IBM Cognos Analytics for IBM Cloud Pak for Data

My main use case for IBM Cognos  is that it has been used for several years in my organization, and to start with, it has been very helpful and very easy to use with an intuitive, user-friendly interface. The support has also been very proactive and responsive. It helps us achieve more than just BI goals. From commissioning to business insights to strategical planning, IBM Cognos  is a very powerful tool, and I cannot wait to see what is coming next.

I also use IBM Cognos for analyzing operational data, where we are able to make data-driven decisions easily.

The best features that IBM Cognos offers, which stand out most to me, are static reporting, semantic modeling, data collection, runs scheduled reports, and connects with many products.

Static reporting and semantic modeling benefit my team by saving time through allowing jobs to be scheduled effectively.

Additionally, the data modeling feature was flexible, and we had more features similar to Power BI, such as creating joints, prompts, and many more. It also featured multi-data sources connector; however, we did not test unstructured data sources. I also love the AI chatbot, as it was the biggest highlight because it has a serious way of reading enormous data sets.

IBM Cognos has impacted my organization positively because we have seen a positive impact from role-based access, which helped to provide access to the right users to validate confidential data. Report scheduling and automation reduced manual intervention, and dashboards provided complete visibility about important details.

IBM Cognos can be improved by enhancing the customizations.

Report generation takes much time when we provide large data.

I have been using IBM Cognos for the past eight years and some few months.

IBM Cognos is very stable.

IBM Cognos' scalability is very effective because it can handle a large volume of data effectively and fast.

The customer support for IBM Cognos is very responsive and proactive.

Before IBM Cognos, I previously used Miro and Vision Print.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that it is very cost-effective and affordable.

I have seen a return on investment as departmental collaboration improved, and IBM Cognos has made it much easier for me to deal with huge amounts of data. It is great as it saves me time because I can make decisions faster through automation as well, which has reduced errors.

Before choosing IBM Cognos, I evaluated other options, which were IBM and IBM AI OPS Insights.

A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos day-to-day is that it was well-suited for static reporting as well as dynamic uses, leveraging the same semantic model, all that in a cost-effective way that is hard to compete with.

A specific outcome or metric I can share is that IBM Cognos helped to save a lot of time.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Cognos is that I have used other BI tools before, but IBM Cognos Analytics is way easier and more convenient for data visualization and integration. Additionally, the dashboard sharing function has improved my collaboration with my colleagues. If someone asks, I will definitely recommend IBM Cognos for its practical features and ease of use.

IBM Cognos helps to tackle the problem of delayed and unclear data access.

I would rate IBM Cognos nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Amazon Web Services  (AWS )

My main use case for IBM Cognos  is its business intelligence functionality in complex reports preparation, data analysis, dashboard formulations, and monitoring business units' sales performance over time.

A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos  for sales performance monitoring and dashboard creation is that IBM Cognos Analytics helped us solve various problems, ranging from manual reports creation that led to loss of hours of turnaround and human error, dealing with data silos within various departments in my organization, and delay in decision-making. It helps business analysts in my work. My scope of use case for IBM Cognos centers around turning scattered data into actionable insights by creating sales insights reports, interactive dashboards for senior management consumption, and data exploration, validation, analysis, and storytelling.

I also handle financial reporting with IBM Cognos, ensuring accuracy. It handles complex pixel-perfect, multi-page reports with scheduled delivery to stakeholders, such as sales reports by region on quarterly periodicity. Additionally, it supports operational dashboards across departments which can combine multiple data sources such as ERP , CRM , Excel, and many others with filters and embedded AI insights.

The best features IBM Cognos offers include enterprise reporting, dashboard creation, and data exploration and analysis, building insights for accurate decision-making. The dashboard creation and data exploration features are valuable for my work because I can use a drag-and-drop feature to create ad-hoc visualizations. Additionally, I use the AI-powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input, such as the formation of pie, bar, and line charts. It is useful for a non-technical person to put queries around spreadsheet data to get quick answers.

