IBM Cognos Analytics

Pros

The quick learning curve which turns every intuition into a positive experience

Cons

The story telling capabilities are not seamless enough and consume too much efforts to be reach the desired effect.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to IBM Cognos Analytics

Pros

This solution has everything for Data Analysis, since ETL to Visualization. Great tool for Business Analytics. Supports a wide variety of data sources, great reporting features and capabilities, you can publish to PDF, predictive analytics, and easy to create Dashboards with multiple templates.

Cons

They need to work on their compatibility with web browsers, it did not work with Opera. The price is a little high per user. You cannot share a Dashboard unless the other party has a license.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing IBM Cognos Analytics

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to IBM Cognos Analytics

Pros

It has great functionality for reporting purpose. We can customize our report and distribute easy to all teams.

Cons

Drill down in reports seems to take much time which make this software slow sometime.

Pros

Pixel perfect printing. Most competitors have tagged printing as a way of the past, but there’s still a half generation that relies heavily upon it. This can’t be overlooked.

Cons

The flexibility/functionality of the viz tools can’t compete with competitors. I think it also has a more difficult learning curve. It isn’t an intuitive tool.

Pros

Cognos 11 comes with all the latest features expected in a BI tool, the graph generations and story buildings as well as predictions.

Cons

Interactive pdf is not available for reports. Can be difficult to implement without admin support for end users.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to IBM Cognos Analytics

Pros

Capabilities of this software is far reaching and varied and it depends on the organisation ability to use it to their advantage.

Cons

the support from the consultant was great but costly.

Pros

It generated reports from data warehouse very well

Cons

The cubes were not easy to define at first

Pros

We like the ability to create custom reports to meet user requirements. This includes being able to link data coming from databases using Cognos Framework Manager, plus the ability to create SQL select queries within Cognos that pull data directly from custom SQL objects. We also appreciate that Cognos Analytics still supports the use of Portals that we created in a previous version of the product. Other features that we appreciate are Bursting, Conditional Styling and Rendering, Exports to Excel and PDF, and drill-through reports, to name a few.

Cons

Crosstabs could use more features and provide more flexibility in formatting.

Pros

The software is highly intuitive since it recognizes the demands of the business and promotes work productivity; it can manage a big quantity of data and allows all departments to easily build reports to examine the data. While reporting, you may effortlessly combine numerous searches or arrange your data; no background or technical expertise is necessary. The process is quite fluid, and compared to other cloud services I've tried, IBM Cognos offers a well-designed interface that is simple to educate personnel on. Reports give significant detail that can be exported and edited to explain crucial choices. They are simple to run and compatible with office applications.

Cons

Reports may take some time to execute depending on their size; reporting software may include cautions about where students committed errors and the report will not run; alternatively, more thorough instructions for new employees are provided. You obviously require proper training, and anyone who aren't familiar with SQL will struggle to put it up. I've been seeing some delays while switching sites or loading materials, but I appreciate IBM's ability to work on this issue.

Pros

In my experience using IBM Cognos Analytics, I discovered a number of features that I genuinely valued. One of the features I enjoyed the most was how capable and thorough the reporting was. I was able to show data in a relevant and interesting way thanks to the software, which offered a variety of possibilities for designing visually appealing and interactive reports. The customization and flexibility features in IBM Cognos Analytics were very appealing to me. I was able to add my own branding and layouts to reports and dashboards to match my own business demands. The capability to smoothly link to diverse data sources was another noteworthy feature. I was able to access and analyze a variety of datasets with ease because to IBM Cognos Analytics' support for integration with various databases and file types. Additionally, the software offered robust collaboration and sharing features, enabling me to collaborate with team members and stakeholders efficiently.

Cons

In my experience with IBM Cognos Analytics, there were a few aspects that I found challenging and could be improved upon. One of the areas that I liked least was the learning curve associated with the software. It took some time and effort to become familiar with the platform and its features. The complexity of certain functionalities and the lack of intuitive user interfaces made it a bit difficult for me to navigate and utilize the tool effectively at first.

Pros

Well established took with huge user base and support. Being IBMs main BI tool, it comes with a lot of Support and Knowledge Base. There are tons of supporting products for Advanced Analytics, Visualization and AI/ML which makes the tool both powerful and versatile. It fits into both departmental BI as well as for Enterprise wide reporting.

