IBM Cognos Reviews

The product’s most valuable feature is the open environment where we can build from scratch without too many constraints on calculations because that allows us to have extensive customization.

I implement projects using the product, and every time we implement we end up discovering a lot of unaccounted cash that was either being paid to the wrong person or extra money being paid which was unaccounted for. This helps auditing the sales personnel's incentives and also analyzing what incentives show a correlation to an improved performance.

• DBMS scalability
• Debugging
• UX for admins who are developing on the software

I have used it for 4+ years. I am certified in this tool and I primarily work on implementing this tool (among others) for various organizations’ ICM needs.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I've encountered issues where calculation runs took upwards of six hours because of data storage and build issues.

Technical support is excellent.

I did not previously use a different solution.

It's simple enough to install because IBM takes care of initial setup.

Callidus is usually this product’s competitor.

The product is as good as the team implementing it.

It is very powerful, it is a lot easier to use and the new version has a very nice look and feel.

It also has the ability to simply create a dashboard and the data module lets you easily create many data models.

We have the ability to create reports that monitor the organization in a very easy way.

I have used it for one year.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Technical support is 8/10.

I did not previously use a different solution.

Initial setup was straightforward, especially with the new version.

The price is very low for the SaaS edition.

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

It can do anything; you just have to study it a bit.

• Common metadata repository: The most valuable feature is a single and integrated view of any number of heterogeneous data sources through a business perspective. In short, for any attribute or metric defined, a common definition is stored as metadata and available for all other components of Cognos.
• Scalability
• Stability
• Performance

The Cognos Analysis Studio and Cognos Query Studio user interface has room for improvement in the area of user experience. Some of the functions are hard to find and complicated to use, but we're talking about advanced functions rarely used.

I have used it for two years.

The product is very stable.

The product offers enough capabilities for a proper scalable setup.

Technical support is adequate.

We previously used Oracle Discoverer. Cognos' HTML user interface was the main reason we switched.

Initial setup is straightforward, with minor problems in the area of configuring data source connectors. Because the product uses a JDBC data interface, the administrator needs to be familiar with JDBC.

The licensing model had changed from the past and currently needs more flexibility in the area of advanced users. Other products make no difference between the user types. The licensing model should be usage based.

QlikView and Oracle OBIEE were tested.

• Report Studio (ability to make pixel perfect reports and interactive dashboards)
• Framework Manager (the layer between the database and the user)

With Cognos we are able to present and analyze the KPI's and outcomes our hospital needs to take decisions.

• Adding workflow functions to the reports could close the PDCA cycle
• Speed of report-execution.

7 years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Moderate,.

Good.

No previous solution used.

Initial setup can be straightforward but expertise is needed to fully benefit from the capabilities of Cognos.

One day was needed to implement the product, and this was done by an experienced consultant from the vendor.

No other solutions were evaluated.

Be willing to build up in-house knowledge of Cognos.

We use it for financial purposes, and simple reporting.

It's compatible with the whatever applications we have. That's why we got it.

The scheduling and reports.

It should be more user-friendly. 

Stability is good.

Scalability is okay.

Not very good because we didn't get a deep, back-end partner fit.

The most important criteria when choosing a vendor would be that the product is the very user-friendly and that we can upload the files into the system for reporting purposes.

I give this solution a rating of five out of 10 because it's not very user friendly.

The solution connects to all data sources easily. There is an express and an enterprise version.

As a consultant, I build complete business decision reports with Cognos.

For the current dashboard, it would be nice to have a better layout and more functions.

We have been using this solution for fifteen years.

Each product that I have worked with has bugs, and Cognos is no exception. There will be new releases that will fix these bugs.

Scalability is fine. I never came across any major issues

IBM has a complete knowledge base and support setup.

The installation was straightforward.

Pricing and licensing have many forms and possibilities. Take a good look at the number of users and the profiles needed. This will increase or decrease the price accordingly.

I worked with several BI products. The choice depends on the business size and preferences.

Check all BI products, such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Cognos. Check the pros and cons before making the choice.