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IBM Cognos vs Oracle HFM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th), Reporting (4th)
Oracle HFM
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Cognos is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 3.6%, down 4.3% compared to last year.
Oracle HFM, on the other hand, focuses on Business Performance Management, holds 8.6% mindshare, down 9.2% since last year.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
Business Performance Management
 

Featured Reviews

AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.
AhmedHaridy - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexibility and ease of configuration
The initial setup of Oracle HFM is generally straightforward and not overly complex. The deployment time for Oracle HFM varies with the resources, but it usually takes around three to eight months, with an average of three to four months. The deployment process for Oracle HFM involves several key steps. It begins with the installation of Oracle software, followed by gathering requirements and relevant documents. These documents help define the report formats and service needs. Next, the team configures the system, starting with the enterprise structure, which needs to align with the ERP system. Data loading and configuration follow, with Oracle HFM typically requiring more resources compared to other systems like SuccessFactors.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"We use the account statement report. When you use an account in HSBC, you receive various types of accounts, such as the stock market, fixed accounts, credit cards, and business accounts. We can create one consolidated report called CCS support, which includes all these accounts. In that statement, we are consolidating all those accounts."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
"When it comes to decision-making, the product is very useful and used in many departments since a lot of people prefer the reports to be generated by IBM Cognos."
"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."
"IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"Financial consolidation and reporting tool with good built-in features such as currency exchange and elimination."
"The most valuable features are around consolidations, eliminations, conversions."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation."
"The tool is stable."
"It is a very user-friendly software."
"It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a better return on investment based on usage."
"You can bring in data from any source and from multiple sources, and you can consolidate that data in HFM."
 

Cons

"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"The solution has integration challenges. We need a simple tool that is fool-proof for the data that is submitted not only for consolidation purposes but also for performance management and reporting purposes."
"It's a difficult process to try to edit, configure, or change the business rules that exist and work within HFM."
"Integration is an area where it lacks and can be improved."
"The complexity is okay. I don't see it as super complex. The solution could have more functionality to make it a little bit more flexible."
"If there could be data integration between HFM and the accounting software that would be ideal."
"The intercompany reporting function in this tool needs improvement, particularly being able to run reports in batches, rather than one at a time."
"Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities."
"In terms of improvement, one challenge with Oracle HFM is the need for technical knowledge in writing SQL syntax for custom extensions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"It is averagely priced."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"The licensing costs are a little bit higher for IBM Cognos. I don't think there is any additional cost apart from the licensing charges."
"IBM Cognos price is on the higher side of the spectrum. However, with the features that it brings, such as correlation analysis, it's worth the money. They should look at the pricing more clearly because it's a little on the higher side."
"Pricing should be improved."
"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."
"There is some additional licensing that we needed to purchase because we were touching data outside of our core data platform. The cost was approximately $25,000 for the additional licenses, which were approximate 45 licenses. For the application itself, updates, and the core platform it was approximately $50,000. Giving a total cost of $75,000 annually for our usage of IBM Cognos."
"Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) uses the named user licensing model. There's different pricing depending on HFM and Essbase planning."
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 4, 2015
Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho
1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software
It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement. Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos Enter...
What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
What do you like most about Oracle HFM?
The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle HFM?
It depends on the discount offered by Oracle. It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a ...
What needs improvement with Oracle HFM?
Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities.
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
HFM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
B&B Hotels, Goldwind, Drake & Scull
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