Board vs IBM Cognos Controller comparison

The compared Board International and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Board International is ranked #21 in BIT , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 0.6% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #9 in FCS , with an average rating of 8.0, and holds a 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Board International users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Board

Read 37 Board reviews

1,748 Views
507 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Cognos Controller

Read 2 IBM Cognos Controller reviews

226 Views
217 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Board

IBM Cognos Controller

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Board and IBM Cognos Controller based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

July 2025

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Helped 861,803 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Board

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (21st), Business Performance Management (8th), Reporting (18th)

IBM Cognos Controller

Average Rating

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Financial Close Software (9th)

Mindshare comparison

Board and IBM Cognos Controller aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Board is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 0.6%, up 0.5% compared to last year.
IBM Cognos Controller, on the other hand, focuses on Financial Close Software, holds 2.5% mindshare, up 1.3% since last year.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Financial Close Software

Featured Reviews

Wiboon Thabsuwan

Senior Consultant at IMD Company Limited

Easy to use and requires less time to learn or understand its features

I think the product is good in terms of ease of use. The interface looks really nice and very easy to use. Every command appears in the icon. It looks like you don't have to understand everything about the command. You do not necessarily have to know more, or I would say that there is less time for our study about the products. Functionality-wise, it is quite easy to use and requires less time to understand or learn about the product. I am a software vendor, so I do not use the tool myself. I use it for my clients. My clients mostly use it for budgeting and timing purposes. I would say that's really less maintenance at all because they can do everything by themselves. It is good in terms of ease of use.

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Pauli Leppänen

Group Controller at Eleda Group

A tool useful for areas like reporting and group consolidation

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. My company hasn't faced any issues regarding scalability, which we can't overcome. Regarding the scalability, there is some work required in the product. A user should also have some knowledge to be able to operate the tool's scalability feature. Sometimes, my company has to contact our support partner to figure out how to do certain things in the product. So far, my company hasn't encountered any issues with the tool where we have to deal with volumes even though we have to deal with a lot of leasing contracts, like over 2,000. My company expects the product to offer more scalability. My company has around 70 licenses.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I liked the way that I felt as a user and administrator of it. There were a lot of clicks, drops, drags, etc. versus writing code."

"The dynamic selections on the screen and details by function are also valuable for inside the data view."

"It allows people to quickly create dashboards with reports."

"My favourite feature of BOARD is the ability to write back to the OLAP DB, as well as the Rdb, and secure user data allowing databases to be flushed and rebuilt daily."

"It is useful for self-analysis regarding company data and helps to find areas where we can improve."

"We have better reporting and have been able to better track performance."

"With the combination of 24/7 global support and their community, there was great customer service, tech support, and community support."

"Our clients have improved a lot in terms of coordination and communication. This has improved their internal performance."

More Board pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is a properly working solution... The functionalities and package offered by the product seem to be the right fit for our company."

"If there's already a scheduled report and we want a subset of that report, that can also be created. So we do not have to schedule a new report or create a new subscription for that. At this rate, we can create a subset out of one report itself."

Cons

"My analysts have used the technical support. Sometimes they have felt like they did not receive the answer that they needed, or you have to go and upgrade in order to address a problem. "

"We are looking for ways to distinguish zeros versus nulls in BOARD."

"We are looking at ways to improve how we deal with security in BOARD and other similar things. "

"I'd like to see a more passive report user for enterprise report writers that aren't particularly technical."

"Board's integration could be a bit more robust, but what we have works. If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance."

"We have had some challenges with newer version of the rollout in terms of stability."

"I would like to see a better Web client, where the controls work the same way as in the Windows client. I do think that the focus is now on the Web, so it should be improved upon."

"In terms of scalability, I would say that there are some limitations in the solution. It cannot handle data that is too big."

More Board cons

"IFRS 16 functionality is something that is not embedded in IBM Cognos Controller."

"IBM should work on a little flexibility and user-friendliness, in the current interface. It looks very rigid and hard to read. We need to give flexibility to the user in the current situation."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Find a partner who will take responsibility for the implementation, and be available for support."

"The tool's price is a bit high compared to other solutions."

"It is not the cheapest product on earth, but you get so much. It provides good value for money."

"In terms of the pricing, it was reasonable. BOARD is not the lowest in the market, but it was reasonable for us."

"The solution is quite expensive, if it is made cheaper then we can have more clients. I rate it four out of ten."

"The product is expensive, but compared to its other alternatives in the market, I feel that IBM Cognos Controller is a reasonably priced tool."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?

We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...

See all answers

What do you like most about Board?

All the reports are prepared automatically.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Board?

Board's integration could be a bit more robust, but what we have works. If the design isn't right, the flexibility of Board can negatively impact performance.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Cognos Controller?

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that it is a properly working solution... The functionalities and package offered by the product seem to be the right fit for our company.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cognos Controller?

IFRS 16 functionality is something that is not embedded in IBM Cognos Controller. My company uses a good built-in functionality in the tool, which was made by our support partner. IBM Cognos Contro...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cognos Controller?

I use the solution for reporting and group consolidation.

See all answers

Comparisons

Anaplan vs Board

Compared 28% of the time

Pigment vs Board

Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Board

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs Board

Compared 9% of the time

Jedox vs Board

Compared 7% of the time

More Board Competitors

OneStream XF vs IBM Cognos Controller

Compared 55% of the time

LucaNet vs IBM Cognos Controller

Compared 45% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Board

July 2025

Download Board product report

Buyer's Guide

Financial Close Software

June 2025

Download IBM Cognos Controller product report

Overview

BOARD International - headquartered in Switzerland - is a leading global provider of software for improving business results through better decision making. By unifying Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management into a single product, BOARD enables companies to achieve a shared vision of their performance across the entire organization, and thus a single version of the truth.

BOARD provides seamless solutions for • Reporting & Analysis • Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting • Profitability Modelling & Optimization • Simulation & What-if-Analysis • Scorecarding & Strategy Management • Financial Consolidation. Based on visual modelling, BOARD has enabled global companies to deploy BI and CPM applications without a single line of code in a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional solutions.

Board International

IBM Cognos Controller supports the close, consolidation and reporting process with the agility and affordability of a cloud-based solution. It enables finance teams to automate and accelerate the financial close with minimal IT support. It also helps finance teams deliver financial results, create informative financial and management reports and provide the chief financial officer (CFO) with an enterprise view of key financial ratios and metrics.

IBM

Sample Customers

Coca-Cola, Puma, Desigual, Ricoh, KPMG, H&M, Groupe SEB

Emirates National Oil Company

Buyer's Guide

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

July 2025

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