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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Cognos Analytics

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/AIBM Cognos is a full-featured business intelligence suite by IBM, designed for larger deployments. It comprises Query Studio, Reporting Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio, and Cognos Administration along with tools for Microsoft Office integration, full-text search, and dashboards.

    $10

    per month per user

    Tableau Public

    Score9.7 out of 10
    N/ATableau Public is a free edition of the Desktop product. With this edition, data can only be published to the Tableau public website and does not allow work to be saved or exported locally.

    $0

    per month

    Pricing
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    Editions & Modules
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 10.00
    per month per user
    On Demand - Premium
    USD 42.40
    per month per user
    On Demand - Standard
    USD 10.60
    per month per user
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Tableau
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    56 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    65 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    42 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.0
    106 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Tableau Public
    9.8
    12 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports6.896 Ratings9.710 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards7.3104 Ratings10.012 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.0101 Ratings9.712 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    108 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Tableau Public
    9.7
    12 Ratings
    20% above category average
    Drill-down analysis7.3106 Ratings9.812 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.1107 Ratings9.712 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages7.874 Ratings9.59 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration7.4103 Ratings9.811 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.8
    107 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Tableau Public
    9.5
    11 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Publish to Web8.327 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    Publish to PDF7.0101 Ratings10.09 Ratings
    Report Versioning8.626 Ratings9.89 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling7.0104 Ratings9.69 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers8.112 Ratings8.17 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    6.7
    98 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Tableau Public
    9.8
    11 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)6.893 Ratings9.811 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.189 Ratings9.811 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.486 Ratings9.79 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining6.624 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.4
    103 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Tableau Public
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)8.0100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model7.899 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)6.199 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control7.328 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)7.782 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.6
    84 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Tableau Public
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access7.678 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application7.968 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.974 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of IBM Cognos Analytics and Tableau Public
    Feature
    IBM Cognos Analytics
    7.7
    65 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Tableau Public
    -
    Ratings
    REST API7.562 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API8.560 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API6.911 Ratings00 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)7.110 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)7.87 Ratings00 Ratings
    User Ratings
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.2
    (131 ratings)
    8.5
    (14 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (27 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.1
    (8 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.6
    (6 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    8.2
    (9 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.3
    (40 ratings)
    8.8
    (9 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Cognos AnalyticsTableau Public
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    IBM Cognos Analytics has great scheduling capabilities. A single report can be parameterized (e.g., “Store Manager ID”) and burst to thousands of recipients with their slice of data.IBM Cognos Analytics is a good fit for highly complex, multi-level calculations which can be handled by Report Studio. For example Monthly balance sheet that requires multi step calculation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Pros
    IBM
    • We can make dozens of dispatchers all focusing on different types of workloads.
    • Friendly user interface, without the need for coding or complicated editing.
    • Highly functionality reporting tools.
    • We can easily create trigger when a certain threshold are met sending reports or alerts to needed parties.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Data visualization: lots of different options, including bar, scatter, pie, waterfall charts to explore relationships between variables, and to present findings/trends to different teams
    • Integrates readily with limited, though different data sources: TXT, CSV, TDE, Access
    • Exports reports for review of different dashboards: client-ready/team-ready, with a clean and tidy presentation in PDF format (or hardcopy)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • IBM Cognos Analytics enables customer data segmentation, which is essential for marketing, improving and streamlining purchasing behavior and preferences. This helps companies create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
