My main use case for IBM Cognos is that it has been used for several years in my organization, and to start with, it has been very helpful and very easy to use with an intuitive, user-friendly interface. The support has also been very proactive and responsive. It helps us achieve more than just BI goals. From commissioning to business insights to strategical planning, IBM Cognos is a very powerful tool, and I cannot wait to see what is coming next.

I also use IBM Cognos for analyzing operational data, where we are able to make data-driven decisions easily.

The best features that IBM Cognos offers, which stand out most to me, are static reporting, semantic modeling, data collection, runs scheduled reports, and connects with many products.

Static reporting and semantic modeling benefit my team by saving time through allowing jobs to be scheduled effectively.

Additionally, the data modeling feature was flexible, and we had more features similar to Power BI, such as creating joints, prompts, and many more. It also featured multi-data sources connector; however, we did not test unstructured data sources. I also love the AI chatbot, as it was the biggest highlight because it has a serious way of reading enormous data sets.

IBM Cognos has impacted my organization positively because we have seen a positive impact from role-based access, which helped to provide access to the right users to validate confidential data. Report scheduling and automation reduced manual intervention, and dashboards provided complete visibility about important details.

IBM Cognos can be improved by enhancing the customizations.

Report generation takes much time when we provide large data.

I have been using IBM Cognos for the past eight years and some few months.

IBM Cognos is very stable.

IBM Cognos' scalability is very effective because it can handle a large volume of data effectively and fast.

The customer support for IBM Cognos is very responsive and proactive.

Before IBM Cognos, I previously used Miro and Vision Print.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that it is very cost-effective and affordable.

I have seen a return on investment as departmental collaboration improved, and IBM Cognos has made it much easier for me to deal with huge amounts of data. It is great as it saves me time because I can make decisions faster through automation as well, which has reduced errors.

Before choosing IBM Cognos, I evaluated other options, which were IBM and IBM AI OPS Insights.

A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos day-to-day is that it was well-suited for static reporting as well as dynamic uses, leveraging the same semantic model, all that in a cost-effective way that is hard to compete with.

A specific outcome or metric I can share is that IBM Cognos helped to save a lot of time.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Cognos is that I have used other BI tools before, but IBM Cognos Analytics is way easier and more convenient for data visualization and integration. Additionally, the dashboard sharing function has improved my collaboration with my colleagues. If someone asks, I will definitely recommend IBM Cognos for its practical features and ease of use.

IBM Cognos helps to tackle the problem of delayed and unclear data access.

I would rate IBM Cognos nine out of ten.

My main use case for IBM Cognos is its business intelligence functionality in complex reports preparation, data analysis, dashboard formulations, and monitoring business units' sales performance over time.

A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos for sales performance monitoring and dashboard creation is that IBM Cognos Analytics helped us solve various problems, ranging from manual reports creation that led to loss of hours of turnaround and human error, dealing with data silos within various departments in my organization, and delay in decision-making. It helps business analysts in my work. My scope of use case for IBM Cognos centers around turning scattered data into actionable insights by creating sales insights reports, interactive dashboards for senior management consumption, and data exploration, validation, analysis, and storytelling.

I also handle financial reporting with IBM Cognos, ensuring accuracy. It handles complex pixel-perfect, multi-page reports with scheduled delivery to stakeholders, such as sales reports by region on quarterly periodicity. Additionally, it supports operational dashboards across departments which can combine multiple data sources such as ERP, CRM, Excel, and many others with filters and embedded AI insights.

The best features IBM Cognos offers include enterprise reporting, dashboard creation, and data exploration and analysis, building insights for accurate decision-making. The dashboard creation and data exploration features are valuable for my work because I can use a drag-and-drop feature to create ad-hoc visualizations. Additionally, I use the AI-powered natural language query feature for data analysis and dashboard input, such as the formation of pie, bar, and line charts. It is useful for a non-technical person to put queries around spreadsheet data to get quick answers.

IBM Cognos has positively impacted my organization as it has been very easy to make decisions. Our decision-making has improved drastically. Also, reports preparation has improved. Specifically, decision-making improved, automated distribution occurred, and uptime increased. IBM Cognos Analytics reduced report formulation time by 60 percent, especially for templated recurring reports such as the monthly sales report. It has improved decision-making from 40 to 65 percent. The decision-making speed has improved with IBM Cognos self-service dashboards and AI-driven data exploration.

IBM Cognos can be improved by addressing limited real-time data connectivity. I would like to add that the endpoint experience and mobility of IBM Cognos can be enhanced. Although it supports mobile, its experience can be improved as the app is not fully responsive. Fluid-like interactive filtering and dashboard creation are not user-friendly on a small screen.

I have been using IBM Cognos for about eight years. In my previous organization, I was using IBM Cognos.

I can confirm that IBM Cognos is very stable.

IBM Cognos's scalability is very good. I would say it is very scalable because it has continued to handle my organization's growth perfectly.

The customer support for IBM Cognos is very responsive and proactive.

