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PeerSpot user
BI Expert at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Highly visual and interactive control without long waits; allows us to use the tool in an interactive and easy way.

What is most valuable?

- The ease of use and ability to create things.

- The security provided by IBM Cognos compared to other tools.

- Reduced time for answers on business panels; highly visual and interactive control without long waits.

How has it helped my organization?

Users used to have to wait long times to see information but can now view their information quickly and easily with IBM Cognos and also given the availability you can create your own reports.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM Cognos for about two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No, deployment is all right.

Buyer's Guide
IBM Cognos
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, no problems were found.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, no problems were found.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

We were given good service, fulfilling all the requirements that were requested.

Technical Support:

The technical support provided by IBM is good, helps you with any problems with the tool.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No.

What other advice do I have?

IBM Cognos is a good tool for viewing reports, allows us to use the tool in an interactive and easy way, with the option to display it on various mobile devices.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user544752 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Consultant at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Allows authors to adapt and elaborate dashboards. I would like to see a more centralized environment.

What is most valuable?

  • Report design
  • Very flexible
  • Intuitive
  • Prompts capabilities, variables, and calculations
  • Easy for authors to adapt and elaborate professional dashboards

How has it helped my organization?

It includes a dashboard developed for use in all branches across the country. This has improved their time to acquire the proper information to make decisions on a daily basis.

What needs improvement?

Nowadays, the finance team doesn't use Cognos as they should. They extract a bunch of data and create their spreadsheets all over the place.

With TM1 coming on board next year, this dirty job is going to be replaced by a centralized environment.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for four years in my current job.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have not encountered any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I am not aware of any previous solutions.

How was the initial setup?

The setup is a little bit complex with regard to the IT procedures, but the installation is quite easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is a bit expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am not aware of any other evaluated solutions.

What other advice do I have?

If you have the budget to implement, then do it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are an IBM partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
IBM Cognos
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Business Analytics Cognos Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
The workspace features are intuitive and simple to use.

What is most valuable?

Workspace Advanced and Workspace are very intuitive and simple to use for a basic user.

How has it helped my organization?

It improved sales monitoring, the enterprise business unit performance (costs, revenue, human resources, etc.) and other financial aspects. It also improved the responsibility for the data input into the transactional applications.

What needs improvement?

Report authoring is sometimes difficult for authors without specific computer knowledge with regard to concepts related to database, i.e., join, union, etc.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using IBM Cognos BI since version 10.0 in 2012. IBM Cognos BI 10.2.2 was released on December 2014. So, I have been using IBM Cognos 10 for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not encountered any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I rate technical support 7/10, because the first help response is fast, even if the whole resolution of the problem might be slow. In any case, tech support is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not previously use a different solution.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was simple. YouTube is a rich way to learn tips & tricks.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I'm a Cognos consultant. I work using only this solution.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is an IBM Premier Business Partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user191655 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI (Cognos) Developer at a pharma/biotech company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
​Report Studio is a valuable feature but would be better with the ability to audit the SQL

What is most valuable?

  • Jobs
  • Schedules
  • Auditing
  • Report Studio

How has it helped my organization?

Cognos gives a consistent single source answer for many users to retrieve easily. It allows for prompted value, so many questions can be answered.

What needs improvement?

Auditing the SQL to determine if there are any particularly slow points. Also allowing jobs to send email notification when complete with links to all the reports within the email.

For how long have I used the solution?

Seven years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There are always some errors, but typically user errors.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is pretty stable, but bad queries can cause problems.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

6/10 as they usually get back quickly but rarely have a solution.

Technical Support:

6/10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used MicroStrategy before, but I changed jobs because Cognos is a bigger company and would have more job opportunities.

How was the initial setup?

It is pretty straightforward. It doesn't take an expert to set up, but consultants will try to make it seem more complex than it is.

What about the implementation team?

We used a vendor team. They talked a good game, but I would rate them at a 6/10.

What was our ROI?

Don't know, but it's not cheap.

What other advice do I have?

It's not as good a MicroStrategy for data analysis, but better for static reporting.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user

If you want to understand the performance of a single report or profile a set of reports then you need to use Cognos Performance Management Analysis (PMA). This is packaged with the Business Patterns offering and it used to be available on AnalyticsZone, but I don't see it there any more. No idea why.

Installation on top of SQL Server / Oracle instead of DB2 BLU might require assistance from IBM. They had to help us the first time. Once you understand the capabilities of this free utility it is absolutely amazing. It describes what is going on at a finer level of detail that anyone could want.

In summary. PMA is not trivial to configure but it is incredibly powerful at analyzing EXACTLY what is going on and why.

it_user164019 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Intelligence Analyst at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Great for Fast KPI tracking. Performance and Versatility Need Improvement.

Valuable Features

Cognos Reports, Dashboards

Improvements to My Organization

Fast KPI tracking, Complex data analysis for decision making.

Room for Improvement

Versatility, Performance (speed)

Use of Solution

5 years

Deployment Issues

It's hard to change built-in options.

Stability Issues

Rarely had issues with stability.

Scalability Issues

No issues with scalability.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

Depends on the support structure.

Technical Support:

Depends on the support structure.

Implementation Team

In-house team

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user505653 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Consultant at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Reporting and dashboard capabilities are the product’s most valuable features.

What is most valuable?

Reporting and dashboard capabilities are the product’s most valuable features.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides enterprise-level reporting across all departments.

What needs improvement?

ETL features have room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When we have more than 1000 users logged in to the system, we can see slowdown in terms of performance.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is 8/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did not previously use a different solution. We have always used IBM Cognos product suites.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was pretty much straightforward.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We certainly looked at other BI products such as SAP BusinessObjects, OBIEE, Oracle Discoverer, WebFOCUS, Argos, and MicroStrategy but Cognos was our unanimous choice.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Cognos Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free IBM Cognos Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.