    • Our clients Through data analysis, we can identify and observe trends in the behavior of other clients, allowing us to anticipate needs and adjust strategies to avoid consequences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Tableau Public (both Desktop and Server) like their "for a fee" counterparts offer very easy to learn and use tools to transform data into pictures and gain insights into your data. Most organizations report a reduction in development time of 10x vs. other similar tools, due to the intuitive user interface. That said, with Tableau Public, published workbooks are "disconnected" from the underlying data sources and require periodic updates when the data changes. Users are limited to 1 Gb of storage space per user ID and password as well.
    • I would like to see better options for public sharing of visualizations and data from within the "for a fee" products as more and more organizations are moving in the direction of data sharing with partners and their communities.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    For an existing solution, renewing licenses does provide a good return on investment. Additionally, while rolling out scorecards and dashboards with little adhoc capabilities, to end users, cognos is very easily scalable. It also allows to create a solution that has a mix of OLAP and relational data-sources, which is a limitation with other tools. Synchronizing with existing security setup is easy too.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    It's free, right? I'll keep using the free version. So the real question to ask is this? Will I pay $999 for the Personal version or $1,999 for the Professional? Yikes! That is a big stretch. I'm not sure about that. The product comparison chart is at: http://www.tableausoftware.com/public/comparison
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    We have a strong user base (3500 users) that are highly utilizing this tool. Basic users are able to consume content within the applied security model. We have a set of advanced users that really push the limits of Cognos with Report and Query Studio. These users have created a lot of personal content and stored it in 'My Reports'. Users enjoy this flexibility.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    Reports can typically be viewed through any browser that can access the server, so the availability is ultimately up to what the company utilizing it is comfortable with allowing, though report development tends to be more picky about browsers and settings as mentioned above. It also has an optional iPad app and general mobile browsing support, but dashboards lack the mobile compatibility. What keeps it from getting a higher score is the desktop tools that are vital to the development process. The compatibility with only Windows when the server has a wide range of compatibility can be a real sore point for a company that outfits its employees exclusively with Mac or Linux machines. Of course, if they are planning on outsourcing the development anyways, it's a rather moot point
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    IBM
    Overall no major complaints but it doesn't handle DMR (Dimensionally Modeled for Relational) very well. DMR modelling is a capability that IBM Cognos Framework Manager provides allowing you to specify dimensional information for relational metadata and allows for OLAP-style queries. However, the capability is not very efficient and, for example, if I'm using only 2 columns on a 20-column model, the software is not smart enough to exclude 18 columns and the query side gets progressively larger and larger until it's effectively unusable.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    Why is their web application not working as fast as you think it should? They never know, and it is always a a bunch of shots in the dark to find out. Trying to download software from them is like trying to find a book at the library before computers were invented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    Onsite training provided by IBM Cognos was effective and as expected. They did not perform training with our data which was a bit difficult for our end-users.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    IBM
    The online courses they offer are thorough and presented in such a way that someone who isn't already familiar with the general design methodologies used in this field will be capable of making a good design. The training environments are provided as a fully self contained virtual machine with everything needed already to create the environments. We've had some persisting issues with the environments becoming unavailable, but support has been responsive when these issues arise and straightening them out for us
    Read full review
    Tableau
    I found it sufficient, and fast. I could easily "kick the tires" with Tableau on my data so I got up and running fast.
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    Make sure that any custom tables that you have, are built into your metadata packages. You can still access them via SQL queries in Cognos, but it is much easier to have them as a part of the available metadata packages.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Start at the end and work backward. Identify the business case / issue and questions the end users have, then identify the data needed, and where to get it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    IBM
    The Cognos architecture is well suited for scalability. However, the architecture must be designed with scalability in mind from day one of the implementation. We recently upgraded from 10.1 to 10.2.1 and took the opportunity to revamp our architecture. It is now poised for future growth and scalability.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau
    • Tableau Public visualizations have helped drive traffic to our content and sites
    • The lack of cost means it's easy to demonstrate our experience to attract paying clients
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Cognos Analytics Screenshots

    Screenshot of a natural language query, used in IBM Cognos Analytics to get AI-powered insights from data.Screenshot of AI-generated insights and forecasts that can be added with just a click of a button.Screenshot of a dashboard that can be generated automatically using IBM Cognos Analytics by uploading or selecting data.Screenshot of an AI-generated dashboard from a spreadsheet that was just uploaded. This offers a great starting point for the creative process.Screenshot of where to import data to IBM Cognos Analytics from CSV files and spreadsheets. Users can connect to cloud or on-premises data sources, including SQL databases, Google BigQuery, Amazon, and Redshift.Screenshot of a sample operational dashboard of a coffee shop created using IBM Cognos Analytics.