Cons

IBM should increase the support the provide for their products. It is difficult to get quick help from IBM.Self service features of the tool and not as easy as other contemporary tools like Tableau and Qlikview. IBM has catching up to do in this area. Also cloud based SAAS is not yet advanced for COGNOS.

Pros

Cognos Analytics has really great capabilities. There is so much that you can do with the framework if you know what you're doing. Good security features. Good for enterprise level reporting.

Cons

If you're hoping this will replace a dedicated reporting team or IT team, it will not. The ease of use depends on several factors and be SURE that you have an experienced team built the framework. No support whatsoever from Cognos themselves for end users, and they take a long time to get back to us on issues. The new visualizations can be clunky, especially maps. They are unusable for detailed maps. Scheduling features slow down the system considerably.

Pros

Cognos is an incredibly powerful reporting tool offered by IBM and it has a wonderful ability to be customized across different industries and companies. It can transform work efficiency but automating virtually any data that exists in a company's primary accounting and finance system.

Cons

Cognos is not very user-friendly and often times it can take a while for an individual working with Congos to get familiar with the functionality and the power this tool possesses. Furthermore, report writing and query studio functionality require some database knowledge so the true power of the tool is sometimes limited by these factors.

Pros

IBM Cognos TM1 facilitates the creation of business models with the participation and contribution of users throughout the organization regardless of their physical location.
TM1 is a enterprise-level platform that allows an integral, flexible, rigorous and perfect control over the users that contribute with the creation of the budget.
It allows building multidimensional models that incorporate the business rules that govern the financial processes of the company.

Cons

IBM Cognos TM1 needs to train personnel to administer the platform.
The construction of the models requires specialized IT staff.
The cost of the licenses is for medium and large companies.

Pros

It has a lot of reports included and providing the information needed

Cons

Some reports were not easy to run and I have to go to the home page to run a different report

Pros

Once you have mastered the learning curve and know exactly where to click and what to type to querie your data, you are able to get what you need

Cons

Not intuitive and knowing where to go or click for different queries/reports/data searches and you really need a colleague who has done it before to show you how.

Pros

You can write your own reports and pull out the data you need from our accounting software. You have the ability to create advanced reports and format in multiple ways.

Cons

Sometimes the fields that are in Cognos do not match exactly or have different names from the actual software so it is a guess at what field you are pulling. The report studio portion is advanced report writing and in order to create these reports it is recommended to have additional training in order to make reports be beneficial for your company.

Pros

I love cognos. I can run any report, any time... past/present/future. So many options. Love the ability to create shortcuts to the reports I use on a daily basis as well. Quick & easy to use.

Cons

The only thing I don't like is the reports don't always give a good description before running them.

Pros

It is straight-forward and feature-rich. We have combined dozens and dozens of queries into a single report without any issue before, so it has that advantage over most of the alternative solutions.

Cons

The version of Cognos we are running currently makes it difficult to pinpoint the bottle-neck of certain reports.

Pros

Cognos is a very effective BI tool. you can create customized reports without having a very technical background ... It can be easily integrated with several data sources in a simple and consistent way and I find the interface to extract data on demand or send scheduled reports (Report Planner) excellent. good user experience with the drag and drop. . . versatility of the Live API to postgres, sql server and oracle databases. We use Cognos to deliver operational reports to all production units and great and very well presented reports and productivity indicators to senior managers

Cons

It is a very powerful tool but not as easy to understand quickly as other tools on the market for the same price .. The learning curve is broad. The initial configuration is not easy, the dashboard function does not have many options. Installation can also be a complicated issue and may require vendor support

Pros

Easy to use, easily connects to many ERP softwares.
Houses budgeting and planning, financial reporting and dashboarding and metrics all in one suite.

Cons

Requires in-house administration, is not an out of the box software and requires monthly maintenance on the reports and the planning applications.

Pros

Once set up, the end user can easily get into advanced reports and simply navigate as needed to get information in a repeatable manner.

Cons

There are some odd, not intuitive quirks; however, I presume that’s a consequence of an organizations configuration and less about the software

Pros

It can handle enormous amounts of data and allows a user to create extremely complex data models from almost any number of disparate sources

Cons

Super complex and difficult to learn. The least intuitive software I have ever used, and the help documentation is pretty much useless.

Pros

I like the ability to create reports its has many functions ( Explore, Analysis, Report Studio, Event Studio).

Cons

I dislikes its. Because of so hard of setting page or design report page when it set wide and height.

Pros

If you can figure out how to make the reports run you can create nice reports with lots of information.

