IBM Cognos Express [EOL] Reviews

• Building complex custom reports
• Bursting to specified users
• Data Warehouse accessible to users to quickly build their own reports

Dashboards on KPI, scoring vs targets.

Nothing I can think of now.

2 years.

No issues encountered.

Needs a little bit of tuning, once setup and tuned correctly it's very stable.

No issues encountered.

Very good. Direct access to top qualified resources.

Top professionals.

Former version of Cognos (Impromptu) back in the past.

Not really complex, needs to answer basic setup questions (Database server addresses, Active directory and so on...)

In-house (did it myself).

Difficult to evaluate on a cash basis. The real benefit is more related to knowledge, data precision, and the help to orientate business decision.

Original setup would be around $15k (don"t forget hardware requirements). Roughly around $5 a day (working day).

You could divide that by the number of licenses you own... Also, in our case, one person full time to pursue development and to be in charge of everything related to Cognos.

The company looked for other products but decided to go with Cognos Express.

Be prepared, highlight and prioritize what you need/want to achieve. Then focus on one specific topic and build around it. Don't try to go to fast. Stay up to date. Learn then new features and use them if you can.

Cogno’s number one advantage is security. It’s easily the best in the industry Cognos allows dynamic data filtering at access to reports and cubes, a powerful set of options.
Easy for maintenance and interpretation by the administrators
Very goog performance after the cube is built.
You can connect natively to many databases
Cognos has been in BI business from a long time and they are a solid company. They also seem to listen and react to customers problems.

Building the cube can last a very long time, also during the cube-built very big temporary files are built, more than 4GB
If you build your cubes on Unix(we build our cubes on Unix (AIX)), at a certain volume of data, you can not be able to build a cube, additional tuning must be applied.
If your Database is dimensional then you don’t have to worry. I used to work with non-dimensional databases and from my experience it takes a full working day to create the cube.

Its write-back capabilities allow users to act immediately, achieving optimal economic results.
• Includes an in-memory analysis server (U.S.) high-speed powerful that connects quickly to operational data sources and creates a dimensional view of your business.
• Use drill-down capabilities and drill-up simple and flexible graphic displays for a quick review of key areas, such as customers, products and geographical areas.
• Includes bar charts, line, surface, radial, radar, bubble points and intervals, plus maps and maps thermal performance, to achieve high impact views.
• Provides self-service analytical tools through an intuitive, Web-based.
• Provides flexible delivery of information across the enterprise using interactive reports and dashboards Web-based
• Can be used with other IBM Cognos Express modules in a single, integrated solution for BI and Planning, designed specifically for midsize customers.