BrightGauge vs. IBM Cognos Dashboard Embedded

BrightGauge lets us know when we have critical issues that need solving. A massive influx of tickets all at the same time triggers an investigation. Usually, it is tied to a server going down, which we can address. It would not be helpful for a small MSP or IT department with just a few daily tickets. The stats are better used to track a large amount of clients.

Incentivized

Appropriate to create a visualised dashboard from data. Detailed analytics features using Cognos reports. The software is capable of creating cubes and packages that can be used to extract exactly what you need to visualize in specific in your group you work for.

Incentivized

• SQL queries can be presented in many different ways to illustrate the data. They can be used in lists, graphs, meter, etc.
• The datasets frequency of updates can be customized to from 5 minutes to annually. It's very granular in this respect.
• It allows dashboards to be shared outside your organization with clients, partners, and vendors to maximize collaboration and reporting.

Incentivized

• Easy to learn and apply in real time projects.
• Multiple query can be combined to generate simple and easy to understand reports.
• Mobile access feature helps to integrate with multiple devices.

Incentivized

• Modifying data sets to bring in custom fields requires an experienced SQL engineer
• Cost when bringing in lots of data sources can be prohibitive
• Limited ability to format gauges and reports
• Make MFA a requirement - this data is sensitive and giving the admin the ability to force MFA is a MUST!

Incentivized

• How to do guide and there is definitely more training opportunity that company can offer
• Performance improvements can make the tool more efficient
• Can be more open to accept the external files

Usability is BrightGauge's strength. Granting the ability of virtually any user to be able to create a dashboard is incredibly valuable. If an organization very simple and straight forward reporting needs then BrightGauge is a perfect fit for them. Connecting to the dataset we used was very quick and easy and I imagine it would be the same for any major data source you would like to pull from.

Incentivized

We did not need to use BrightGauge's support for the entire time that we used it. Best support is always the one that isn't needed because nothing breaks.

Incentivized

I'm not aware of any other competitors to Bright Gauge that we selected. They seem to be very close to managed IT service providers and have been great at tailoring their support to the PSAs like ConnectWise, AutoTask, etc. I can see Bright Gauge getting more and more popular as time goes by

Incentivized

Microsoft BI has many performance issues while working on simultaneous projects or heavy code based projects. That is not an issue with BM Cognos. Lack of some very useful features like drop /down/drag makes it very effective against Microsoft BI. Support for IBM Cognos is more promptly available as compared to Microsoft with less hoops to follow

• Faster compilation of Business Review material
• For larger customers, the dashboarding has helped our customers to remain sticky and add services/revenue to our MSP. They want to add more fragments of their IT for the 1 pane rollup.
• From a leadership perspective, BG has allowed me to make difficult staffing decisions with confidence. Detailed metric driven decisions on who is hitting KPIs/who isn't - as well as when data proved we were overstaffed and understaffed.

Incentivized

• Effectively solves the project blockers by mitigating the integration challanges
• Monetary impact is not negatively impacted on the projects budgets
• Great ROI and positive impact on the business because of breath of features and great dashboard features