IBM Cognos Controller vs Planful comparison

IBM and Planful are both solutions in the Financial Close Software category. IBM is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0, while Planful is ranked #19. IBM holds a 1.8% mindshare in FCS, compared to Planful’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Planful users who would recommend it.

IBM Cognos Controller

Read 2 IBM Cognos Controller reviews

198 Views
86 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Planful

Read 2 Planful reviews

166 Views
92 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Cognos Controller

Planful

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos Controller and Planful based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Financial Close Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos Controller vs. Planful Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos Controller vs. Planful

March 2025

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Helped 846,617 peers since 2012

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

IBM Cognos Controller

Ranking in Financial Close Software

11th

Average Rating

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Planful

Ranking in Financial Close Software

19th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Performance Management (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Financial Close Software category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos Controller is 1.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planful is 1.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Financial Close Software

Featured Reviews

Pauli Leppänen

Group Controller at Eleda Group

A tool useful for areas like reporting and group consolidation

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. My company hasn't faced any issues regarding scalability, which we can't overcome. Regarding the scalability, there is some work required in the product. A user should also have some knowledge to be able to operate the tool's scalability feature. Sometimes, my company has to contact our support partner to figure out how to do certain things in the product. So far, my company hasn't encountered any issues with the tool where we have to deal with volumes even though we have to deal with a lot of leasing contracts, like over 2,000. My company expects the product to offer more scalability. My company has around 70 licenses.

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reviewer1110591

Financial Planning & Analysis - Finance Manager at a engineering company with 501-1,000 employees

It has helped us speed up the turnaround time on our consolidation, and we haven't had anything come up that the program has not been able to solve

The part that we liked about Excel is that it had a better interface in terms of just graphical illustration of our results. So, if we wanted to look at our financial trends and put it into some type of graphical interface for people to look at, we still have to leverage Excel for that. The dashboards aren't as usable as maybe some of the other solutions, such as Tableau or other BI tools. The application that we use today for our BI tools is Tableau. That's how people absorb information. We don't really use the functionality or dashboards within Planful because of the robustness of Tableau. That's our single source of data. If Planful was better or more comparable in terms of features and functionality, we could probably leverage that in Planful.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If there's already a scheduled report and we want a subset of that report, that can also be created. So we do not have to schedule a new report or create a new subscription for that. At this rate, we can create a subset out of one report itself."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is a properly working solution... The functionalities and package offered by the product seem to be the right fit for our company."

"It has helped us speed up the turnaround time on our consolidation. We don't have to do reporting in Excel anymore, which has cut down on the errors and the efficiency of our close time."

Cons

"IFRS 16 functionality is something that is not embedded in IBM Cognos Controller."

"IBM should work on a little flexibility and user-friendliness, in the current interface. It looks very rigid and hard to read. We need to give flexibility to the user in the current situation."

"The part that we liked about Excel is that it had a better interface in terms of just graphical illustration of our results. So, if we wanted to look at our financial trends and put it into some type of graphical interface for people to look at, we still have to leverage Excel for that. The dashboards aren't as usable as maybe some of the other solutions, such as Tableau or other BI tools."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive, but compared to its other alternatives in the market, I feel that IBM Cognos Controller is a reasonably priced tool."

"Right now, everything is on a three-year term contract, and that is our main cost."

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846,617 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

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Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Cognos Controller?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is a properly working solution... The functionalities and package offered by the product seem to be the right fit for our company.

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What needs improvement with IBM Cognos Controller?

IFRS 16 functionality is something that is not embedded in IBM Cognos Controller. My company uses a good built-in functionality in the tool, which was made by our support partner. IBM Cognos Contro...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cognos Controller?

I use the solution for reporting and group consolidation.

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Financial Close Software

April 2025

Download IBM Cognos Controller product report

Buyer's Guide

Business Performance Management

April 2025

Download Planful product report

Also Known As

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Overview

IBM Cognos Controller supports the close, consolidation and reporting process with the agility and affordability of a cloud-based solution. It enables finance teams to automate and accelerate the financial close with minimal IT support. It also helps finance teams deliver financial results, create informative financial and management reports and provide the chief financial officer (CFO) with an enterprise view of key financial ratios and metrics.

IBM

You need a financial planning solution that meets the structured demands of standardized financial planning and reporting requirements and regulations. Structured Planning with Planful automates labor-intensive planning activities in a complete cloud-based platform – giving your finance team control, consistency, and confidence in corporate financial plans.

Planful

Sample Customers

Emirates National Oil Company

Tandem Diabetes Care, Reed Exhibitions, SkyGolf, Zep Inc., Thule, Stylesight, Schumacher Group, Parsons Electric, Nextag, Groupon

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos Controller vs. Planful

March 2025

Free Report: IBM Cognos Controller vs. Planful

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