Cons

Not easy to create a report, some reports will stop working for no reason, they just will spin and not generate. Difficult to change the layout and information.

Pros

It has a nice user interface, with multiple customization options, attractive panels and excellent performance. It has the useful drag and drop tool that makes it easy to manipulate data to create nice visualizations. Provides high quality and visually pleasing real-time reports. The mobile application works very well, giving the platform greater mobility.

Cons

I would like them to improve the documentation to start using the platform more easily and get the most out of all its functions. Its cost is considerably high.

Pros

It allows you to connect the data thrown by different sources and create personalized reports that you can share in real time. It allows planning operations based on pre-established rules to model the entire business process and obtain the best results on the implemented strategies.

Cons

Its license has a high cost compared to similar platforms. It has a steep learning curve and its user interface has a lot of room for improvement.

Pros

decreases support because of complete report inclusion and a zero-impression climate.
abbreviates detailing time because of consistent reconciliation and versatile composing.
Further developed independent direction reports and dashboards present information in handily gotten designs.

Cons

Investment in Cognos R&D by IBM is declining.
Won't work smoothly with large data sets having many parameters.
Cross-browser compatibility is often problematic.

Pros

Cognos Analytics is a flexible software for Standard Business Intelligence Reporting as well as for Self Service Data Visualization capability. You have the option to connect to a variety of the Data Sources as well as Multi-Dimensional Cubes. The new invention of Cognos Analytics software provides a greater flexibility for enterprise deployments and upgrades. It has the new feature of NLP (natural language processing) for predictive analytics by IBM Watson.

Cons

Too many modelling tools (Cognos FrameWork Manager, Dynamic Cube Designer, Cognos Transformer) for modelling the content. Too many studios (Report Studio, Query Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio) for report development. Maintainence and cost is huge

Pros

The ability to visualize data in many way all using the same utility is beneficial so we don't have to worry about multiple deployment/support patterns. Having an in-memory OLAP option made performance less of an issue compared to hitting an on-prem database directly for everything. The ability to add custom code allows for some really creative solutions to unique business problems in reporting.

Cons

We felt the interface and functionality was a little dated - our more technical employees were fine but the more analyst-type developers preferred something "prettier"/"friendlier" like Tableau/Power BI. It also got expensive for us which was one of the two the primary reasons we transitioned. This is obviously dependent on the number of users, so consider your own environment of course.

Pros

I think this tool is quite good, since it allows the user several functionalities: create and adapt BI reports, automate the export of a report in a set period and for the necessary containers (they do not need a license to receive), etc. . I love working with this tool from IBM. It allows some SQL language, and some configuration features that are very good too.

Cons

One thing I can point out as a cons of this tool, is the fact that it does not always return the correct information (because the user, without knowing it, can mix incompatible information) - and only at a more advanced stage do we notice that the information is not correct - because we have no error information.
When we actually have information about the errors, this is also not very detailed, that is, we are left without knowing what the error is anyway. It is difficult to make correct associations in this tool, because it is very restricted in relation to the use of the database and the compatibility of the data between them.

Pros

- Provides great Dashboards- Provides effective Reports- Helps in Data Visualization

Cons

- Requires training to understand it effectively- Not very intuitive

Pros

the powerful framework manager, allow us to implement complicated logic into model and deliver a package to end user, business user can do ad-hoc report easily.

Cons

steep learning curve for beginners. not mention people who doesn't have BI experience, Had a few new team members from tableau background. the FM package complexity is much more than they have done in the tableau data source.

Pros

The latest versions have improved the report writer experience by consolidating a few of the modules. Generally robust at connecting to single data sources.

Cons

Steep learning curve for writing reports and setting up Framework Manager packaging is way too time consuming. The end user interface got more complicated and less easy to use in their attempt for more flashiness. The latest versions have been extremely buggy. Data blending and quick turnarounds are not its strong point.

Pros

It's been a long on the market.
It's offered by IBM
It has a great integration with many databases

Cons

New version (CA 11) has some inconvenient UI changes (new side panel which does not allow to easily navigate and see all properties)
Many things need to be done manually instead of integrating as best practices (security, deployments, testing, version control, etc.)
New studios are not that intuitive / transparent

Pros

IBM Cognos Analytics is a great data analytics tool. It can handle a lot of data and makes it easy for users to create reports to view their data. I like that it allows for a variety of output formats.

Cons

Cognos Analytics can be hard to learn how to use. You have to really understand your data first so that you can figure out how to make the tool do what you need it to do.

