Item: IBM Cognos Analytics
Rating: 9
Author: Mohammed Younus Siddiqui

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Cognos is used for meeting the reporting needs of the university. It is used to display data from the data warehouse. It is the single destination for the user to get data in a simple, clear, easy to read, and quick way. It is also used to generate timely reports on a schedule for a group of users.

Pros and Cons

Importing and modifying metadata
Create queries for use in GUI
Print Friendly Report

The new UI requires more clicks compared to previous version
Dashboards require more color options
Learning curve to use is still high compared to other products

Return on Investment

Allowed access to user just based on their active directory login
Dashboard creation and look feel is not up to par with the competitiors
Pixel perfect reports that can't be matched anywhere else

Alternatives Considered

Tableau Desktop and Microsoft Power BI

IBM Cognos Analytics is the only product that provides pixel-perfect reports right out of the box. You do not need third-party tools to implement it. Secondly, other tools require you to create a relation between the tables if you are going to use them in the report. Only in Cognos, you can display tables with no relationship between them at all. Thirdly, if you need to create queries or sub-queries then you can do it on the fly in Cognos. However, in other tools, you need to do the data preparation in the database itself before using it in the tool.

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 can change the visualization on the fly to see how it fits the dashboard.

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. This level of data governance can be applied down to the table level inside a report inside a particular folder in IBM Cognos.

Reporting

If you are looking for pixel-perfect reports out of the box then IBM Cognos is the tool for you. You can have a multi-page report and each page has the same consistent look and feel. You can use HTML code inside the report to enhance and beautify the report if needed. You can select the page size, column or row width, page breaks, etc.

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Oracle Data Integrator, Oracle Data Warehouse

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?

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

Likelihood to Recommend

If you require pixel-perfect reports and you have to share these reports with users in an enterprise. Then it is the best BI tool for you. Other competitors are missing many features that are needed for enterprise users. The ability to use data sources with no relation inside a report is a GOD send. You will not find this anywhere.

Pixel Perfect Enterprise Reporting Tool

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson