IBM Cognos Analytics and Microsoft Power BI compete in the business intelligence and analytics category. While both have strong reporting functionalities, Power BI may have the upper hand with its user-friendly visualization capabilities and integration with Office 365, offering a modern, intuitive interface.
Features: IBM Cognos offers robust reporting tools like Report Studio, Framework Manager, and a secure reporting environment that supports multiple formats. It is equipped for technical and non-technical users, focusing on analytic capabilities and data integration. Microsoft Power BI excels in visualization, ease of use, and seamless integration with Office 365, allowing the creation of interactive reports and supporting diverse data sources.
Room for Improvement: IBM Cognos could improve its data discovery, user-friendliness, and visualization to compete with products like Tableau and Power BI. There's also room to enhance its performance and integration capabilities for complex and advanced functions. Microsoft Power BI could enhance real-time data processing, improve mobile support, and provide better scalability options for large enterprises. Non-technical user experience enhancements could increase its versatility.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cognos primarily offers on-premises deployment, requiring technical expertise for setup and maintenance, which may be a challenge for small teams. Customer service varies depending on local partners and IBM's systems. Microsoft Power BI offers flexible deployment with cloud and hybrid solutions, facilitating quicker setups for various business environments. While its customer service benefits from Microsoft's ecosystem, customization needs can still pose challenges.
Pricing and ROI: IBM Cognos is a premium solution, with costs that suit mid to large enterprises, offering value through comprehensive capabilities. Microsoft Power BI, in contrast, is noted for cost-effectiveness, offering a free tier and scalable pricing, making it accessible for SMEs and large organizations alike. Its ROI is appreciated due to seamless integration with Microsoft systems, delivering agile insights efficiently.
In a world surrounded by data, tools that allow navigation of large data volumes ensure decisions are data-driven.
Power BI is easy to deploy within an hour, providing robust security against data leaks.
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
The significant drawback I notice is that Microsoft's size makes it hard to get specific change requests addressed unless they involve a bug.
We have a partnership with Microsoft, involving multiple weekly calls with dedicated personnel to ensure our satisfaction.
The support is good because there is also a community available.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
You expect only a small percentage of users concurrently, but beyond a thousand concurrent users, it becomes difficult to manage.
With increasing AI capabilities, architectural developments within Microsoft, and tools like Fabric, I expect Power BI to scale accordingly.
As more data is processed, performance issues may arise.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
In terms of stability, there's no data loss or leakage, and precautions are well-managed by Microsoft.
We typically do not have problems with end-user tools like Excel and Power BI.
It is very stable for small data, but with big data, there are performance challenges.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
This makes Power BI difficult to manage as loading times can reach one or two minutes, which is problematic today.
Access was more logical in how it distinguished between data and its formatting.
Microsoft updates Power BI monthly based on user community feedback.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
I found the setup cost to be expensive
Power BI isn't very cheap, however, it is economical compared to other solutions available.
The pricing for Microsoft Power BI is low, which is a good selling point.
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
In today's data-driven environment, these tools are of substantial value, particularly for large enterprises with numerous processes that require extensive data analysis.
Within the organization, Microsoft Power BI is used to create dashboards and gain insights into data, enhancing data-driven decision-making.
To reduce the need for highly skilled personnel, we can engage someone who is just familiar and has a basic understanding of Microsoft Power BI, while AI can handle the major tasks through either agent AI or requirement analysis.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Power BI | 12.7% |
| IBM Cognos | 1.7% |
| Other | 85.6% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 33 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 23 |
| Large Enterprise | 83 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 134 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 57 |
| Large Enterprise | 165 |
IBM Cognos Business Intelligence provides a wide range of tools to help you analyze your organization's data. IBM Cognos BI allows businesses to monitor events and metrics, create and view business reports, and analyze data to help them make effective business decisions.
IBM Cognos applies techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data, and draw conclusions. This allows users to see trends and discover anomalies or variances that may not be evident by simply reading data. Data sources that contain information from different areas of a business can be stored in separate packages. Users can see only information that they have been granted access to, based on their group or role.
IBM Cognos BI consolidates the following business intelligence functions into a single web-based solution:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM Cognos stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful analysis tool and its reporting capabilities.
Prasad B., a senior software engineer at a financial services firm, notes, “The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report. We can receive automated reports as well. They are easy to schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. It is very fast. I mean in means of report output, it's very fast compared to the actual clients involved.”
Microsoft Power BI is a powerful tool for data analysis and visualization. This tool stands out for its ability to merge and analyze data from various sources. Widely adopted across different industries and departments, Power BI is instrumental in creating visually appealing dashboards and generating insightful business intelligence reports. Its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and seamless integration with other Microsoft applications empower users to easily create interactive reports and gain valuable insights.
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