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IBM Cognos pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.1 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Cognos Analytics has significantly reduced report formulation time by 60%, especially for recurring reports like the monthly sales report.
Management feedback has improved with far fewer complaints and enhanced efficiency due to detailed high-level summaries and technical breakdowns.
IBM Cognos' robust reporting capabilities and integration with various data sources make it a reliable data source for enterprise reporting and analytics.
Security features are powerful and flexible, making it a secure choice for business intelligence functions.
The platform's stability and comprehensive analytics tools allow users to turn complex data sets into clear, actionable insights efficiently.

CONS

IBM Cognos customer service is sometimes unresponsive, requiring improvements in support timeliness and efficiency.
Real-time data connectivity in IBM Cognos is limited, which affects overall performance and functionality.
IBM Cognos lacks advanced predictive analytical functions, with a need for better forecasting and analytics capabilities.
IBM Cognos has insufficient visualization and charting capabilities, requiring enhancements to compete with faster tools like Tableau and Power BI.
IBM Cognos has complex error messaging, making it difficult to diagnose and solve issues effectively.
 

IBM Cognos Pros review quotes

it_user547317 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant at Adaptive USA
Dec 18, 2017
One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability.
PM
Senior Cognos Developer at ADP
Sep 20, 2017
Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users.
it_user547329 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Developer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 7, 2017
The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,266 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
DWH/Cognos Project Lead at Syntel Inc @ Mercedes Benz USA
Jun 27, 2017
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'.
it_user689556 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jun 22, 2017
The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools.
it_user84468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Sep 12, 2017
It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports.
it_user831210 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant
Mar 5, 2018
Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive.
it_user835635 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Information Communication Technology with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 19, 2018
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.
it_user897015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Jul 8, 2018
The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source.
WF
‎Manager BI Manufacturing at a paper AND forest products with 10,001+ employees
Jul 16, 2018
A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports.
 

IBM Cognos Cons review quotes

it_user547317 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant at Adaptive USA
Dec 18, 2017
One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics.
PM
Senior Cognos Developer at ADP
Sep 20, 2017
The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions.
it_user547329 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Developer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 7, 2017
Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode).
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,266 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
DWH/Cognos Project Lead at Syntel Inc @ Mercedes Benz USA
Jun 27, 2017
Need improvement towards Visualization.
it_user689556 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jun 22, 2017
IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner.
it_user84468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Sep 12, 2017
It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it.
it_user831210 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant
Mar 5, 2018
Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool.
it_user835635 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Information Communication Technology with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 19, 2018
I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like.
it_user897015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Jul 8, 2018
One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map.
WF
‎Manager BI Manufacturing at a paper AND forest products with 10,001+ employees
Jul 16, 2018
We need more predictive analytical functions, not only diagnostic or decryptic analytics.