My main use case for IBM Cognos is building report authoring, scheduling, and bursting to multiple recipients with parameterized outputs. IBM Cognos has a use case around risk and fraud analytics, especially being a bank, where we need to check and measure against different kinds of frauds that should not exceed certain thresholds. Additionally, I utilize it for customer and product analytics regarding profitability dashboards and real-time dashboards to analyze how our customers interact with newly released features and marketing offers.
A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos for risk and fraud analytics is in the financial services sector, where recently there has been a rise in frauds and scams. Our customers often receive calls from fraudulent individuals asking for their one-time passwords or passwords, particularly targeting older folks who are not tech-savvy, leading to the draining of their retirement and pension savings. There have also been e-commerce-oriented frauds lately, and we have a dedicated team on fraud analytics that uses IBM Cognos to tackle these issues.
IBM Cognos helps audit database records for user activity and report runs while tracking how certain fields change over time. It allows me to monitor specific types of fraud to determine if the incidence percentage has increased recently or if new fraud types are emerging in specific geographic areas. These audits and oversight functionalities are extremely useful for us.
IBM Cognos offers very high security for sensitive customer data, including features like query vaults and dynamic RLS. It provides several macros and security filters for governance purposes, which are beneficial. Additionally, it facilitates the distribution of generated reports across wider forums within the company, not just limited to a specific business unit or team. The flexibility to be hosted as either a SaaS setup, an on-premise setup, or on cloud platforms like AWS or Azure is another unique capability of the product.
IBM Cognos's security features, including query walls and dynamic RLS, help my team by preventing exposure of our queries to hackers and malicious parties. Our dedicated cybersecurity team ensures that sensitive data does not become public, making it crucial that data stored in IBM Cognos remains secure throughout the entire data cycle, which is where these enterprise-grade security measures prove invaluable.
IBM Cognos offers very responsive and highly interactive dashboards, allowing effective reporting capabilities. The Excel packs generated can be drilled through and filtered efficiently, reducing the need for deeper Excel expertise. Data aggregation and segregation are effectively managed through IBM Cognos.
The positive impact of IBM Cognos on my organization is notable; previously, the reports we were using did not meet the expectations of our managers and heads of departments, often leading to criticism. Now, we experience far fewer complaints from management, who are generally satisfied with the details of both high-level summaries and technical breakdowns when needed, enhancing our management efficiency.
Management efficiency has improved significantly as decision-making has become much faster. Management now has clarity in deciding which products to continue, which to scrap, or where to invest more resources, with enhanced visibility facilitating these decisions.
IBM Cognos could improve by introducing different role types, such as viewer roles, user roles, and admin roles, along with assigning minor modules to specific individuals. Additionally, hybrid deployments, bursting workloads, and licensing guidelines are areas that could be better refined in their cloud version. Furthermore, considering the trend towards AI in many recent software solutions, an AI assistant that aids in accomplishing tasks could be a valuable addition.
I have been using IBM Cognos for three years.
IBM Cognos is very stable overall.
The scalability of IBM Cognos is satisfactory. Around 30 people in my team are using it, but I do not have more detailed data on scalability metrics.
We previously used Microsoft Power BI as part of the Microsoft suite before migrating to IBM Cognos.
While there were not any tangible savings, the streamlined decision-making process for management was a significant positive impact. Management can now drill down and view executive summaries for new products and fraud analytics quickly, resulting in less red tape during the decision-making process.
I believe the pricing structure I recall was around $11 per user per month for the standard cloud version of IBM Cognos. However, our central team negotiated a different price because multiple teams within our organization use IBM Cognos, bringing the price down to around $10 to $11 per user per month.
Before choosing IBM Cognos, we evaluated Tableau, but its higher pricing structure led to its consideration being dropped.
My advice for others considering IBM Cognos is to weigh their specific organizational needs against available tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik Sense. If there are more complex or organization-specific requirements, switching to IBM Cognos can be beneficial. I rate this product an 8 out of 10.
