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Anaplan vs IBM Cognos comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
IBM Cognos
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th), Reporting (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.6%, down 16.1% compared to last year.
IBM Cognos, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 3.7% mindshare, down 4.2% since last year.
Business Performance Management
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Q&A Highlights

LS
Jan 10, 2025
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable."
"Anaplan provides 130 GB of cloud storage for organizations to use as part of their license."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use."
"The solution scales well."
"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."
"IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"The most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"We are able to generate quality reports easily which allows us to decrease response time."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
 

Cons

"One key area of improvement is pricing."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"There are workspace issues, like the limitation on model sizes."
"One area of improvement is conditional formatting. It's not very practical, and you need to specify additional formatting."
"Anaplan should come up with flexible options to connect to a data warehouse rather than an Anaplan hub."
"Anaplan could enhance its user interface by including a more user-friendly API."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"The solution can improve by providing an easier form of integration to different platforms, such as receiving data from different Salesforce. There is a process to do it through the use of some APIs but it could be made much easier. This would be a large help to us."
"There are many problems with the product's stability part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."
"The high cost of a license makes it hard to scale up on a budget."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say, monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. Some improvements in monitoring would be helpful. I'd like to see more monitoring of specific reports and fields. The way the auditing is now is very limited, so I'd like to see more of that - of the monitoring."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"There is some additional licensing that we needed to purchase because we were touching data outside of our core data platform. The cost was approximately $25,000 for the additional licenses, which were approximate 45 licenses. For the application itself, updates, and the core platform it was approximately $50,000. Giving a total cost of $75,000 annually for our usage of IBM Cognos."
"The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
"It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"There is a standard license required to use this solution. There are some additional tools but I am not sure if they are an extra cost."
"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Answers from the Community

LS
Jan 10, 2025
Jan 10, 2025
Hi Leonardo, I have had the benefit of working with IBM PA and Anaplan applications for many years. If you are working on a smaller application with only a few dimensions (Anaplan calls them lists), Anaplan is fine except for ongoing costs and maintenance. A few, small dimensions, maybe planning by device group (not lower SKU level), general sales locations, departments, time and a two to three...
See 2 answers
Milan Orendac - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 24, 2024
Both products are great and are massive planning and analyzing tools. I am not sure about the size and complexity of your business. You mention "small businesses". To use IBM Cognos or Anaplan for small business may give more headache than benefits. My suggestion would be to work out the expectations and needs for your planning process and to search for the right tool, fitting to your needs.
CM
Jan 10, 2025
Hi Leonardo, I have had the benefit of working with IBM PA and Anaplan applications for many years. If you are working on a smaller application with only a few dimensions (Anaplan calls them lists), Anaplan is fine except for ongoing costs and maintenance. A few, small dimensions, maybe planning by device group (not lower SKU level), general sales locations, departments, time and a two to three versions, Anaplan works (again, watch ongoing & expansion costs). When it becomes more complex where you want to do more granular planning at the product SKU, multiple budget cycles and rolling forecast throughout the year, across territories, by internal rep, different channels, with distributors selling in multiple territories, that is where IBM Planning Analytics shines. You can plan/forecast at any level including consolidated and have room to expand when needed.  Expansion with Anaplan with granularity becomes very difficult, very quickly.  I am happy to show the differences. Ping me if you like, www.linkedin.com/in/chrismirras. We work very well with Global Clients.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Educational Organization
55%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older versions like IBM Cognos 10 or 8. Additionally, the Event Studio, which offered great f...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: December 2024.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.