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CCH Tagetik vs IBM Cognos vs Microsoft Power BI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Business Performance Management
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Julia Lupidii - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly performance management with intuitive approach
I appreciate its user-friendliness, especially for business users who may not be very tech-savvy. In many organizations, there's a mix of IT professionals and business users with varying levels of technical expertise. One of the strengths of the solution includes a feature similar to SmartView, is that it allows users to work with Excel. Since Excel is a widely familiar tool, it reduces the learning curve and makes it more accessible to a broader audience within the organization. The workflow feature within the solution is particularly valuable. It simplifies complex processes into a step-by-step sequence, making it easy for users to follow along.
AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.
Shoury Priyanshu - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data aggregation with some outdated visual elements hindering user appeal
Real-time data integration is an area for improvement. Although I've worked on several solutions involving real-time integration, it's not very user-friendly and often lags, especially with over a million data rows. This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today. There are challenges with scalability, requiring multiple pages in dashboards to manage these issues. Visualization could be improved as it appears outdated. Users, especially newcomers, find it unappealing and not user-friendly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I've primarily worked with CCH Tagetik as a consultant, handling implementations and not providing day-to-day user support. I initially appreciated the unified platform, the Ownership Structure Register, which benefits certain entities. The workflow feature is great, but it can become overly detailed and lacks clear guidance on design. The solution is good in terms of storage."
"I appreciate its user-friendliness, especially for business users who may not be very tech-savvy."
"The ability for integration and automatic loading from the Oracle system into CCH Tagetik is very valuable."
"Has an APM, which deals with the details of data and has calculation functions included."
"The most valuable feature of CCH Tagetik is form creation."
"Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"Self-service is possible through the use of dashboards, which are also very intuitive. Stories can be used to pin snapshots, tell the story for meetings, etc."
"Previously, we were doing static reporting. Management would request a report, and it would take staff a week or more to provide it. With Cognos, we have dynamic reporting, and it has reduced both reporting and decision making times significantly. With the solution's dashboard, the company's management team has updated records at their fingertips. This means that they can directly access the data they need to make decisions."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Power BI is the user experience."
"The product is easy to use and simple to navigate."
"The solution integrates with other Microsoft solutions very well."
"I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use."
"We find the solution offers good stability."
"It gives you an edge if you are on the Microsoft platform. If you have been using Microsoft products for a long time or if you have the Microsoft infrastructure, this is the right tool for you. It has seamless integration with Microsoft SQL Server and other sources, and you get the best of the three things (SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS) in one suite."
"The solution is quite scalable."
"Microsoft BI allows us to connect to any database or any dataset."
 

Cons

"Analytics function is weak. Other products have sum(irate) function and forecasting help function, but Tagetik does not have this clarity."
"We faced difficulties while uploading data."
"There is a need for improvement in the ability to generate all reports from one click, like both P&L and balance sheets, to be available together in Excel."
"The tool's major drawback is the ETL process, which is not up to par with other solutions."
"There is room for improvement, especially on the settings side of the solution."
"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."
"Need improvement towards Visualization."
"We would like to see development of the product's UI function, to make it more of a UI tool that can be configured as required."
"I would like to see is more easy building, movement in the reports, and dashboard functionality within reporting. Overall more simple elements within reports. If the elements are simple then you don't have to render a full page, but you can move separate parts in the page."
"I would like to have predictive and forecasting capabilities in Cognos. It's one thing to do reporting, and another thing to easily predict or forecast certain data points, which is very important for all the clients."
"The solution's support could be better."
"The setup took a lot of tinkering with InfoSec to allow us to do stuff."
"It would be better if they had some video tutorials. Most people from an Excel background may struggle with measures in Microsoft BI."
"Microsoft Power BI can be confusing, because it has two languages that you need to learn if you want to use it, and this makes it more difficult for nontechnical users."
"Real-time data integration is an area for improvement."
"The way you navigate the product, compared to other products in this industry, that could be improved a bit."
"The limitations within Microsoft Power BI include the volume of data it can handle, as there's a cap on the number of rows you can keep. When you pull your data and build your models, you're restricted by this row limit. Additionally, certain SSRS features are deprecated, which can be a drawback for users who rely on those capabilities."
"I believe Power BI could improve by making data tables and databases easier to handle, especially for non-programmers who may not be familiar with languages like Python. Simplifying these aspects would enhance the usability and accessibility of Power BI for a broader range of users."
"One of the more difficult things to do is to export some of the data from Power BI to Excel."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is affordable."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"It is averagely priced."
"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"The solution is affordable."
"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
"The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
"I don't know the exact cost, but I believe Cognos is quite expensive, especially when it comes to the support consultants and the procedures that need to be applied."
"Microsoft BI for desktop is free to use, and you can download and use it."
"The Report Server is pretty expensive on-premise. But as long companies are happy to use the cloud version, that's very cost effective."
"Pricing is a big advantage that Power BI has over Tableau. Power BI is three or four times cheaper than Tableau. For my personal use, I will definitely prefer a $20 monthly fee of Power BI rather than a $70 monthly fee of Tableau. If you pay altogether for Power BI, they give you a discount, whereas, with Tableau, there is no discount. There are three versions of Power BI: Free, Pro, and Premium. The Premium version comes with a lot of things. There is no extra or hidden fee. You pay every month, and the software is with you. If you upgrade, there will be some extra charges."
"The price of Microsoft BI is reasonable. Other solutions such as SAP Cloud are more expensive."
"I am satisfied with its price. Its price is very less as compared to Tableau and QlikView."
"The price of Microsoft BI is expensive. We found the price of Tableau to be less expensive."
"From a cost point of view, it's competitive in the enterprise space, although it's not as competitive when you add up all of the additional costs. Things like integrations cost extra and it's probably where Microsoft makes more of the money."
"Their price is good."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
8%
Educational Organization
48%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Educational Organization
37%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about CCH Tagetik?
I've primarily worked with CCH Tagetik as a consultant, handling implementations and not providing day-to-day user su...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CCH Tagetik?
I am not informed about pricing, but CCH Tagetik was chosen over HFM due to more comprehensive functionalities relate...
What needs improvement with CCH Tagetik?
There is a need for improvement in the ability to generate all reports from one click, like both P&L and balance ...
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik ...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I wou...
Is Power BI a complete platform or only a visualization tool?
Power BI is an advanced visualization tool oriented to big data with a very complete set of widgets to visualize info...
How does Oracle OBIEE compare with Microsoft BI?
Oracle OBIEE is great in allowing design and creativity per the individual needs of the organization. Dashboards are ...
 

Also Known As

Tagetik
Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
SSRS, SSAS, MSBI, MS Reporting Services, Microsoft BI Tools, Microsoft Big Data, Power BI Pro, MS BI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Daimler, Randstad, Rabobank, Metro Group
More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
Accenture Adidas Aetna AIG Airbus Alibaba Allstate Amazon American Express Aon AT&T Audi Bank of America BASF Bayer Berkshire Hathaway Boeing Coca-Cola Comcast Cisco Coca-Cola Dell Disney Emirates Equinix FedEx Ford GE Google H&M Home Depot Honda IBM Intel JPMorgan Chase Kellogg's Kroger L'Oréal McDonald's Merck MetLife Microsoft Nike Oracle P&G PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Prudential Financial SAP Siemens Snapchat Spotify Starbucks Target Toyota T-Mobile Unilever Visa Walmart WeWork World Bank Xerox
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: May 2025.
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