IBM Cognos has positively impacted my organization as it has been very easy to make decisions. Our decision-making has improved drastically. Also, reports preparation has improved. Specifically, decision-making improved, automated distribution occurred, and uptime increased. IBM Cognos Analytics reduced report formulation time by 60 percent, especially for templated recurring reports such as the monthly sales report. It has improved decision-making from 40 to 65 percent. The decision-making speed has improved with IBM Cognos self-service dashboards and AI-driven data exploration.

IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing limited real-time data connectivity. I would like to add that the endpoint experience and mobility of IBM Cognos can be enhanced. Although it supports mobile, its experience can be improved as the app is not fully responsive. Fluid-like interactive filtering and dashboard creation are not user-friendly on a small screen.

I have been using IBM Cognos for about eight years. In my previous organization, I was using IBM Cognos.

I can confirm that IBM Cognos is very stable.

IBM Cognos's scalability is very good. I would say it is very scalable because it has continued to handle my organization's growth perfectly.

The customer support for IBM Cognos is very responsive and proactive.

Before IBM Cognos, I used Microsoft Power BI . I switched from Microsoft Power BI  to IBM Cognos because IBM Cognos Analytics was better in my experience, had more feature functionality, and was easier to use compared to Microsoft Power BI. It was also very cost-effective compared to this other tool.

I have seen a return on investment with significant time savings in report distribution through automation, ease of administration, and savings by keeping things secured.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Cognos is that the price is very cost-effective, and the licensing plans are also very affordable.

Before choosing IBM Cognos, we did evaluate other options, including IBM Planning Analytics .

IBM Cognos is an excellent tool. Especially, I would say it is a perfect reporting tool. It provides a great platform for creating professional, print-ready reports with exact formatting and layout. I appreciate the scheduling and report automation, which saves resource time by automating recurring reports and bursting them into different stakeholders with filters applied.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Cognos is that I am likely to recommend IBM Cognos to any potential customer, colleague, or organization, because it is easy to use, develop, and obtain the output that I need. I think it is worth noting that IBM Cognos is a very cost-effective tool. It is very easy to use. Its analytics makes it very easy to make data-driven decisions. I would rate IBM Cognos a nine out of ten according to my user experience, which has been very positive.

Hybrid Cloud

Amazon Web Services  (AWS )

What do you like best about the product?

I use IBM Cognos Analytics mainly for dashboard and report making for clients, and I appreciate how it helps make my presentations better and easier to understand. I like the UI, and enjoy the basic features like making charts and the modeling feature, even if I don't use them frequently. I find that with IBM Cognos Analytics, I can do more than with Excel, and the visuals it provides are better for presenting.

What do you dislike about the product?

Easy to use feature, it is not very easy and comfortable sometimes. Like Power BI has layout change and drag and drop.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use IBM Cognos Analytics for dashboard and report making, which makes my presentations better and easier to understand.

What do you like best about the product?

I majorly use IBM Cognos Analytics for reporting because it provides a clear pictorial representation of how the business is doing, helping C-level executives understand growth. I find it very easy to use and appreciate that it can be well customized to fit our needs. There are multiple options to choose from when designing dashboards, which makes building them easy. Additionally, there are plenty of different charts available to use for dashboard creation. The initial setup was not that complicated, which was a relief.

What do you dislike about the product?

The only thing which I feel is like, the look and feel should be made more linear. Something similar like Grafana. I tried to integrate it with an application, but somehow could not went through it.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

IBM Cognos Analytics provides clear pictorial representations of business performance, helping C-level executives understand growth.

What do you like best about the product?

I like that I can pull the order history from a long time ago, like years, and have everything in Excel. I also appreciate being able to compare which transactions were big deals and which were small transactions and group them together. It's quite convenient for analyzing the data across different channels.

What do you dislike about the product?

I think all the layout could be a bit more modern. And like, sometimes, I need to, like, really wait for a couple of minutes until I get my report. So that could be a bit quicker.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use IBM Cognos Analytics to view full order history, including contacts, which I can't find on other platforms. It helps analyze and view data across different channels.