IBM Cognos vs Meraki Location Analytics comparison

IBM and Cisco are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. IBM is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.3, while Cisco is ranked #24 with an average rating of 9.0. IBM holds a 1.3% mindshare in BIT, compared to Cisco’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

IBM Cognos

Read 136 IBM Cognos reviews

5,536 Views
2,879 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Meraki Location Analytics

Read 6 Meraki Location Analytics reviews

810 Views
705 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Cognos

Meraki Location Analytics

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

IBM Cognos and Meraki Location Analytics compete in data analysis and location-based services. Meraki Location Analytics has the upper hand in location-based insights, while IBM Cognos is superior in reporting and analytics capabilities.

Features: IBM Cognos offers advanced data analytics, robust reporting capabilities, and strong data integration options. Meraki Location Analytics provides impactful location-based insights, real-time data visualization tools, and effective space optimization solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cognos requires complex deployment, often needing dedicated IT resources, which can be a challenge for smaller organizations. In contrast, Meraki Location Analytics features an easy-to-deploy cloud-based model, allowing quick implementation. Its customer service is known for being fast and reliable due to comprehensive cloud integration.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Cognos involves higher initial setup costs, leading to a longer ROI period, though its features may justify the cost for larger enterprises. Meraki Location Analytics offers a cost-effective setup, with a shorter ROI timeline, beneficial for businesses focusing on location-based strategies.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics

December 2025

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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

IBM Cognos

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

136

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (5th)

Meraki Location Analytics

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

24th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 1.3%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Location Analytics is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cognos	1.3%
Meraki Location Analytics	0.9%
Other	97.8%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

reviewer2648136

EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees

Centralized reporting has supported university-wide regulatory dashboards and secure data access

From my experience, we use regular dashboarding with IBM Cognos for producing scheduled reports and for mandatory regulatory reporting. All our departments use IBM Cognos, with each department developing their own reports while our corporate IT team provides the data. Some people use the interactive dashboards feature of IBM Cognos, and there are also other tools in use. I think some users utilize Power BI and Tableau, but our IT organization only provides IBM Cognos as an enterprise business intelligence and reporting tool. IBM Cognos is evaluated and complies fully with all our security standards. In my opinion, IBM Cognos is very stable. It has been around for many years and many users are familiar with it, ensuring it performs well in its intended capacity. The benefits of choosing IBM Cognos, aside from cost savings, include having institutional knowledge for maintaining this infrastructure and a reliable solution that enhances developer productivity, given our team's extensive experience with IBM Cognos.

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Richard Bradley

Senior Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Locating equipment within facilities is now straightforward and efficient

We mainly use Meraki Location Analytics to locate equipment within our manufacturing facilities. We're not a public-facing organization, so our use case involves finding devices like printers or scanners that need maintenance The best aspect of Meraki Location Analytics is its ease of use.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting."

"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."

"Mapbox integration for geospatial analytics down to longitude/latitude layers."

"We use the account statement report. When you use an account in HSBC, you receive various types of accounts, such as the stock market, fixed accounts, credit cards, and business accounts. We can create one consolidated report called CCS support, which includes all these accounts. In that statement, we are consolidating all those accounts."

"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."

More IBM Cognos pros

"The initial setup process is easy."

"In general, it is helpful because it allows administrators to see where the Wi-Fi and network services are being most used."

"I like Location Analytics' geofencing features for devices. You can manage thousands of devices with just a push of a button and deploy applications in seconds. For example, in schools, you can deploy an app update for thousands of iPads in just two clicks."

"I use Location Analytics to identify rogue hotspots and find the last location of missing devices."

"Technical support has always been very good."

"The stability of the solution is excellent, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"The pricing and licensing for Meraki are good, and I would rate it as a nine out of ten."

Cons

"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."

"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."

"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."

"Most of our company's customers want to be able to deploy IBM Cognos on a web application and use it as a desktop application, which is not possible currently."

"There are many problems with the product's stability part, making it an area where improvements are required."

