IBM Cognos Reviews

The ability to interface with multiple server types (databases) to retrieve data and report on that data in an all-inclusive environment is beyond a doubt the best feature. The reporting interface takes getting used to, but once you familiarize yourself with it, you can create some truly amazing graphical and informational reports.

BI has allowed our product to become open ended as far as the client data is concerned. We have proprietary reporting that is standardized but doesn’t capture everything. BI expands that functionality to include any and all customization a client may have and still get their data.

The GUI for reporting isn’t very user friendly, so beginners struggle with feeling overwhelmed when seeing it for the first few times. I spent my first two years just getting used to where everything was and how to script simple things without looking them up. A better dictionary of examples for functions would have gone a long way with helping me.

They’ve improved it and it’s much better than it was, as well as the tooltips on the page, so I’m thinking they had similar feedback in the past. When I engage new clients on the product, though, they are almost always overwhelmed by the interface and I don’t have a good solution other than redesign. They could create a secondary Page Design pane that is simpler for beginners. They could even merge Query Studio with Report Studio, and as you familiarize yourself with the Query pane and need a little more functionality, you can flip to the Report Studio pane. I would prefer a secondary pane option over an entire redesign since I’m familiar with the current structure.

I’ve used Cognos BI for over seven years now.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

I personally have had no problems with IBM tech support, though my experience is from a reporting standpoint not an implementation standpoint.

I did not previously use a different solution.

The only advice I can give here is that there are several third-party companies that will handle implementation as well as provide continued support post-production. I recommend doing your homework and hiring one of them to take care of implementation and support, if you don’t have a dedicated team to do so internally.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

There is a huge cost up front to purchase and get it off the ground, but once you have it, you won’t regret it. To have access to all of your data at your fingertips is impressive and I think it’s a must have for medium and large companies (+500 employees).

• Robust framework manager tool for querying
• Retrieving data from disparate sources into one model
• Can be used for creating views and SQL scripts.
• IBM administration for scheduling reports through multiple outputs
• Cognos roles and permissions can be created to give specified access to reports

• We have used this tool to retrieve data from the SQL Server, SSIS packages, and Oracle tables/views.
• We have built the FM model by creating views or query subjects as needed. Different reports can come from one model. This was used for relational and dimensional reports.
• We have created cubes which were built in Cognos transformer and then used as a data source in the model. This was used for creating dimensional reports using Kimball methodology (dimensional and fact tables). The surrogate keys were built by another developer using the IBM data modeler or SQL/Oracle. The dimensional model was used to create robust dashboards using the advanced workspace.
• We have used IBM Cognos Administration to deploy the reports/packages from one environment to another. Drilling through reports was used to go down to granular reports. Reports were given access per their Cognos role or LDAP access. (MS Active Directory was set up by another developer.) Different packages, such as the audit package, can give detailed information about the metadata.
• The entire process can be created in the IBM tool from source, to reporting, to administration.

• Report Studio: While using the dimensional model package, the reporting language could be made more user-friendly.
• Cognos FM could process queries faster
• IBM configuration errors should be detailed, instead of blanket errors
• Deployment of report/packages from one environment to another could be simplified

We have used this solution for more than seven years.

I have not worked on the server side, so I can't comment about stability.

I have no experience with technical support.

I am not aware of any previous solutions.

I was not involved in the initial setup process.

I was not involved in the licensing process.

I am not aware of any other evaluated solutions.

My primary use case for this solution is for analytics and monitoring event metrics.

It's very easy to use. You can use cubes, you can create reports and you can create dashboards in it. It's all in one. Also, the integration on Cognos Analytics with Cognos IT Analytics also is better. 

We have found this solution evolve over the years, it is now very user-friendly.

The charts and graphics are very weak. You can find some dashboards, but it is very rigid. It is not as fancy as what you find in another solution, like Microsoft BI.

More than five years.

We considered Microsoft BI.

For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent.

It is a quick solution and has dynamic insights. The features that I liked about the system are:

• An easy creation of dashboards with insights. The dashboards that are created, are simple for data representation. Thus, the comparisons are quite user-friendly.
• A user-friendly table structure.
• Being able to create data drill up and down quite quickly. Drilling data down and up helps to understand the insights quickly. For example, in order to analyze the sales data, we get total sales-> region-wise sales-> country-wise-> district-wise-> and store-wise. Reversely, in order to understand the product performance, we would require a drill up chart, i.e., performance at the zonal level-> country level-> overall performance.

