IBM Cognos Analytics

4.2 (137)
Business intelligence suite

Overall rating

4.2 /5
(137)
Value for Money
3.9/5
Features
4.2/5
Ease of Use
3.8/5
Customer Support Software
3.8/5
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137 Reviews

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Invaluable Business Intelligence

Reviewed on 2019-09-06

Data is extremely vital to any organization and the ability to generate useful reports and...

Data is extremely vital to any organization and the ability to generate useful reports and dashboards on demand across multiple sources is invaluable.

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Enterprise Reporting and Analytics Tool

Reviewed on 2020-10-07

It has been a solid tool for our company for last so many years. IT meets out current needs in...

It has been a solid tool for our company for last so many years. IT meets out current needs in terms of performance and capabilities. However, as we start exploring more cutting edge technologies like cloud, SAAS and Advanced Analytics, we see the tool is not in the top 3.

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10

IBM Cognos Report Studio

Reviewed on 2019-03-28

I would recommend for company reporting, works great with a big database

I would recommend for company reporting, works great with a big database

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.

Nabeel
Overall rating
  • Industry: Government Administration
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Cognos Review

Reviewed on 2017-11-18

Overall, if there is a company that wishes to automate it's reports and improve efficiency across...

Overall, if there is a company that wishes to automate it's reports and improve efficiency across their organization, Cognos is a must-have tool. There is a bit of upfront cost involved to get the reports created in Cognos but the efficiency achieved is almost unparalleled.

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.

Robert
Overall rating
  • Industry: Construction
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Full-featured, slightly behind the curve.

Reviewed on 2021-11-26

It brings a lot of functionality all under one roof. Our team found the "visualization" a little...

It brings a lot of functionality all under one roof. Our team found the "visualization" a little easier in Cognos vs Power BI, but the paginated reporting better in SSRS/PBIRS. We ended up transitioning entirely from Cognos to the MS stack and the broad consensus by the team is it was an overall welcomed upgrade. We're starting to consider Tableau or Looker, but returning to Cognos isn't on our horizon.

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.

Elaine
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software

Great capabilities, but really difficult to use practically.

Reviewed on 2018-03-17

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education Software
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Great Analytics Tool

Reviewed on 2019-10-24

Overall, I would recommend using Cognos Analytics for data analysis. My whole company uses it from...

Overall, I would recommend using Cognos Analytics for data analysis. My whole company uses it from daily reporting to more advanced analyses.

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education Software
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Good Tool for Data Reporting

Reviewed on 2019-02-14

IBM Cognos Analytics is a great enterprise tool for data reporting. There are a lot of report...

IBM Cognos Analytics is a great enterprise tool for data reporting. There are a lot of report options and it is easy to collaborate and share reports with colleagues.

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Complete Package for your Analytical Solution

Reviewed on 2019-09-11

It is good software but requires a learning curve

It is good software but requires a learning curve

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

Before leaving their Web version, they had a very good desktop application

Reviewed on 2018-05-22

with it we can visualize in a more comfortable way our information of DW and cubes

with it we can visualize in a more comfortable way our information of DW and cubes

Pros

Before leaving their Web version, they had a very good desktop application, but they discontinued it. is a powerful tool, with ease for the reporter

Cons

it is traumatic for its administration, it depends on the active directory, which can be an advantage, but in other cases it makes it cumbersome

Michael
Overall rating
  • Industry: Primary/Secondary Education
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

IBM Cognos Review

Reviewed on 2017-02-23

My company has been using IBM Cognos for the past 4 years. When we purchased IBM Cognos it was the...

My company has been using IBM Cognos for the past 4 years. When we purchased IBM Cognos it was the best fit for our situation. It has been a valued piece of software in our business. It has given us the ability to tie data from multiple data sources. It has given the ability for our departments to run reports that we haven't been able to in the past.

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.

natasha
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

valuable yet expensive

Reviewed on 2019-08-23

overall its good and it is one of the initiators in the reporting market. We are still using it and...

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.

Jian
Overall rating
  • Industry: Civic & Social Organization
  • Company size: 5,001–10,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

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

Reviewed on 2019-01-07

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Cognos- All in one tool for data analytics

Reviewed on 2022-02-03

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.

