IBM Cognos Reviews and Pricing - page 16

Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

it_user164019 - PeerSpot reviewer

Business Intelligence Analyst at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 23, 2014

Great for Fast KPI tracking. Performance and Versatility Need Improvement.

Pros and Cons

"Fast KPI tracking and complex data analysis support decision making."

"It's hard to change built-in options."

What is most valuable?

Cognos Reports, Dashboards

How has it helped my organization?

Fast KPI tracking, Complex data analysis for decision making.

What needs improvement?

Versatility, Performance (speed)

For how long have I used the solution?

5 years

Free Report: IBM Cognos Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.

885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

It's hard to change built-in options.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Rarely had issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

Depends on the support structure.

Technical Support:

Depends on the support structure.

What about the implementation team?

In-house team

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Consultant IT at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 24, 2014

Standard and High Quality Reports but it's an Expensive BI Tool

Pros and Cons

"If you are looking for an all integrated, scalable and high quality reporting tool, Cognos is a solution to consider."

"With IBM it is too complicated, I used a partner."

What is most valuable?

Well, I liked the split Cognos- used to have 2 differents products for reporting. One very friendly for user (query studio) and other one more for super user or tech user (Report studio).
The AdHoc reporting (query studio) are very easy with query studio but this happens only if the package is well done by the modeler. The most valuable feature in query studio is Develop/ Reduce group in a list. For Report Studio, the possibility to create report from SQL Query direct, easy, simple and efficient :)

How has it helped my organization?

We reduced IT requests for reporting and improved reports standards. High quality reports.
We used templates and reuse components so it's easy to change lots of report quickly.

What needs improvement?

Administration and security.

For how long have I used the solution?

I'm with Cognos's products since 1997. (First products I used was Impromptu, Transformer and Power Play). Last version I have used is 10.1 (Query and Report Studio).

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Well, developing packages makes deployment a bit long in case of emergency.
Also, for performance issues, avoid to connect the package's data on OLTP databases. Always use de-normalised databases, (ODS) or OLAP databases.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Server not responding some times

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

With IBM it is too complicated, I used a partner.

Technical Support:

With IBM it is too complicated, I used a partner.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No

How was the initial setup?

Not too complex.

What about the implementation team?

At that time I was implementing with the Cognos team and in-house. People from Cognos were very experienced.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I can't remember. But now I'm looking to go around looking at BI Tools to advise my customers which ones are best according to theirs needs. I will go deeper in Microsoft (for the price), Tableau for the visualisation and easy deploy and of course Cognos because it can do all BI needs (but it's expensive).
PS. Cognos Express is welcome with lower licensing price.

What other advice do I have?

If you are looking for an all integrated, scalable and high quality reporting tool, Cognos is a solution to consider. But, the price is a factor too.
You need to define well your needs for reporting, chose the right component you want to start first and start small.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Free Report: IBM Cognos Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.

885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Vice President at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Mar 2, 2014

Cognos needs better data visualization. Good value in drill through reporting, ease of use and design.

Pros and Cons

"This BI tool helped automate and centralize production reports."

"It definitely needs better data visualization."

What is most valuable?

Drill through reporting, ease of use, ease of design, and functionality.

How has it helped my organization?

This BI tool helped automate and centralize production reports. It provided intuitive navigation for end users. It helped to positively change the reporting landscape while addressing customer needs

What needs improvement?

It definitely needs better data visualization. I needed to couple Cognos with Tableau to provide a complete reporting environment.

For how long have I used the solution?

2 years for Cognos BI series 10; 2 years for Series 8 and 7 years for Series 7

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, the company I worked for had a Corporate user (many end users) license which enabled license costs to be minimal.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: I did not work directly with Cognos support.Technical Support: I did not work directly with Cognos support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The IT group in my organization was responsible for the set-up. On version 8, Cognos seemed very unstable. Cognos 10 was much improved.

What about the implementation team?

In house

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

IT group handled this aspect.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes. Our company had many BI tools to choose from but Cognos was the most sustainable and scale-able.

What other advice do I have?

There are many BI tools out there to choose from. Cognos might be the right solution for you but this decision needs to take into consideration the size of your user group, the cost per license, the functionality needed for your reporting infrastructure, and the in-house BI knowledge of the BI tool that you choose.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 19, 2014

Consider other alternatives. Corporate decided to replace this application with Oracle OBIEE.

