IBM Cognos vs TIBCO Spotfire comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and TIBCO Spotfire based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions.""IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets.""The initial setup is very straightforward.""Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users.""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.""Comparing IBM Cognos to other applications, once a person is trained on it or they have developed a skill set to operate the application, it is best in its category.""Even while a user is using a cube for reporting, there will not be a situation as ' Cube file locked; unable to build or deploy'.""Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."

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"It’s stable and straightforward.""One of the main features is integrated statistical analysis.""We used it pretty heavily in gathering data, which goes to our VPs. They are able to base their next revenue planning based on this metric. So, it has been invaluable.""Data discovery is very simple.""The product's initial setup phase was simple.""The most valuable feature is the map visuals that help us connect to the geo-specialized data which is more advanced than other solutions.""This solution allows us to integrate data from across all client departments, for effective reporting via a single dashboard.""Spotfire is excellent for scientific applications, especially because of its integration with RNG."

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Cons
"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.""Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool.""I would like for the platform to become more standard. If we make a development on our report and our dashboard, it will not be used in another solution. That means there is no portability for the developers.""I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information.""It could have more options for themes.""I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos.""We need more predictive analytical functions, not only diagnostic or decryptic analytics.""The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."

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"When it comes to data manipulation, there are features which are good, but one of the features which has really been missing in Spotfire is an offline ability for data manipulation.""We would like to see some improvement in the default properties of the solution, so that there is less need for us to spend our time coding.""The initial setup can be difficult.""The number of charts available out of the box in Spotfire can be enhanced.""We encountered difficulties connecting the special data sets, as the post data set did not contain any shared columns, making it difficult to establish a connection between the data sets.""Compared to competitors, the UI is quite dated.""When you do the data loading, it is slow.""I would like more easy-to-implement analytical algorithms. At the moment they include things like forecasts and regressions. They need to add a lot more of these types of things to the product because not everyone is a data scientist."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
  • "The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
  • "IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
  • "Pricing should be improved."
  • "The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
  • "It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
  • "Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
  • "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."
  • More IBM Cognos Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The ROI is nearly impossible to calculate."
  • "The pricing seems competitive and reasonable. The value delivered by the product far exceeds the cost."
  • "The Tibco sales teams have been very difficult to work with - ignoring requests, misrepresenting level of demand, etc."
  • "The cost is a few hundred dollars per user per year."
  • "The cost of TIBCO Spotfire could improve. It should be less expensive. It's the most expensive visualization tool in our company."
  • "The price-point for this solution is negotiable depending on usage levels."
  • "This product carries a monthly licensing charge, with the amount depending on the features that are to be included. This costs also covers the use of technical support."
  • "In comparison to other solutions such as IBM Cognos, TIBCO Spotfire is more affordable."
  • More TIBCO Spotfire Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting.
    Top Answer:The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved.
    Top Answer:The product's initial setup phase was simple.
    Top Answer:I would describe TIBCO Spotfire as an averagely-priced product.
    Top Answer:The way TIBCO Spotfire is designed, in my opinion, is the reason why it lags a bit, especially compared to other BI tools like Qlik. The speed of creating reports or dashboards is slower in TIBCO… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    9,561
    Comparisons
    5,647
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    433
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    2,402
    Comparisons
    1,698
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    477
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
    Spotfire
    Learn More
    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.”

    TIBCO Spotfire is a versatile data analytics platform that can handle large datasets and be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. Its dynamic reporting, easy creation of dynamic dashboards, and highly customizable tool make it a valuable asset for process data analysis, industrial performance dashboards, problem root cause analysis, business intelligence, and real-time analytics for IoT devices in the energy sector. 

    The solution also offers data science functions, map visuals, R and Python integration, and the ability to write HTML and JavaScript text areas. Spotfire has helped organizations deliver projects more efficiently and cost-effectively, allowing for faster data analysis.

    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.
    Allergan, ASSS de Montreal, Avantium, Blue River, Bank of Montreal, Citibank, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann Logistics, Merck, Novartis
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Insurance Company9%
    Healthcare Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization57%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government5%
    REVIEWERS
    Energy/Utilities Company23%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Energy/Utilities Company13%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business8%
    Midsize Enterprise61%
    Large Enterprise31%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business13%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise78%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Cognos is ranked 7th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 129 reviews while TIBCO Spotfire is ranked 13th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 65 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while TIBCO Spotfire is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of IBM Cognos writes "Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department". On the other hand, the top reviewer of TIBCO Spotfire writes "A robust BI tool, with good dashboard features and adverse event tracking". IBM Cognos is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Oracle OBIEE, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and Oracle Hyperion, whereas TIBCO Spotfire is most compared with Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, QlikView, Qlik Sense and Amazon QuickSight. See our IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire report.

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    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.