We’re creating reports and modelling them for managers. We use IBM Cognos to clear log reports and address performance issues. If performance issues arise, we can access the production environment, login, and check server-side capacities. If we encounter any difficulties, we can directly connect with the support team to obtain necessary information and address issues on the server side. For example, we recently encountered an issue. We generate a large number of reports. During the first week of the month, each user runs approximately 2000 reports. However, we faced network latency issues in the PAM system. After analysis, we identified the issue in the capacity configuration within the administration console. We adjust values for services during peak times based on server specifications such as CPU and number of users. These configurations are managed through the administration console. Currently, we work in the HVAC sector, handling requirements from development to production using a single instance of IBM Cognos and a single database.
IBM Cognos Analytics for IBM Cloud Pak for Data
IBM SoftwareReviews from AWS customer
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Excellent tool in Our global reporting & Analytics
Well equipped BI tool
One of the most comprehensive and user-friendly analytics software
Another thing that I found really useful while using the software was having the dashboard feature. It allows you to monitor key performance indicators in real time while still showing the entire data at a glance. This comes handy when you need to make snap decisions or detect tendencies that require attention.
You can use the dashboard to determine where it stands based on the graph
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
We use the account statement report. When you use an account in HSBC, you receive various types of accounts, such as the stock market, fixed accounts, credit cards, and business accounts. We can create one consolidated report called CCS support, which includes all these accounts. In that statement, we are consolidating all those accounts. What we have created involves around 160 queries and approximately 110 variables. We use options such as tab, cross-tab, and various graphics, including charts and blocks.
Cognos is easy to use.
What needs 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.
Some reports have performance issues because of data value. Power BI struggles with datasets exceeding one lakh records, and IBM Cognos handles datasets ten times larger without delays. Generating reports with large datasets in Cognos may take around 30-60 minutes. The final output is delivered in Excel format.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM Cognos for two years. We are using V11.1.7 of the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product’s stability is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can manage functionality.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Power BI and Tableau.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy and takes four to six months to complete.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
You can use the dashboard to determine where it stands based on the graph. The amount is included in the dashboard. We use data from the United States, the UK, Germany, and Japan. The data is stored in our CCS report. Based on the ID, we can retrieve specific data within that report. Certain portions of the data will display information for only one particular country. This restriction confines the data within the report. We are implementing security measures to ensure data integrity.
Some users access IBM Cognos directly for their businesses, while others log in to the Cognos console portal. These users interact with the actual JavaScript within the portal. This process may require additional time for adjustments, including those related to the DKA component.
If you have the budget, you can opt for Cognos; otherwise, you can opt for Power BI.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Offers good reporting features and is easy to install
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company for standard reports, audit reports, and dashboards. The tool helps develop good dashboards for management.
What needs improvement?
The new features in the tool are good. The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database. The SMTP part of the tool is connected to the Cognos Analytics content store, so whenever there are a lot of reports running, .mdp files will be full and sometimes fail. People need to be able to free some space, and I believe that this needs to be checked by IBM before sending out a notification to its users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM Cognos for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool's stability is good. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool's scalability is good. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
For the setup phase, my company uses SQL Server. The tools' setup phase is easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges.
What other advice do I have?
When it comes to decision-making, the product is very useful and used in many departments since a lot of people prefer the reports to be generated by IBM Cognos. It is mainly useful for management meetings since it allows one to see KPIs, which helps the management-level people in a company to make decisions.
Speaking about the tool's valuable features for analytics needs, compared to the previous versions of the tool, I believe that the new version of the solution has introduced auto-generated facilities, like drag and drop, which is very useful for business users to develop reports easily. In the past, packages were deployed using a framework manager, but now, with the new functionalities, you can directly upload CSV files to deal with areas concerning the sales team or validation of payments. The sales team can directly import the payment validation files. The product helps sales teams since it allows users to directly upload and see the results in reports without the help of any technical people.
I am very satisfied with the product's reporting capabilities. The use of Excel format before sending emails to users is very helpful, especially for those who are in different countries, like Australia or the USA. The sunburst part associated with reports is very helpful for many.
The scorecard widgets in the tool are mainly useful for the KPI part. It helps to keep a tab on the monthly achievements. It helps users to look at how much they have achieved in their company and the actual number of units booked or sold by their organization.
A minimum of two people are required to maintain the product.
With the new version of the tools having many additional integrations and connectivities, I can see technologies like Snowflake and Salesforce integrated with IBM Cognos. The tool's integration capabilities will be helpful in the future.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it, especially for handling the reporting part. The product's security features are also very good compared to the other tools in the market.
I rate the tool a nine out of ten.
IBM Cognos Analytics-Review
Provides good enterprise analytics and reporting, but the technical support’s response time could be improved
What is most valuable?
We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting. IBM Cognos is an easy-to-use solution that has simple drag-and-drop features.
What needs improvement?
The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM Cognos for a few years.
How are customer service and support?
The solution’s technical support is not so good. I rate the solution’s technical support a six or seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What other advice do I have?
The solution's basic use cases are business reporting and data analysis, and it's bundled with most of the products. All IBM products in our region should be promoted more.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Along with great scalability and stability, the tool delivers the best of functionalities
What is our primary use case?
I use the product for my company's customers to provide analytics services.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are the ability to use the IBM Watson Applications and AR, along with its ability to generate new dashboards as needed.
What needs improvement?
Most of our company's customers want to be able to deploy IBM Cognos on a web application and use it as a desktop application, which is not possible currently. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the product.
The UI of the product needs to be similar to the one offered by Power BI, which has the most market share presently.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using IBM Cognos for more than four years. I use the solution's latest version. My company has a partnership with IBM.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the product's initial setup phase a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is a difficult setup phase, and ten is an easy setup process.
The ease or difficulty experienced during the setup phase of the tool depends on the experience of the person involved in the installation process.
Most of our company's clients have confidential data, so the solution is deployed on an on-premises model.
The time taken to deploy the product varies from project to project. In the last project that I managed, the deployment process took around six months to complete.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process of the product was taken care of by one of the in-house teams in my organization.
What was our ROI?
From an ROI perspective, I rate the product a ten out of ten since most of our company's customers feel that IBM Cognos is good for their business.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an expensive product when compared to other solutions in the market. I believe that IBM Cognos delivers the best functionalities for the product's expensive nature. Most of our customers know that the product is expensive since it offers more functions and features.
I rate the product price as four or five on a scale from one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price.
I did not have the need to pay any extra charges apart from the standard licensing costs attached to the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Versatile and resourceful analytics tool that delivers.
It is an intuitive tool
To create a Dashboard you hardly need any training.
Other times, we have had problems with performance
On the other hand, I do not see a clear privacy control (Anyone can see all the information on a Dashboard), it would be very important to be able to hide fields from different users