

SAP BusinessObjects and IBM Cognos compete in the business intelligence platforms market. Based on feature sets, IBM Cognos may have an advantage due to its robust data modeling and AI analytics.
Features: SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform offers tools like WebIntelligence and Analysis for Office, enabling comprehensive data analysis. It features dynamic visibility, scheduling, and supports ad-hoc reporting, enhancing flexibility. IBM Cognos focuses on robust reporting and dashboard creation, featuring AI-powered analytics and strong data modeling via Framework Manager, which helps in seamless data integration and insights generation.
Room for Improvement: SAP BusinessObjects could improve user accessibility, pricing, and integration with non-SAP environments. It also requires enhanced cloud-native features and better dashboarding. IBM Cognos users seek improvements in visualization and a more intuitive interface, along with better management of large datasets and real-time data connectivity for smooth enterprise integration.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both SAP BusinessObjects and IBM Cognos provide flexible deployment options, including on-premises and cloud environments. SAP BusinessObjects faces criticism for its technical support responsiveness and complexity, whereas IBM Cognos is generally praised for excellent technical support but retains some deployment complexities.
Pricing and ROI: SAP BusinessObjects' licensing is complex and costly, affecting ROI especially if features are underutilized; there is potential for simplification and affordability. IBM Cognos is also considered expensive compared to competitors like Power BI and Tableau but offers comprehensive features that may justify its cost. Evaluating company size and needs is crucial for sustainable ROI with both solutions.
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.
This demonstrates that it requires a lesser number of people. You do not need a huge team for maintaining or working with IBM Cognos.
The initial investment will be more, but the ROI is also good, so they can consider it if they're looking for something in the long run.
For most of my clients using the on-premises version of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, the return on investment is positive due to its affordability and ability to handle diverse reporting needs while automating information distribution.
I have seen a return on investment so far in the form of saved time and resources.
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.
I would rate their technical support as excellent.
I have experience with SAP technical support and have supported customers, including those in financial services.
Sometimes, they forward my ticket to the technical team, especially when my issue involves technical aspects that basis people may not be familiar with.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
The scalability of IBM Cognos is fine.
The scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is adequate; it is very scalable and grows with my organization's needs.
I rate the scalability of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a nine due to performance issues related to optimizing parts.
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.
When they tried upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3, they found it buggy in some reports, which was quite problematic.
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 improve its error messages, as whenever something is wrong, it does not give us the proper error message, and we end up rebooting the entire software.
I've worked with other tools, for example, Microsoft Power BI, which is visualization-wise very strong.
SAP BusinessObjects is expected to be phased out by 2027 as reports are moving to SAP Analytics Cloud.
I would appreciate integration with Outlook as an additional feature in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
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.
SAP BTP is an expensive solution.
The price is very competitive and reliable.
I rate the pricing for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform as a seven or eight.
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.
For calculations, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform outperforms all other tools such as Power BI and Tableau, showing more accuracy, reliability, and flexibility compared to all other BI tools worldwide.
Since we started using SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, we have been able to make faster, data-driven business decisions based on actual data insights and data analysis, which has accelerated our ability to make better decisions for our business productivity.
The best feature about it for me, and for them, is the fact that you have a universe that is well made.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform | 2.2% |
| IBM Cognos | 1.3% |
| Other | 96.5% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 34 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 24 |
| Large Enterprise | 92 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 32 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 20 |
| Large Enterprise | 68 |
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.”
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform offers powerful tools for enterprise reporting and data visualization, enhancing strategic decision-making through robust integration and secure analytics capabilities.
Designed for comprehensive enterprise reporting, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform integrates seamlessly with SAP ERP, supporting organizations in creating detailed financial, operational, and academic reports. The platform allows data manipulation across multiple sources using a semantic layer and provides intuitive tools like Web Intelligence and Lumira for user-driven report creation. It features centralized management, versatile connectors, and supports large-scale data analytics critical for business forecasting.
What are the key features of SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform?Organizations across sectors like healthcare, education, insurance, and retail leverage SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform for its capability in facilitating detailed reports and integrating dashboards for key performance indicators. Its extensive reporting features support in-depth analytics vital for business prediction and decision-making processes.
We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.