The organization was able to:

• Reduce the reporting efforts by 50%.
• Have more insightful reports.

I find areas where some improvements will help are:

• When the data becomes very voluminous, then handling and representing it becomes clumsy.
• The type of charts are only two dimensional. Currently, the charts are two dimensional to understand the trend. Also, one needs to compare the time horizon or the volume horizon separately and it will be really helpful, if that dimension could be included.
• The reporting output/UI is quite old-fashioned.
• The statistical insights are missing or they cant be created.

I have used this solution for two years.

There were no issues in regards to the scalability.

The technical support is average.

One of the reasons why we switched solutions was due to the maintenance cost and the cost of ownership.

We looked at other solutions, namely SAP and TIBCO Spotfire.

This version of Cognos combines a new modern interface and intent-driven data discovery, with the scalable, governed and managed architecture for which it has always been valued. Also:

• The ability to quickly get an engaging view of my data, with no scripting or SQL knowledge is a winner.
• The true common modelling layer (Framework Manager) ensures that data objects are re-usable across the business, lineage is easy to track, and reports can be protected from back-end changes.
• New releases are announced frequently, and it is constantly evolving.

Cognos Analytics allows our business the freedom of movement and self-sufficiency we require, while keeping the IT team happy that information is secure and easily sharable. A light data modelling tool allows business users to source and analyse their own data in a managed environment. This is the only tool I know of that keeps both business and IT teams happy.

As there are new releases every 3 months or so, enhancements to the new dashboards are regular being released. It would be useful though to be able to apply custom palettes, and change the spacing around each object, allowing dashboard objects to fit more snugly with each other.

We have used the solution since its launch in Dec 2015. I have been using previous versions of Cognos since 1996.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues. The architecture is scalable via the use of separate gateways and dispatchers, and can be scaled to include many servers across multiple locations.

The availability of the new Cognos Analytics community allows for global sharing of problem resolutions. As this version is evolving rapidly, finding in-depth training material can be challenging.

We switched from ‘desktop data discovery’ tools to a more stable, scalable, enterprise ready solution, to allow for secured distribution to a broad and varied audience. Cognos Analytics provides a complete toolkit from quick discovery, endless visualisation options to enterprise-scale report delivery, through any medium (e.g. call-centre LCD screens, mobile, executive dashboards, financial reports etc).

The new installation is very simple. Wizard driven installation takes about an hour. It can get more complex to install a distributed architecture, but still not more than a day or two to install it.

The initial set-up price is higher than comparative tools, due to the base server component, but can be more cost-effective in the long run for a larger user base (> 100 users). Also, all features come standard, so add-ons are not required for printing, distribution etc.

We evaluated Qlik, Tableau, Microsoft BI.

Cognos Analytics allows for many ‘styles’ of deployment, and can be done simply ‘out-of-the-box’. To get the most from the product, explore the different features. Some creativity and thought should be applied on how to engage your audience in most interesting and intuitive ways.

Good mix of abilities for reporting for both technical and non-technical users.

Dashboarding presentations of key metrics.

• Ability to easily manage source code and environment deployment
• Pricing model is frequently changing and hard to manage
• Maintenance fees were based on a percentage of the base cost, not the discounted price we paid which was a surprise the first year

Five years - Cognos BI 8 and 10

Because the configuration options are wide, there are typically minor issues with an installation.

Not once it is configured correctly.

No issues encountered.

Customer Service:

6 out of 10.

Technical Support:

6 out of 10.

Previous solution was built on an old technology and updates continue to be built over the same engine rather than an updated technology. Caused issues with programming.

Complex, many options and variations available which is both good and bad.

Through a vendor. Very good expertise.

Brief evaluation of other products, selection was based on discounted pricing at year end and high rating from Gartner.

If you don't have staff with previous experience in this product, it's worth engaging a partner you help you with installation and configuration options, training and early implementation.

Graphical interface is good

Ad hoc reporting

Basically, our support to enhancement was our corporate team. Where the Oracle Quality module has more flexibility to develop internal tables to gather data. The Cognos BI team doesn’t have this dynamic approach to do the enhancements. So, Corporate decided to replace this application with Oracle OBIEE.

5 years

No

No

Yes, When it’s integrated with Oracle for Quality reports

Customer Service: 9 out of 10Technical Support: 9 out of 10

Never before.

Straightforward

In-house

No

Consider other alternatives.