IBM Cognos vs Meraki Location Analytics comparison

IBM and Cisco are both solutions in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category. IBM is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.1, while Cisco is ranked #21 with an average rating of 9.0. IBM holds a 3.1% mindshare in BIT, compared to Cisco’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

IBM Cognos

Read 134 IBM Cognos reviews

6,188 Views
3,218 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Meraki Location Analytics

Read 6 Meraki Location Analytics reviews

340 Views
207 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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics

July 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

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

134

Ranking in other categories

Reporting (6th)

Meraki Location Analytics

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

21st

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Meraki Location Analytics is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

AMOL JAJU

Senior BI-ETL Consultant at CMA Consulting Services

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.

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Mike Scofield

Director of Technology at a educational organization with 51-200 employees

Location analytics helps in finding rogue hotspots and locating missing devices

I use Location Analytics occasionally to identify a rogue hotspot or to find the last location of a missing device. In some cases, if there is an interference issue, I might be able to determine the location. However, such instances are unusual I use Location Analytics to identify rogue hotspots…

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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

"The tool can join data from different sources, write back to databases, generate alerts, and be customized to our preferences. It's an enterprise BI tool that's more powerful than just visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau."

"It's enabled us to report directly from our main application systems. We're removing islands of data and we're removing inefficiencies, where people or small divisions had their own store of information."

"In terms of stability, I think that Cognos is more stable than Tableau and Power Bi because of its framework manager concept that allows us to import metadata and store it in the framework manager."

"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."

"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."

"We are able to generate quality reports easily which allows us to decrease response time."

"The correlation analysis is excellent. It's one of the best that I have used to date."

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

More IBM Cognos pros

"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."

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

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

"The initial setup process is easy."

"Technical support has always been very good."

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

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

Cons

"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."

"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."

"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."

"The solution seems to slow down the servers."

"IBM Cognos's error messages seem to be a bit ambiguous. An error will be encountered and a message will be sent out very ambiguous and after investigating the error message it could be any number of issues. There was never a direct answer to the question or a direct answer to the error messages. Sometimes it would be a generic error message for 21 different solutions. It wasn't very specific, which required a lot of digging around and trial and error trying to fix the problem. The messaging in their error messaging is something needing improvement."

"Compared to Tableau and PowerBI, the IBM interface is easier to use. However, the drag-and-drop functionality isn't as straightforward. Formatting is also more challenging in the cloud than in other applications, like Power BI. Also, if you encounter an issue, it takes more time to resolve it on the formatting side."

"Need improvement towards Visualization."

"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."

More IBM Cognos cons

"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."

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

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"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."

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

"It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."

"Pricing should be improved."

"My company uses IBM Cognos with another IBM product, so I think only one license is used."

"It is averagely priced."

"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."

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 at NVidia

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

15%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?

There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.

See all answers

What do you like most about Meraki Location Analytics?

The initial setup process is easy.

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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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Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos

Compared 12% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs IBM Cognos

Compared 9% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Qlik Sense vs IBM Cognos

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 62% of the time

Oracle Analytics Cloud vs Meraki Location Analytics

Compared 38% of the time

More Meraki Location Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

August 2025

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

Meraki Location Analytics

August 2025

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

July 2025

Free Report: IBM Cognos vs. Meraki Location Analytics

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