Pros and Cons

"Graphical interface is good"

"Basically, our support to enhancement was our corporate team. Where the Oracle Quality module has more flexibility to develop internal tables to gather data."

What is most valuable?

Graphical interface is good

How has it helped my organization?

Ad hoc reporting

What needs improvement?

Basically, our support to enhancement was our corporate team. Where the Oracle Quality module has more flexibility to develop internal tables to gather data. The Cognos BI team doesn’t have this dynamic approach to do the enhancements. So, Corporate decided to replace this application with Oracle OBIEE.

For how long have I used the solution?

5 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes, When it’s integrated with Oracle for Quality reports

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 9 out of 10Technical Support: 9 out of 10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Never before.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward

What about the implementation team?

In-house

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No

What other advice do I have?

Consider other alternatives.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Head of Data Analytics at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Jan 20, 2014

Report Studio is a bit complicated but very powerful for complex reports

Pros and Cons

"You need the resources and the budget but it's a great set of tools that can bring value to your business."

"Support can be sometimes be disappointing."

What is most valuable?

Data Manager is a great ETL tool, Query Studio is a great tool for ad-hoc queries, simple but powerful. Report Studio is a bit more complicated but also very powerful for complex reports.

How has it helped my organization?

Dashboards and reports bring all the needed figures to our direction on a daily basis and it's available from various devices (apple, android, windows 8.)

What needs improvement?

The reporting tool can be tricky and you'll need to get used to it but it's worth the effort.

For how long have I used the solution?

4 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Yes, there may be compatibility issues but as long as you read the requirements and do not apply the latest Fix Pack blindly as soon as they are released, it's pretty stable.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Yes, as with many 3-tiers applications you rely on a web server, an application server and a database, so for example- a huge load of connections can bring down the app server when using LifeCycleManager, a great tool for assistance in the upgrade process.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not so far.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: Better, but I must say that it's not as good as my experience with Oracle's.Technical Support: Good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I tried (very briefly) Business Object and QlikView but my company has been running Cognos since the beginning.

How was the initial setup?

As usual it requires a lot of reading and it can get a bit complex since there are a lot of different technology involved (web server IIS or Apache, app server TOMCAT, java and Oracle RDBMS as the content store).

What about the implementation team?

It was a mix, the vendor usually has good skills on the subject. Support can be sometimes be disappointing.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we did look at Microstrategy, Qlikview and Oracle BI which may have been good choices if we started from scratch but there was no point in changing the tool we were already using.

What other advice do I have?

You need the resources and the budget but it's a great set of tools that can bring value to your business.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user7623 - PeerSpot reviewer

BI Expert with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 8, 2013

Difference between IBM Cognos and SAP Business Objects(BO)

-- IBM Cognos --

- Divided into many tools like Analysis Studio, Query Studio, Report Studio
- Appropriate integration between all the tools
- Metadata is common to all tools, which offers performance and scalability
- Separately Structured Interfaces
- Very clear and service oriented Business Intelligence
- Can be done even with the basic End Users
- Loss of Performance while scaling up the hardware
- No proper tool available to store the documents
- Customers feel Cognos is Complex
- Impromptu is relatively weaker
- Cognos ROLAP Tools and MOLAP Cubes
- Inbox drill through from one report to other
- Learning is exhaustive because of many separate tools

-- SAP Business Objects (BO) --

- All in one package- Web Intelligence
- Many tools and no Proper Integration between Queries, Excessive
- Flexible and Scalable
- Integrated Dashboards
- Unclear BI future perspective because of too many tools
- IT professionals needed for every change
- Performance is consistent while Scaling UP
- Business Objects XI Info view is used to store the documents
- Customers complain BO is not fully Business Intelligence yet
- BO's adhoc reporting capability is superior
- BO is primarily ROLAP
- Time Consuming Drill Through feature
- Learning is easy since many tools are merged

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user242652Sr.SAP BI/BO Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Aug 24, 2015

Yes I agree with the differences shown but if the customer who has full SAP house it would be better for him to choose SAP BO which can integrate well with their existing system rather than going for a third party tool.I have not used Cognos yet so I cannot comment on its advantages over SAP BO.