"There are some small features that are missing. It would be nice if the graphics were better. You can use external sources for charts, but it's quite complex to use and not easy to implement. If you want a new chart, you can download it from multiple tools and implement it into IBM Cognos."

"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."

"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."

More IBM Cognos cons

"I would like to see all of the features included in a single package."

"My biggest complaint with Meraki Location Analytics is the lack of visibility into the back end. Everything we do is through a customer GUI, and there's limited access to CLI functions."

"The technical support before implementation could be better for premium partners."

"The biggest issue is negotiating the price with a client. That's the most complicated part, but the product is worth it."

"There are no specific areas for improvement as everything is working very well."

"The pricing is a pain point for us. It's a bit expensive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."

"It is averagely priced."

"It is pretty expensive."

"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."

"It's more expensive than similar solutions like Tableau and Power BI."

"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."

"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."

"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"They have different tiers of pricing including one-year, three-year, five-year, seven-year, and ten-year."

"The product is less expensive compared to other vendors for gold partners."

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	86

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

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 Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...

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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.

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What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?

Since IBM Cognos is a futuristic platform with many robust features, it takes time to grasp all the features and how they work, so there is a learning curve. The more I use this platform, the more ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Meraki Location Analytics?

The pricing for Meraki Location Analytics is comparable to other solutions in the market. When we moved to Meraki Location Analytics, we benefited from not needing to buy outdoor-rated AP enclosure...

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What needs improvement with Meraki Location Analytics?

My biggest complaint with Meraki Location Analytics ( /categories/location-intelligence-platforms ) is the lack of visibility into the back end. Everything we do is through a customer GUI, and ther...

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What is your primary use case for Meraki Location Analytics?

We mainly use Meraki Location Analytics ( /products/meraki-location-analytics-reviews ) to locate equipment within our manufacturing facilities. We're not a public-facing organization, so our use c...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos

Compared 11% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 6% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs IBM Cognos

Compared 6% of the time

SQL Server vs IBM Cognos

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 34% of the time

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 19% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 17% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 16% of the time

JReport vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 14% of the time

More Meraki Location Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

January 2026

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Location Analytics

January 2026

Download Meraki Location Analytics product report

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics

No data available

Overview

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:

IBM Cognos Insight: Create personal and managed workspaces for data analysis. Using these interactive workspaces, you can share insight results with managers. Cognos Insight supports write-back, and you can also use these workspaces to capture and integrate management goals, commitments, and forecasts.
IBM Cognos Workspace: With IBM Cognos Workspace, you can create rich, interactive workspaces using IBM Cognos content as well as data from external sources. You can view and open your favorite workspaces and reports, edit content in your workspaces, and share your workspaces via email.
IBM Cognos Analytics: IBM Cognos Analytics utilizes built-in AI and intuitive searches which helps users to quickly create the visualizations and a wide range of reports. Cognos Analytics provides cognitive and managed self-service, enabling you to gain insights from controlled and trusted data.
IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Query Studio: Easily create structured and query reports. IBM Cognos allows users to create application and report templates. In addition, report authors can reuse report objects to apply filters, fields, and styles to reports. Users can set the language of the user interface and report content according to the user's native language.
IBM Cognos Event Studio: Receive notifications of events that occur within your organization in real time. Event Studio enables the creation of agents that detect the occurrence of business events, failures, or anomalies, based on the change of specific events or data conditions. Notification can be sent via email, publication in the portal, or by triggering reports.
IBM Cognos Connection: This is the Web portal for IBM Cognos BI and is the central area for accessing all the IBM Cognos functions. In the web portal, users can schedule and distribute reports, create tasks, administer the server and the access permissions, and more.

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

Cisco Meraki's location analytics and engagement solution displays real-time location statistics to improve customer engagement and loyalty across sites. Data collected by intelligent Meraki APs is synced with the Meraki cloud, automatically reported in the dashboard, and exported to third-party applications via the Cisco Meraki Location Analytics API.

Cisco

Sample Customers

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.

Ladbrokes, Neinver, Westwind School Division, The Salvation Army, Queensland Airports Limited

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics

December 2025

Free Report: IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics

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