Analytics

In our organization, we use IBM Cognos Analytics for Inventory, financial, and historical reporting and dashboarding.

Pros

  • Scheduling
  • Modeling
  • Interoperability

Cons

  • 2FA with other authenticators
  • Interconnection with other applications like PA on Cloud Hosted
  • Significant time savings in report distribution
  • Ease of administration
  • Savings by keeping things secured
Scheduler
Mass distribution
We chose IBM Cognos Analytics because, in our experience, IBM Cognos Analytics was Better, had more feature functionality, and is easier to use

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?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Cognos Analytics go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Cognos Analytics again?

Yes

In my opinion, I am likely to recommend IBM Cognos Analytics to a colleague because it is Easy to use, develop in and obtain the output that I need.

IBM Cognos Analytics Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
9.0
Pixel Perfect reports
10
Customizable dashboards
10
Report Formatting Templates
7
10.0
Drill-down analysis
10
Formatting capabilities
10
Integration with R or other statistical packages
Not Rated
Report sharing and collaboration
10
10.0
Publish to PDF
10
Report Delivery Scheduling
10
8.3
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
8
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
10
Predictive Analytics
7
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
Not Rated
10.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
10
Role-Based Security Model
10
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
10
Report-Level Access Control
10
Single Sign-On (SSO)
10
7.7
Responsive Design for Web Access
6
Mobile Application
7
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
10
Not Rated
REST API
Not Rated
Javascript API
Not Rated

Scalability and Accessibility

Very easy to design a structure that satisfies the needs of the business in a manner which makes self-service reporting and dashboarding easy for the end user community.
We have not integrated CA with other products.
We have only used this capability inf a couple of limited situations. Most users have tablets in addition to their phones and it is just easier for them to view their reports and dashboards on those devices as opposed to their phones.
Very easy to create, view, schedule content for visualization and distribution to other members of the organization
The architecture of the platform makes for very scalable environments, however, in my experience, I have noticed that the larger the environment gets (i.e. larger the content store), the less performant the platform becomes.

Using IBM Cognos Analytics

150 - Inventory, Sales, Accounting, Executive
15 - Administrators, Developers, DBAs, Operations
  • Inventory Management
  • Sales Monitoring
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Data collection for use in external applications
  • Interactive, near-real-time, dashboard displays in public areas
  • Near-real-time visualizations in presentations
  • Automated dashboarding development based on underlying content
  • Reporting and Dashboarding against other sources like PA
  • Integration with other systems
The organization is looking to move toward another BI tool in order to reduce overall cost.

Evaluating IBM Cognos Analytics and Competitors

  • Scalability
  • Ease of Use
Scalability and high availability of the platform are among the most important aspects of any platform. Ease of use for the end user community is also imperative for initial adoption and continued use.
Balance out the features, functionality, and overall cost of ownership against the other available options.

IBM Cognos Analytics Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No. Overall cost; standard support has always been sufficient for my needs given the ability to escalate a case, if necessary.
Yes - Resolutions occur sometimes. When they do, however, they usually take several months to be implemented.
Assistance was provided during a transition from authentication provide to another without the loss of user content or schedules.
For the most part, support has been very good from general information inquiries to major issues I do wish the timelines for major issue resolutions could be reduced; they do not occur frequently, but when they do, the impact is high and a quick turn-around is necessary.

Using IBM Cognos Analytics

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Scheduling
  • Interactive exploration
  • Dashboarding
  • Developing master reports and using report views
  • Report design with unstructured data sources
  • Report design with multiple data sources
  • Scheduling reports for distribution as attachments vs. saving to content store and sending a link (currently the default option)
Yes, but I don't use it

Comments

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