IBM Cognos Analytics Review

Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:

Cognos
IBM
1911
Armonk, NY

Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:

Public
26,000
Cloud, On-Premise
Yes

Cognos At A Glance

Good: AI Assistant that learns users’ data and suggests new data joins and visualizations; drag-and-drop capabilities to create new dashboards and reports; data integration from two to many sources

Bad: Steep learning curve as software can be robust.

Bottom Line: IBM Cognos Analytics offers users access to a wide range of business analytics functionality to help them make well-informed decisions faster.

Product Overview

IBM Cognos Analytics is a cloud and on-premise-based business intelligence solution that offers users access to a wide range of business analytics functionality to help them make well-informed decisions, faster. It offers a full complement of essential analytics functions, including advanced dashboarding, data integration, reporting, exploration and data modeling.

Cognos Analytics recently underwent a complete facelift, adding an augmented intelligence-infused AI Assistant that allows users to ask questions and get answers in natural language. It also recommends new visualizations and joins in data allowing users to unearth connections they might not anticipate. In addition, the user interface has been completely redesigned, allowing line of business employees the self-service capabilities that are increasingly in demand.

Representing a new level of depth and clarity combined with ease of use, Cognos Analytics is accessible to businesses of every size.

Features

Some of the IBM Cognos key features include:

An AI Assistant that learns users’ data and suggests new data joins and visualizations
Natural language generation that allows users to ask questions and get answers in plain English
Drag-and-drop capabilities to create new dashboards and reports
Data cleansing and enhanced data modeling
Data integration from two to many sources
The ability to customize reports with company colors, fonts and logos
Burst capability that lets users distribute reports via email or Slack
An interface that is simple enough for novices, but powerful enough for data scientists

Target Market

IBM services over 26,000 companies from a broad cross-section of industries including aerospace, defense, banking, education, healthcare and many more. Below are some of their clients:

Nike
GKN Land System
Spain's Ministry of Defense
British Airways
Chemring

Quinte Health Care
Troy Corporation
Michigan State University
Lufthansa Cargo
Jabil

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Implementation/Integration

The implementation process for IBM Cognos Analytics is as follows (note it is based on company needs/requirements):

Discuss requirements and goals of the company using the solution
Install server and client components for Cognos Analytics
Install database and ETL configuration
Load master data and configure historical data loads
Deploy other pre-built applications, such as the Framework Manager models, reports, and dashboards
End-to-end testing of the solution
Deliver installation documentation to users
Transfer information to users
Remote support up to two days after implementation is done

Customer Service & Support

IBM has a comprehensive customer support system that includes training and certification courses, and customer service available for users of their Business Intelligence programs, such as Cognos.

They offer training that can be individualized based on specific roles within a company, and can be implemented both online and in-person. They also offer private courses, and specialized certifications to reflect expertise that aid in career advancement.

Online tech support provides customers with access to IBM specialists that can address questions or potential problems with software.

Pricing

IBM Cognos has a free trial where users get the full product capacity for 30 days. Then, there are two pricing plans: Premium and Enterprise.

Premium – This plan allows the solution to be deployed in a multi-tenant cloud architecture. It’s priced at $70 per user per month and includes:

Uploading data to cloud sources
Joining data from multiple sources
Sharing content with users
Ability to create dashboards with new or old content
Ability to create data stories using web pages, images, text and other media
Data discovering using artificial intelligence
Advanced pattern detection

Enterprise – This plan includes the full capability of Cognos Analytics, such as 500 GB user storage and backup. Pricing is not publicly available, so you’ll have to contact IBM directly for a quote. Users can optionally purchase cloud throughput capacity and an additional 250 GB user storage.

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Shortcomings

Some users have reported that IBM Cognos Analytics tends to have a steep learning curve as the software is robust.

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