See all 2 comments

it_user6855 - PeerSpot reviewer

CEO with 51-200 employees

Jul 7, 2013

No compelling reasons to choose Cognos unless the suite of products offers a particularly good fit with needs, or the organization has an existing heavy commitment to IBM products and services

IBM Cognos is a sprawling set of products aimed at providing a complete BI solution for organizations of all sizes, but specifically large organizations. Unlike some other offerings that incorporate data mining and predictive analytics capability, Cognos is targeted specifically at the traditional reporting and analysis tasks using a variety of presentation techniques. These include dashboards, graphs, charts, reports, tables and so on. For organizations that have not yet implemented an organization wide solution to this need Cognos is a prime candidate. Perhaps the strongest feature is the ability of offer an enterprise wide, integrated BI environment. And you wouldn’t expect anything less from IBM, it does major on infrastructure after all. Having said this Cognos provides a necessary, but hardly sufficient set of tools to gain commercial advantage. It may satisfy the needs of administrative and planning functions, but provides very little opportunity to employ techniques for embedding intelligence into applications. For this users will need to embrace IBM SPSS as a separate set of capabilities, or some similar set of tools.

IBM has layered the Cognos products so users can start small and grow. The most basic entry level product is the free version of Cognos Insight. This is a personal reporting and analysis tool, which in the free version will access CSV files (nice as a taster, but not really practical). The paid for versions will access a much broader set of data resources. Cognos Express is targeted at workgroups and midsize companies, and Cognos Enterprise is the full-blown BI and performance management toolset. Over thirty other Cognos products are available to support infrastructure requirements, address specific needs, and provide additional means of data visualization.

What IBM Cognos offers is a platform for looking at what has happened, what is happening, and what might happen in your business. Every organization needs this sort of capability and IBM is one of half a dozen traditional suppliers (Microstrategy, SAP, Oracle, SAS) who offer a solution. However there are new kids on the block in the shape of Qlikview, Tibco and Tableau, although they typically do not have the tailored add-ons of the more traditional suppliers.

In summary there are no compelling reasons to choose Cognos unless the suite of products offers a particularly good fit with needs, or the organization has an existing heavy commitment to IBM products and services.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user8547Consultant at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Report as inappropriate

Nov 20, 2013

I am not disagreeing with your comment Martin but I would like to add to there can be numerous reasons for organizations to choose Cognos, I would agree the growth pattern I have seen with Cognos is less compared to the other BI options available in the Market. Companies who need very flexible reports involving lot of customizations can always relay on Cognos. As the reports are purely XML a lot of customization and different ways to make changes can be implemented. The web authoring interface for Cognos is really good compared to tool like Microstrategy which is indeed very popular, Cognos also provide lot of financial solutions like Cognos planning which can be used to Develop budgets and forecasts faster and more efficiently. Cognos also allows a non-technical user to design complex reports by dragging and dropping existing reports or parts of reports as widgets onto a canvas. This tool is called Business Insight, allows a business user to reuse existing content to create and share interactive dashboards.
IBM is moving slow in this fast changing Business Intelligence space and I would personally would like to see what they do next with Cognos.
If we talk about stats Cognos products are still used by over 23,000 companies, around the world, and are consistently ranked in the top 10 category of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence.
In case you have any questions/queries I would be happy to assist. Feel free to reach out to me.
Thanks and Regards
Arpit Agrawal
Business Intelligence Consultant
Email: ArpitAgrawal9@yahoo.co.in

Please consider the environment before printing this email

See all 3 comments

it_user7437 - PeerSpot reviewer

Director of Data Analytics at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees

Jul 1, 2013

Great tool, I absolutely love Cognos

Great tool, I absolutely love Cognos. Made for sitting on top of a DW, but it addition to that, in some cases we needed to build views where we would summarize things to be able to provide reports with some level of performance. Need to be careful. They provide a semantic layer which If built properly can get quite a bit of functionality out of it. But still need to be careful with volumes for specific reports.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

it_user1068Tech Support Staff at a tech company with 51-200 employees

Report as inappropriate

Jul 14, 2013

Great. Cognos Enterprise is in deed a perfect tool for data summarization and report generation. Moreover, upgrades to later versions for those using earlier versions is always recommended for better features that are improved for enhanced performance in addition to access to support for the product. Skills are needed to operate this program just like most specialized software.

Buyer's Guide

Download our free IBM Cognos Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.

Updated: March 2026

Product Categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Reporting

Buyer's Guide

Download our free IBM Cognos Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.

Quick Links

Learn More:

Questions: