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IBM Cognos pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.1 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Cognos offers robust corporate reporting capabilities, including batch reporting, jobs, events, and ad-hoc reporting for business users.
The platform provides strong security administration tools that are both powerful and flexible.
IBM Cognos integrally supports integration with Office, allowing for storytelling in downloadable mode.
Developers find IBM Cognos valuable for its enterprise analytics and reporting, enhancing decision-making efficiency in many departments.
IBM Cognos is distinguished by its ability to handle dynamic cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson, providing comprehensive analytics and reporting tools.

CONS

IBM Cognos needs to improve its self-service features and visual analytics functionality.
Performance issues are reported, with lagging speeds compared to competitors like Tableau and Power BI.
The high cost of licensing makes scalability challenging on a budget.
User feedback indicates a lack of certain predictive and forecasting capabilities.
More comprehensive training and features for ease of use and intuitive analytics could enhance user experience.
 

IBM Cognos Pros review quotes

it_user547317 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant at Adaptive USA
Dec 18, 2017
One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability.
PM
Senior Cognos Developer at ADP
Sep 20, 2017
Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users.
it_user547329 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Developer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 7, 2017
The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
DWH/Cognos Project Lead at Syntel Inc @ Mercedes Benz USA
Jun 27, 2017
Even while a user is using a cube for reporting, there will not be a situation as ' Cube file locked; unable to build or deploy'.
it_user689556 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jun 22, 2017
The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools.
it_user84468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Sep 12, 2017
It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports.
it_user831210 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant
Mar 5, 2018
Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive.
it_user835635 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Information Communication Technology with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 19, 2018
It's enabled us to report directly from our main application systems. We're removing islands of data and we're removing inefficiencies, where people or small divisions had their own store of information.
it_user897015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Jul 8, 2018
The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source.
WF
‎Manager BI Manufacturing at a paper AND forest products with 10,001+ employees
Jul 16, 2018
A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports.
 

IBM Cognos Cons review quotes

it_user547317 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant at Adaptive USA
Dec 18, 2017
One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics.
PM
Senior Cognos Developer at ADP
Sep 20, 2017
The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions.
it_user547329 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Developer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 7, 2017
Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode).
Learn what your peers think about IBM Cognos. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
DWH/Cognos Project Lead at Syntel Inc @ Mercedes Benz USA
Jun 27, 2017
Need improvement towards Visualization.
it_user689556 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cognos Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Jun 22, 2017
IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner.
it_user84468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Sep 12, 2017
It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it.
it_user831210 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant
Mar 5, 2018
Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool.
it_user835635 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager Information Communication Technology with 501-1,000 employees
Mar 19, 2018
I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like.
it_user897015 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Jul 8, 2018
One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map.
WF
‎Manager BI Manufacturing at a paper AND forest products with 10,001+ employees
Jul 16, 2018
We need more predictive analytical functions, not only diagnostic or decryptic analytics.