Kristin
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use

Cognos is a very easy to use application for most areas of the business's finances

Reviewed on 2017-06-07

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.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Cognos review

Reviewed on 2017-10-12

helpfully to seeing analytics. I am engineering in mining operation company in Mongolian

helpfully to seeing analytics. I am engineering in mining operation company in Mongolian

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

Jian
Overall rating
  • Industry: Civic & Social Organization
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Where Self-serve BI is being enabled and controlled

Reviewed on 2018-02-07

IBM Cognos Analytics is a BI tool that can be used to bring a new methodology and look to traditiona...

IBM Cognos Analytics is a BI tool that can be used to bring a new methodology and look to traditional BI products. It is a stand-alone system that enables self-served BI.

Pros

IBM Cognos Analytics provides drag-and-drop dashboard creator, and deals well with multidimensional and relational data sources. It facilitates the implementation of a logically reasonable BI solution and is very powerful in controlling different aspects of BI.

Cons

For users who are used to Excel, they might find it difficult to use this tool at the very beginning. The installation and upgrade usually is a pain. Its embedded administrative tools are limited as well.

George
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education Software
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

IBM Cognos Analytics allows me to access our data warehouse

Reviewed on 2019-12-21

I mainly use it to get data from the customer information system. Cognos allows me access to...

I mainly use it to get data from the customer information system. Cognos allows me access to customer information without getting access to the other system.

Pros

We use Cognos to access our customer info. The IT team set ups the report and we are able to export it for viewing and analysis. If built correctly, the reports can be easily run by the users. The users do need to know how to enter the parameters and known the data structure to fully utilitzed Cognos. We run Cognos through the browser. No need to install software.

Cons

Users need to understand the data structure in order to enter parameters. If the parameters are not entered correct, there will be no data, exports, or graphs. You also need to make sure the back-end servers are fast if you have a lot of data.

Halima
Overall rating
  • Industry: Civic & Social Organization
  • Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

From 0 to expert in IBM Cognos 11+

Reviewed on 2018-03-21

Is not a good tool to start because it needs a previous needs.

Is not a good tool to start because it needs a previous needs.

Pros

Too many full features
Very visual
Off line optional download
Customizable
Program code similar to SQL
The framework manager is the best diagraming tool for packages

Cons

The transformer software is not user friendly
Slow learning
Not life proof
The LATAM partner is not efficient

Kathy
Overall rating
  • Industry: Mining & Metals
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 1.0 /10

Not easy to Use

Reviewed on 2019-08-27

This is the reporting system our payroll company provides us with for weekly reports, its not easy...

This is the reporting system our payroll company provides us with for weekly reports, its not easy to use and is frustrating. They do have a lot of options for running the report but its difficult to get the report to run.

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.

Ratnakar
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Best BI tool

Reviewed on 2017-10-19

Pros

Enterprise level BI implementation can be with less customizations. Can build robustic solution using product.

Cons

Most of small and medium size will not prefer this product because of the cost.
Real time analytics will not be available.

Dawn
Overall rating
  • Industry: Machinery
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10

Cognos Review

Reviewed on 2016-12-08

I utilize Cognos for dashboard and custom reports and the ease of creating and storing reports is...

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

Nazeer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support Software
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

One of the best report generating tools

Reviewed on 2017-01-30

It is easy to generate reports. Customized dashboards can be created for quick and usage. On...

It is easy to generate reports. Customized dashboards can be created for quick and usage. On demand menus for access to full capabilities. Easy to use. It is a good product.

Pros

Easy to create report

Hilary
Overall rating
  • Industry: Banking
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Cognos Developer

Reviewed on 2019-07-27

Pros

Cognos is a great tool for reporting. The visuals are not awesome but there is a lot of customization you can do for reporting.

Cons

It can be difficult to learn at first. It is not as easy to pick up as Tabeau. Googling for solutions can be tough.

Ric
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

IBM Cognos Business Power

Reviewed on 2015-04-24

Pros

This software is very flexible and extensive enough to meet almost any of your needs. The reporting engine allows for complex queries and views that far surpass standard reporting methods.

Cons

While I was not involved in the purchase of the software it is my understanding the cost was a little high and this is not designed for novice users.