

QlikView and IBM Cognos are strong competitors in the business intelligence software category. QlikView seems to have an upper hand in terms of speed and ease of development, while IBM Cognos excels in scalability and comprehensive feature sets.
Features: QlikView leverages AQL™ (Associative Query Logic), which allows flexible data analysis without complex OLAP cubes. Its in-memory processing enables fast analysis of large datasets. Also, it includes a built-in ETL engine that simplifies the development process. IBM Cognos offers a comprehensive suite for data discovery and reporting, focusing on scalability and integration with multiple data sources. It provides robust reporting and visualization capabilities, especially noted for its OLAP support.
Room for Improvement: QlikView has a steep learning curve and scalability is limited by RAM constraints. The interface needs modernization to stay competitive with tools like Tableau, and users desire better version control and licensing simplification. IBM Cognos is complex and would benefit from enhancements in visualization options and ease of report development to compete with agile platforms like Power BI. Users also point to the need for improved interfaces and expanded self-service capabilities.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: QlikView is mainly on-premises but some use it with public cloud services. Users value its partner network for support, though full 24/7 technical support is lacking. IBM Cognos offers on-premises, hybrid, and private cloud deployments, with support accessible through IBM's network, which is highly rated though engaging comprehensive IBM support can be complex.
Pricing and ROI: QlikView can be costly, with additional feature costs making scalability expensive. Yet, users note its competitive pricing and ROI through effective data visualization. IBM Cognos is viewed as expensive compared to Tableau and Power BI. However, users justify the cost due to its enterprise-level capabilities and integration options, recommending consideration of total cost of ownership for ROI assessment.
I have seen a return on investment, as I mentioned earlier about time saving and productivity gains, with a consistent governed data model that reduces the risk of errors.
I have seen a return on investment through improved decision making, as automated distribution and uptime, along with scheduled report delivery and bursting, have eliminated various manual emailing and delays, thereby saving time and cost.
Management can now drill down and view executive summaries for new products and fraud analytics quickly, resulting in less red tape during the decision-making process.
The biggest return on investment is the time saving for the customer.
Our systems team, operating on a lot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and maintaining long-term relations with IBM, benefits from good support coverage.
The customer support has been proactive, solution-oriented, and helpful whenever I have needed to reach out.
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
I would rate the customer support a solid 10.
I am totally satisfied with technical support from Qlik.
The scalability of IBM Cognos is very good, as it has continued growing with my organization's needs, allowing us to analyze and store a significant amount of data and handle our organization's growth efficiently.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
If you want better performance with a larger volume of data, you can simply add an additional server.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
In my experience, IBM Cognos is stable, as I have not experienced any downtime or lagging issues.
Integration with Azure login makes trouble.
IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing its limited real-time data connectivity, as well as enhancing the endpoint experience and mobility, which currently is not satisfactory due to limited data blending.
IBM Cognos could improve by introducing different role types, such as viewer roles, user roles, and admin roles, along with assigning minor modules to specific individuals.
In QlikView, I believe the improvement that should be made is to bring the costs down, as you'll have to be competitive with Power BI, aiming for at least a 30% reduction to stop the hemorrhaging to Power BI.
It would be beneficial to have AI or ML features in QlikView.
Our central team negotiated a different price because multiple teams within our organization use IBM Cognos, bringing the price down to around $10 to $11 per user per month.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is positive, as the price is relatively competitive and affordable.
The license cost per user or per year for QlikView is about 500 Euros annually.
I would rate the pricing for QlikView as not cheap, but it is reasonable.
The AI features in IBM Cognos helped me gain deeper insights into our business processes, enabling me to make data-driven decisions easily and understand which points need our attention and which areas of our business are performing well.
I love the seamless and efficient data integration capability of IBM Cognos Analytics, where it allows us easy merging of data from various sources such as customer feedback and sales figures.
Some of the best features that IBM Cognos offers are enterprise reporting, which enables us to create, customize, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, and many more; dashboard creation; and data exploration and analysis.
The best features in QlikView are rapid development, the fact that I can do what I want in QlikView, and full control along with ease of use.
Building metrics using simple language, similar to what you have in Excel, is what I have found most valuable in QlikView.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| IBM Cognos | 2.9% |
| QlikView | 3.7% |
| Other | 93.4% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 34 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 23 |
| Large Enterprise | 90 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 73 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 36 |
| Large Enterprise | 76 |
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence provides a wide range of tools to help you analyze your organization's data. IBM Cognos BI allows businesses to monitor events and metrics, create and view business reports, and analyze data to help them make effective business decisions.
IBM Cognos applies techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data, and draw conclusions. This allows users to see trends and discover anomalies or variances that may not be evident by simply reading data. Data sources that contain information from different areas of a business can be stored in separate packages. Users can see only information that they have been granted access to, based on their group or role.
IBM Cognos BI consolidates the following business intelligence functions into a single web-based solution:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM Cognos stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful analysis tool and its reporting capabilities.
Prasad B., a senior software engineer at a financial services firm, notes, “The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report. We can receive automated reports as well. They are easy to schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. It is very fast. I mean in means of report output, it's very fast compared to the actual clients involved.”
QlikView is a Business Intelligence tool that allows you to keep tabs on all of your business-related information in a clean, clear, and easy to access database that is intuitive to build and simple to navigate. It is ideal for business owners who wish to improve overall output by creating the most productive system possible.
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