Before IBM Cognos, I used Microsoft Power BI. I switched from Microsoft Power BI to IBM Cognos because IBM Cognos Analytics was better in my experience, had more feature functionality, and was easier to use compared to Microsoft Power BI. It was also very cost-effective compared to this other tool.

I have seen a return on investment with significant time savings in report distribution through automation, ease of administration, and savings by keeping things secured.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Cognos is that the price is very cost-effective, and the licensing plans are also very affordable.

Before choosing IBM Cognos, we did evaluate other options, including IBM Planning Analytics.

IBM Cognos is an excellent tool. Especially, I would say it is a perfect reporting tool. It provides a great platform for creating professional, print-ready reports with exact formatting and layout. I appreciate the scheduling and report automation, which saves resource time by automating recurring reports and bursting them into different stakeholders with filters applied.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Cognos is that I am likely to recommend IBM Cognos to any potential customer, colleague, or organization, because it is easy to use, develop, and obtain the output that I need. I think it is worth noting that IBM Cognos is a very cost-effective tool. It is very easy to use. Its analytics makes it very easy to make data-driven decisions. I would rate IBM Cognos a nine out of ten according to my user experience, which has been very positive.

My main use case for IBM Cognos is building report authoring, scheduling, and bursting to multiple recipients with parameterized outputs. IBM Cognos has a use case around risk and fraud analytics, especially being a bank, where we need to check and measure against different kinds of frauds that should not exceed certain thresholds. Additionally, I utilize it for customer and product analytics regarding profitability dashboards and real-time dashboards to analyze how our customers interact with newly released features and marketing offers.

A specific example of how I use IBM Cognos for risk and fraud analytics is in the financial services sector, where recently there has been a rise in frauds and scams. Our customers often receive calls from fraudulent individuals asking for their one-time passwords or passwords, particularly targeting older folks who are not tech-savvy, leading to the draining of their retirement and pension savings. There have also been e-commerce-oriented frauds lately, and we have a dedicated team on fraud analytics that uses IBM Cognos to tackle these issues.

IBM Cognos helps audit database records for user activity and report runs while tracking how certain fields change over time. It allows me to monitor specific types of fraud to determine if the incidence percentage has increased recently or if new fraud types are emerging in specific geographic areas. These audits and oversight functionalities are extremely useful for us.

IBM Cognos offers very high security for sensitive customer data, including features like query vaults and dynamic RLS. It provides several macros and security filters for governance purposes, which are beneficial. Additionally, it facilitates the distribution of generated reports across wider forums within the company, not just limited to a specific business unit or team. The flexibility to be hosted as either a SaaS setup, an on-premise setup, or on cloud platforms like AWS or Azure is another unique capability of the product.

IBM Cognos's security features, including query walls and dynamic RLS, help my team by preventing exposure of our queries to hackers and malicious parties. Our dedicated cybersecurity team ensures that sensitive data does not become public, making it crucial that data stored in IBM Cognos remains secure throughout the entire data cycle, which is where these enterprise-grade security measures prove invaluable.

IBM Cognos offers very responsive and highly interactive dashboards, allowing effective reporting capabilities. The Excel packs generated can be drilled through and filtered efficiently, reducing the need for deeper Excel expertise. Data aggregation and segregation are effectively managed through IBM Cognos.

The positive impact of IBM Cognos on my organization is notable; previously, the reports we were using did not meet the expectations of our managers and heads of departments, often leading to criticism. Now, we experience far fewer complaints from management, who are generally satisfied with the details of both high-level summaries and technical breakdowns when needed, enhancing our management efficiency.

Management efficiency has improved significantly as decision-making has become much faster. Management now has clarity in deciding which products to continue, which to scrap, or where to invest more resources, with enhanced visibility facilitating these decisions.

IBM Cognos could improve by introducing different role types, such as viewer roles, user roles, and admin roles, along with assigning minor modules to specific individuals. Additionally, hybrid deployments, bursting workloads, and licensing guidelines are areas that could be better refined in their cloud version. Furthermore, considering the trend towards AI in many recent software solutions, an AI assistant that aids in accomplishing tasks could be a valuable addition.

I have been using IBM Cognos for three years.

IBM Cognos is very stable overall.

The scalability of IBM Cognos is satisfactory. Around 30 people in my team are using it, but I do not have more detailed data on scalability metrics.

We previously used Microsoft Power BI as part of the Microsoft suite before migrating to IBM Cognos.

While there were not any tangible savings, the streamlined decision-making process for management was a significant positive impact. Management can now drill down and view executive summaries for new products and fraud analytics quickly, resulting in less red tape during the decision-making process.

I believe the pricing structure I recall was around $11 per user per month for the standard cloud version of IBM Cognos. However, our central team negotiated a different price because multiple teams within our organization use IBM Cognos, bringing the price down to around $10 to $11 per user per month.

Before choosing IBM Cognos, we evaluated Tableau, but its higher pricing structure led to its consideration being dropped.

My advice for others considering IBM Cognos is to weigh their specific organizational needs against available tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, and Qlik Sense. If there are more complex or organization-specific requirements, switching to IBM Cognos can be beneficial. I rate this product an 8 out of 10.