Item: IBM Cognos Analytics
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is being used as next generation BI tool and visualization application. This is solving the operational and analytical requirements of the organization. IBM Watson analytics has enabled self-serve for multiple business units and vendors as well who would like to invest data for their strategic business Operations view. The tool has embedded AI capabilities which helps in what-if scenarios as well as alerting based on threshold that business teams define from time to time. It is easy to bring external data and extrapolate with existing data hosted via models hosted and published on the IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson. The geographical integration and multiple graphs help with next generation visualizations. These are then used for higher management or executive representation in an ongoing way. The tool is providing capabilities to integrate with the custom application that the organization has built for customer services easily. The support for multiple authentication mechanisms makes it easy to implement authentication mechanism with every changing security and regulatory compliance needs of the organization. Lower per person end user license helps continue with the tool for longer term strategic use for the organization.

Pros and Cons

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson has enabled self-serve for multiple business units and vendors as well who would like to invest data for their strategic business Operations view.
geographical integration and multiple graphs help with next generation visualizations.

Can have better integration options for MS native tools which may be .net based while Cognos is Java based.
Easier process to import external data and model examples that can be used for different industries.
Greater flexibility to be able to move from in-Prem to cloud and retention of the features brought from in-Prem version of the tool like query studio etc

Return on Investment

It reduced the time to bring the external data by 80% and merge with the enterprise data easily for operational reporting.
Quicker end user adoption due to simpler user interface and less complex functionality to adopt to.
Greater than 25% reduction in formatting and custom visualizations creations by using sample graphs and templates

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Power BI, Tableau Desktop, Amazon QuickSight and ThoughtSpot

IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson is an enterprise ready tool and could provide end to end functionality expected from a BI tool. Provides integration with custom applications as well as provides not just high end visualizations that Tableau or PowerBI provides but also the very much needed detailed pixel perfect operational reports as well. Ability to extract and share data within and outside the organization. Schedule reports and burst reports based on report parameters which is not available or complex to implement in any of the tools evaluated. While Thought spot provided natural language querying, IIBM Cognos Analytics with Watson also was able to do that, effectively.

Self-Service

End users and vendors brought external data which IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson was easily able to cleanse, model and integrate with existing metadata models. The NLP capabilities of the tool helped for quicker implementation and insight generation of the external data for analysis and decision making, which was well received for accuracy and ease of use.

Data Security and Quality

The RBAC or Role based access control helped implement object level as well data level security control which is a critical feature required due to multiple business units and various users having access to the single enterprise Bi tool. This allowed for controlled access and provide a peace of my mind for data publishers and comply with the security standards of the organization easily

Reporting

We implement complex operations reporting which were being sent to customers and needed a lot of formatting which was very complex and IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson , Report Studio helped implement it easily. The formatting became the standard and was used across the organization and was well received and adopted by internal and external users. The report was clear and consistent to use with the capabilities the tool provided.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, MicroStrategy Analytics

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?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Cognos Analytics go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Cognos Analytics again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited for medium to large enterprises with multiple departments and users. Need for integration with enterprise authentication. Great mix of operational as well as analytical reporting or BI needs. Higher data volume, velocity and variety kind of situations as it handles the large volume data well. Cloud based and hence quick start for small enterprises is also possible.

Versatile and next generation BI tool.

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson