


Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools.
I have seen a return on investment through improved decision making, as automated distribution and uptime, along with scheduled report delivery and bursting, have eliminated various manual emailing and delays, thereby saving time and cost.
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 have seen a return on investment with significant time savings in report distribution through automation, ease of administration, and savings by keeping things secured.
I have seen a return on investment, as the accuracy has really improved in my organization since everything is automated.
Since using this tool, I can now make decisions faster, even when there is just a small change in the data.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.
I have seen a return on investment with Microsoft Power BI, including money saved and fewer employees needed.
Our systems team, operating on a lot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and maintaining long-term relations with IBM, benefits from good support coverage.
The customer support has been proactive, solution-oriented, and helpful whenever I have needed to reach out.
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
We have a multi-level support system, with the initial level handled by the company we bought the license from and subsequent support from IBM.
Instead, we rely on third-party partners recognized by IBM, who provide cost-effective support.
They have been very dedicated and provided top-notch solutions.
The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug.
We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.
The support is good because there is also a community available.
I would say it is very scalable because it has continued to handle my organization's growth perfectly.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
IBM Cognos' scalability is very effective because it can handle a large volume of data effectively and fast.
IBM Planning Analytics' scalability is impressive, as it is able to gather data from multiple sources and handle huge amounts of data without any lagging or downtime.
Scalability is quite hard to implement in TM1, largely since the on-premise installation chosen back in 2014.
Scalability is straightforward but it is pricey since it's a SaaS model priced per user.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.
As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
In my experience, IBM Cognos is stable, as I have not experienced any downtime or lagging issues.
The performance of IBM Planning Analytics has always been fast and reliable for my needs, even when dealing with huge volumes of data.
This stability is really important as we use it for budget calculation, which is time-consuming.
IBM Planning Analytics is stable because the reason we switched from IBM Cognos is that IBM Planning Analytics capability allows us to connect to multiple tools, which we could not do before.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.
It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.
IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing its limited real-time data connectivity, as well as enhancing the endpoint experience and mobility, which currently is not satisfactory due to limited data blending.
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.
IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing limited real-time data connectivity.
The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to.
IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.
The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the data set is very large, it takes a lot of time to process, which causes performance to become slower.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.
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.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is positive, as the price is relatively competitive and affordable.
TM1 is quite expensive, and I'd rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.
While IBM's solutions were costly before, the introduction of SaaS models has reduced prices significantly.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.
The AI features in IBM Cognos helped me gain deeper insights into our business processes, enabling me to make data-driven decisions easily and understand which points need our attention and which areas of our business are performing well.
Some of the best features that IBM Cognos offers are enterprise reporting, which enables us to create, customize, and run reports on sales trends, consumer sentiment, and many more; dashboard creation; and data exploration and analysis.
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.
Its stability helps controllers win time in their planning processes.
It also integrates machine learning and AI engines, enabling us to use algorithms for inventory forecasting which optimizes our inventory and replenishment rates.
Some of the valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics are its intuitive and user-friendly interface, reporting output and scheduling, access control and security, and mobile capabilities.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.
To reduce the need for highly skilled personnel, we can engage someone who is just familiar and has a basic understanding of Microsoft Power BI, while AI can handle the major tasks through either agent AI or requirement analysis.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| IBM Cognos | 1.3% |
| Microsoft Power BI | 9.3% |
| Tableau Enterprise | 6.7% |
| Other | 82.7% |
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| IBM Planning Analytics | 4.4% |
| Anaplan | 7.1% |
| Board | 5.0% |
| Other | 83.5% |
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Power BI | 9.3% |
| Tableau Enterprise | 6.7% |
| Amazon QuickSight | 3.7% |
| Other | 80.3% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 34 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 24 |
| Large Enterprise | 92 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 16 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 4 |
| Large Enterprise | 15 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 135 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 58 |
| Large Enterprise | 167 |
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence provides a wide range of tools to help you analyze your organization's data. IBM Cognos BI allows businesses to monitor events and metrics, create and view business reports, and analyze data to help them make effective business decisions.
IBM Cognos applies techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data, and draw conclusions. This allows users to see trends and discover anomalies or variances that may not be evident by simply reading data. Data sources that contain information from different areas of a business can be stored in separate packages. Users can see only information that they have been granted access to, based on their group or role.
IBM Cognos BI consolidates the following business intelligence functions into a single web-based solution:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM Cognos stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful analysis tool and its reporting capabilities.
Prasad B., a senior software engineer at a financial services firm, notes, “The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report. We can receive automated reports as well. They are easy to schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. It is very fast. I mean in means of report output, it's very fast compared to the actual clients involved.”
IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated planning solution that uses AI to automate planning, budgeting, and forecasting and drive more intelligent workflows.
Built on TM1, IBM’s powerful calculation engine, this enterprise performance management tool allows you to transcend the limits of manual planning and become the Analytics Hero your business needs. Quickly and easily drive faster, more accurate plans for FP&A, sales, supply chain and beyond.
Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.