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IBM Cognos vs Salesforce Einstein Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (4th)
Salesforce Einstein Analytics
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Einstein Analytics is 1.3%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Carlos Larrad Salgado - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department
I don't like that when we use Colab packages, we get less functionality. For example, you can make groups of data with Excel or with the data sets from the packages, but when you use the Colab packages directly, you can only group the data when you analyze it with Analysis Studio. I think Cognos needs to improve more on this functionality. The user experience is also very important. Cognos is not very easy to understand sometimes, especially when they change the layout but keep the functionality the same. The help is not very graphic and they have no examples. Cognos has to make a big effort to help with understanding the functionality by improving the documentation. There is a lot of documentation, but the examples are hard to find and they should make their help section easier to understand for non-technical users.
Parker Goodson - PeerSpot reviewer
Helpful consistent measurements, high availability, and scales well
When it comes to generating reports, it appears that many users rely on experts to handle technical aspects. For instance, if you require a weekly report displaying accounts transitioning in and out of your modules, it seems challenging to accomplish without consulting experts for assistance. Such tasks should be user-friendly and easily achievable without external assistance. It would be beneficial to have visibility into any changes made to your account by individuals other than yourself or your team. It is also important to clearly track the history of these modifications and identify the responsible parties.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"In terms of stability, I think that Cognos is more stable than Tableau and Power Bi because of its framework manager concept that allows us to import metadata and store it in the framework manager."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"The way Salesforce Einstein Analytics is structured in terms of the work assignments and the user profile is very good."
"The inbuilt features, like pictorial representation of the data and the ability to remap and realign the data, provide clarity in understanding sales perspectives."
"Transparency is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Einstein Analytics are the flexibility around the deployment, overall capabilities, user-friendliness, and interactiveness with the tools that came built with it."
"It is a comprehensive solution. It has everything in it. I can easily find what I need."
"Tableau CRM is a very capable solution. It is easy to use, user-friendly, and integrates well."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Einstein Analytics is the reporting tools."
"The tool is a cloud-based solution capable of integrating any kind of data in the world."
 

Cons

"It is a costly product; it is comparatively expensive."
"Most of our company's customers want to be able to deploy IBM Cognos on a web application and use it as a desktop application, which is not possible currently."
"One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"This product could use improvement in terms of usability for those with less technical know how."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"There are many problems with the product's stability part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos."
"Einstein Analytics could incorporate something like SFIA 8 to help users understand the underlying skill sets."
"They can provide more end-user customizations. There should be the possibility for the end-users to change some elements in the interface. I have a way of doing my job. My colleague may have his own way of doing his job. If I ask for a change, it'll change for everyone. It'll be good to have some end-user personalizations. I can't see many in Salesforce right now."
"The product is expensive."
"They have a lot of opportunity to improve BI tools. With Einstein Analytics, we have a very minimal scope."
"If a user leaves your organization, you shouldn't lose the visibility of all of the records."
"The price of Salesforce Einstein Analytics is quite a bit expensive for the region of Mexico. I think the price of the product could be better."
"Improvement-wise, I feel the solution must be more robust since it is not exactly ready to handle large data."
"When it comes to generating reports, it appears that many users rely on experts to handle technical aspects. For instance, if you require a weekly report displaying accounts transitioning in and out of your modules, it seems challenging to accomplish without consulting experts for assistance. Such tasks should be user-friendly and easily achievable without external assistance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"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."
"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"Pricing should be improved."
"The solution is affordable."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
"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."
"Salesforce Einstein Analytics can be considered somewhat expensive, depending on the company's needs. If they want the complete package with all the features, it's pricier. It all comes down to what the company requires from the platform."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"Price-wise, Salesforce Einstein Analytics is an expensive tool."
"The biggest challenge we had was the cost and the licensing. We ended up getting an enterprise licensing agreement(ELA). That took a lot of negotiations and a lot of pressure. We were able to receive a good price for the community licensing they bundled Salesforce Einstein Analytics. They bundled a lot of capabilities with us with the ELA."
"The solution is expensive."
"Salesforce has a subscription-based licensing structure, where it's between $20 to $75 per month, per user."
"Although it was deemed slightly expensive and failed the cost analysis we conducted in our company, we proceeded with the purchase because we desired to have a leading CRM system in the industry."
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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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
55%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
4%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Salesforce Einstein Analytics?
The tool is valuable. It's one of the greatest programs I'm currently working with, and I believe it will continue to be crucial in the next four to five years. It's the future of our operations. I...
What needs improvement with Salesforce Einstein Analytics?
Salesforce is working very rigorously on improvements with each release.
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Einstein Analytics?
I am a Salesforce CPQ developer. I have also worked on Einstein Analytics for reporting purposes.
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
Einstein Analytics, Salesforce Wave Analytics
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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.
ADS Securities, Alstom Grid, American Express, Barclays Bank, Coca-Cola, CoderDojo, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, Financial Conduct Authority
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Salesforce Einstein Analytics and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.