IBM Cognos Analytics Reviews

The best BI Product so far

Comments: It was the greatest experience we have with a BI tool. We really loved it.

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.

New age and Traditional BI tool

Comments: Cognos is used for operational reporting and analytics and schedule reports to be sent via email to users on a duly basis. Used in mobile as well.

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.

Cognos - A good Enterprise Reporting Tool

Comments: I used Cognos as an analytical tool by linking our ERP (Microsoft Dynamic NAV) to it. All the financial data would be mapped & a lot of customized reports were taken out like Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). The user interface is pretty good. The CUBEs are little confusing but once you get the grip they work very well. The ability to drill down the reports to very basic level is a plus point
A little tough to learn & customize. It's a little slow when dealing with a medium amount of data.

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

IBM Cognos Analytics 11

Comments: Cognos Analytics is currently meeting our financial and operational reporting needs.

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.

Professional dataviz tool which ensures a unique experience to expertsor first-time business users

Comments: We have been using Cognos BI for many years for data reporting and performance analysis. Our business analysts were constantly complaining about the long delays to get data extracts. Withe Cognos Analytics we were in a position to give the BA access to pertinent data extracts in record time and with minimum hands-on training. This empowered them and allowed them to spend more time on building predictions and preparing recommendations for corrective actions.

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.

Cognos

Comments: it is a great software depends on the the organisation ability to set up and master its capabilities

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.

Excellent software is easy to implement and use.

Comments: I utilized it to complete projects as part of my Coursera studies; it is taught step by step, and cloud computing was much more familiar to me. On a monthly basis, we do key reconciliations to predict, and reports allow us to record all data pieces. IBM Cognos Analytics recognizes business demands and improves job productivity; it can manage big volumes of data; and it makes it extremely simple for all departments to build reports to see the data. While reporting, you may effortlessly combine numerous searches or arrange your data; no background or technical expertise is necessary.

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.

One Of The Best Self-service BI Software

Comments: one of the best complete solution for delivering insights from data at enterprise level

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.

Powerful, Reliable, Expensive

Comments: I've been working with IBM Cognos since version 8.4
I like this product and see how IBM is improving it.

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

Cognos is sophisticated BI application for large enterprises

Comments: Cognos is one of 2 major Business Intelligence tools on the market. If it is implemented correctly, it could provide complete web-based business solution based on the data analysis. It is a platform which allowing to deliver mission critical analytics to the business including but not limited to Enterprise reporting, Planning & Forecast, OLAP cubes technology, etc.

Pros:

- The application designed to enable business users with limited technical knowledge to extract data, analyze it and make business decision based on the analysis; - It could be used within relational or multidimensional data sources; - It is included a mobile version allowing users to access a complete version of Cognos from mobile devices;

Cons:

- very sensitive in implementation; - requiring significant resources in order to maintain and support; - too expensive for mid-size companies;

My Review of IBM Cognos Analytics

Comments: I use IBM Cognos daily, as this is the tool made available by SAP Concur to work with Business Intelligence reports. I use it to provide the necessary information to those who require it, and it works more or less like a database, where you can apply SQL language - but in a slightly different format.

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.

valuable yet expensive

Comments: overall its good and it is one of the initiators in the reporting market. We are still using it and find it quite useful to fulfill our client requirements.

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.

A self-service analytics platform that is able to fulfill almost all BI needs

Pros:

Handles all BI products very well, including but not limited to self-served reporting structure, reports, cubes, dashboards, and scorecards. Project deployment and duplication are easy and quick.

Cons:

User administration could be very time-consuming and we use a third-party tool (which is not free of charge). Product upgrade is not simple enough and has to be planned and conducted with extra caution.

Great Reporting tool for your datawarehousing need

Pros:

Cognos tool suite is perfect for your enterprise needs, with different tool available for different user level. The tool can handle all the reporting needs (charts, table, list, crosstab). With the addition of active reports and Cognos mobile it makes a complete solution

Cons:

Enhancement of geographical reporting, current available option for Maps are very limited and should be extended.

Love it!

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.

Almost unworkable product

Comments: A reporting framework that can be used to access back end data.

Pros:

Unfortunately, there is not much to write in this section. The only possible "pro" in all cases would be the flexibility offered in the product as far as setting up the framework. Other than that, not much to like.

Cons:

User interface was slow and clumsy. The user experience was not smooth at all. There was no ease of use whatsoever. The retrieval times from the back end were even worse. We had to retrofit an existing n-tier system to use the reporting side of this software and it was a disaster. There is no way I would recommend to anyone to purchase this system.

Cognos is it!

Pros:

Cognos has such great data available and we use it through our HRIS - it has changed the way we report out on data

Cons:

The only hard thing is getting used to the reporting, but once you learn then it is smooth sailing!!

Ok tool

Pros:

I had used the IBM Cognod Sales Compensation tool while working a global high tech company. It took a while to learn the system but once you figure it out then it was easy to use and configure the plans.

Cons:

The only issue I had at the time was the very long time it would take to run a calculations. Average was an hour.

Tons of Features, very powerful, not for a novice

Comments: I have been very pleased with it since getting over the giant hurdle that is learning how to do anything at all in the product.

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.

One of the most recommended Software for Dashboarding

Pros:

I would definitely recommend this to people who want to create effective dashboards and reports. It has user friendly interface. I is good alternative for tableau or power BI.

Cons:

It needs to upgrade a little bit to give features like Power BI

I am a BI developer

Pros:

I like its functionality and different features. I also like the ease of use.

Cons:

Cognos's support sometimes is not as it should be. The support should be quick and accurate, and Cognos should have more error details to track down the solution. The majority of time, the error doesn't provide meaningful info, so it is always difficulty to track down the solution.

Reporting at its best

Pros:

I love that you can report off any field and get results. There are calculations and graphs and so many tools to create any type of report for any data.

Cons:

I struggle with all the information and fields and calculations. I'm old school!!

IBM Cognos Analytics Review

Comments: It is AI driven, improves the business outcomes.It enhances decision making.Overall it improves business agility.

Pros:

The best thing is "Quality reports can be run at any time and by any representative with a substantial log-in " at IBM Cognos Analytics.The AI enabled exploration and dashboard capabilities are easy to use and exceed expectations

Cons:

It is not simple to use. User has to get the formal training to utilise it to maximum extent. Report pulling is not that much fast. It take quite some time to load and display.

Cognos Review

Comments: I utilize Cognos for dashboard and custom reports and the ease of creating and storing reports is fairly simple. The organization of files is a bit confusing and the ability of seeing other employee folders tends to be complication for sharing. The availability to send out reports is much easier though.

Pros:

The ability to create custom reports makes it user friendly for anyone to figure out

Cons:

the cubes tend to be confusing for file storage

Business intelligence for the novice users.

Pros:

The flexibility of the product and scalability of the solution.

Cons:

Enterprise offerings are a bit pricey. For SMBs it can be a difficult conversation to justify the costs.