Pros

IBM Cognos Analytics is a great tool for data reporting. It is easy to use and easy to see data relationships. It has a lot of reporting options and the folder structure is nice.

Cons

It can be kind of hard to learn and there are not a ton of helpful resources online.

Pros

The best thing about this software is that it is a complete package for your BI Solution. The software is good for Standard Reporting as well as Adhoc Reporting. The new Analytics software has dashboarding as well as storytelling.

Cons

Too Many client tools for the same purpose Like Transformer, FM, Dynamic Query Analyser, Data Manager and Decision Stream. Maintenance is the biggest thing.

Pros

It is a very complete software already from the basic version (it already offers the map graph). it allows real-time monitoring useful also for predictive analysis. It allows you to work anywhere even offline, producing interactive reports being able to consult them even without connection. It's easy to use even without having followed a specific training program. Charts that can be customized at the the maximum level (so complete from this point of view).

Cons

Not captivating and innovative graphics with the times (it seems like an office pack years 2000). when the graphics are very complex they are difficult to display on web pages, they do not always fit. there isn't a feature where you can search where a particular data field is located/stored. The scheduler it's not easy to use and automating the sending of static reports to users is not easy

Pros

Complex reports can be achieved with IBM Cognos Report studio, great for setting up scheduled reports.

Cons

Interface is not user friendly, certain features are not logically placed.Charts are not great when downloaded into Excel.

Pros

Easily integrating with most of the ERPs, very good for customizing reports, very detailed reporting

Cons

Tough to learn & not many resources available, you will get the value of the money invested in it only if you are able to get the most out of it

Pros

Scheduling reports, configuring prompt pages on reports for users to run a standardized report with custom filters are both fantastic features that I used hundreds of times across all reporting.

Cons

Report building was intuitive for a power user but average users found it overwhelming. This just meant a bit more training from my department.

Pros

Its all of my majority. Planners are always analyzed in daily productions. Good design, dashboard, pivot tables. That's all i need analyse data and prepare to reports

Pros

The software is very intuitive. If you have knowledge of SQL, it is a very easy software to pick up. The Help portion of the Cognos interface is very helpful also.

Cons

Customer Support for this product isn't the best. We have been on Cognos 10.1.1 for a while and when it came up for licensing renewal, we were charged for a newer version of Data Manger. When we inquired about this through our support contract we were going to be charged for the new software.

Pros

Compatibility mode queries allow for custom ODBC and JDBC connection to made, so even if there is no native compatibility other databases can still be used as a source if needed.
Dynamic Cubes are capable of querying against millions of rows in seconds when properly set up with sufficient hardware resources.
Standard Reports are snappy, returning data and rendering quickly, as long as the pagination is kept to reasonable quantities.

Cons

Due to Active Reports packaging all of the data in the file and prerendering charts, file size can get quite large (easily several megabytes) and the initial load time can be quite long when opening it. It is best used for basic overviews and other times when some "flash" is needed, but not a large amount of data.
Configuring the interoperability with TM1 and SPSS is a little more on the technical side than most other tasks.
You could call the development process "Front heavy" meaning most of the development will be modeling. This means that it will take longer to end up with visualized data than other tools.

Pros

you can combine multiple queries in one report to create your desired report, which can be formatted in multiple ways to meet your desired structure.

Cons

its little bit tricky to handle. You need to understand it thoroughly which actually takes time to began working with it from scratch. Also lacks the graphics and user interface.

Pros

Very structured, Reporting features are very good and we can make use of various functions, Event studio tool is the most powerful.

Cons

I wish if natural language feature is added to Cognos. When it comes to the calculated fields we need to write functions in Cognos, but if IBM Cognos can make built in functions like Microsoft power BI then that would be awesome. High pricing is another factor.

Pros

It has integration with with other IBM products like business intelligence. The excel functionality is great for finances. The product to meet our needs perfectly for all our needs.

Cons

Creating reports is overwhelming at the beginning but if you dedicate time and resources there will be the face of your deployment.

Pros

It allows the user to create reports and customize based on user needs

Cons

It is expensive compared to a lot of the other software out there

Pros

Most employers love this software because it is easy for employees to use. Since it is fast, efficient, simple, and does its job well. You can also run great reports in it too.

Cons

Sometimes the software has a glitch here and there, but every product does. I am sure there are less expensive products on the market, but why use something that isn't tried and true?