IBM Cognos and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are key players in the business intelligence field, with Cognos standing out for its advanced analytics capabilities and Microsoft SQL Server being ideal for enterprises leveraging Microsoft's ecosystem.
Features: IBM Cognos delivers advanced analytics, robust security, and scalable reporting capabilities that accommodate complex data needs. It effectively integrates with numerous data platforms, ensuring flexibility for diverse user requirements. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services provides a straightforward reporting tool that integrates naturally with SQL Server, offering reliable functionalities and a user-friendly interface.
Room for Improvement: IBM Cognos could benefit from a more intuitive user interface and enhanced visualization options. There is also a demand for improved cloud integration and AI features. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services could improve its visualization tools and report-building processes, along with offering better performance and deeper integration with other software solutions.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cognos primarily supports on-premises deployment with hybrid and private cloud options, while its customer service is efficient but potentially costly. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services supports on-premises deployment as well, with hybrid offerings, and is praised for its accessible Microsoft-driven support, supplemented by community resources.
Pricing and ROI: IBM Cognos is positioned as a premium offering, reflecting its extensive features and enterprise-level capabilities, promising strong ROI through efficiency and comprehensive reporting. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is generally more cost-effective, especially advantageous for organizations already engaged with Microsoft products, maintaining a solid ROI with straightforward, reliable reporting services.
Any tool which obviates the need for a lot of coding will definitely save at least 60-70% of effort.
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
Reaching out to Microsoft took a prolonged time to the extent that we were wondering why Microsoft was unable to get its own logs to us.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
I am thinking that with all the Copilot integration within the Microsoft environment, that could be integrated as well, so that you could issue a prompt and it generates designs.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
Otherwise, you need to write a lot of code or API calls to generate reports if using some other tool outside of the ecosystem, which definitely requires additional effort and therefore additional cost and time.
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
The best features of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services are that it is easy to get the reports out because it is integrated with SQL and we have many of these tables.
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.”
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