IBM Cognos vs TIBCO Spotfire comparison

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8,927 views|5,127 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
TIBCO Logo
2,138 views|1,510 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and TIBCO Spotfire based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team.""Security administration tools are powerful and flexible.""The initial setup is quite straightforward.""Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive.""IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions.""One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability.""If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense.""This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."

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"Data discovery is very simple.""I appreciate Spotfire's range of visualization options, advanced analytics features, and seamless integration with other TIBCO products.""The solution is an affordable one.""The most valuable features of TIBCO Spotfire are visualization. It's very nice, clear, and, flexible. You can analyze many data types and the user interface is very good.""The product's initial setup phase was simple.""The ability to connect to many different data sources is one of the key features. The other would then be the different ways in which that data can be visualized.""We particularly like the data angling feature of this solution. This gives us the ability to work on data transformations, join files, and carry out other data preparation tasks all in a single tool.""The most valuable feature is the map visuals that help us connect to the geo-specialized data which is more advanced than other solutions."

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Cons
"There are many problems with the product's stability part, making it an area where improvements are required.""Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures.""The solution seems to slow down the servers.""I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like.""They should provide improved visual reporting.""I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos.""The data uploads that we do, such as Excel files, have a lot of restrictions. If we can make it a bit more user-friendly, allowing us to have more flexibility it would be a great help.""This product could use improvement in terms of usability for those with less technical know how."

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"When it comes to data manipulation, there are features which are good, but one of the features which has really been missing in Spotfire is an offline ability for data manipulation.""The design of the UI could be improved.""The way TIBCO Spotfire is designed, in my opinion, is the reason why it lags a bit, especially compared to other BI tools like Qlik.""We would like to see some improvement in the default properties of the solution, so that there is less need for us to spend our time coding.""The solution might be generic.""When you do the data loading, it is slow.""The number of charts available out of the box in Spotfire can be enhanced.""We would like to see some development in the visualization aspect of this solution, as they can currently only be configured in the cloud, which limits us to one endpoint. It would be helpful if this could be integrated with other tools."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
  • "The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
  • "IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
  • "Pricing should be improved."
  • "The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
  • "It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
  • "Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
  • "It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."
  • More IBM Cognos Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The ROI is nearly impossible to calculate."
  • "The pricing seems competitive and reasonable. The value delivered by the product far exceeds the cost."
  • "The Tibco sales teams have been very difficult to work with - ignoring requests, misrepresenting level of demand, etc."
  • "The cost is a few hundred dollars per user per year."
  • "The cost of TIBCO Spotfire could improve. It should be less expensive. It's the most expensive visualization tool in our company."
  • "The price-point for this solution is negotiable depending on usage levels."
  • "This product carries a monthly licensing charge, with the amount depending on the features that are to be included. This costs also covers the use of technical support."
  • "In comparison to other solutions such as IBM Cognos, TIBCO Spotfire is more affordable."
  • More TIBCO Spotfire Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
    Top Answer:The tool does not have much documentation on the internet. It is not easy to resolve issues by finding the reason for the problem on the internet. The tool needs to have more documentation on the… more »
    Top Answer:TIBCO Spotfire is easy to use. We initiated Spotfire as POC, with support from a tech team based in South Africa. While they assisted with the setup, we conducted the POC ourselves.
    Top Answer:The solution is pricey. Most organizations might find it costly because very few are utilizing these features. We initially purchased the perpetual licensing. Additionally, there was an extra cost for… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    8,927
    Comparisons
    5,127
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    449
    Rating
    8.2
    Views
    2,138
    Comparisons
    1,510
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    460
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
    Spotfire
    Learn More
    Overview

    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:

    • IBM Cognos Insight: Create personal and managed workspaces for data analysis. Using these interactive workspaces, you can share insight results with managers. Cognos Insight supports write-back, and you can also use these workspaces to capture and integrate management goals, commitments, and forecasts.

    • IBM Cognos Workspace: With IBM Cognos Workspace, you can create rich, interactive workspaces using IBM Cognos content as well as data from external sources. You can view and open your favorite workspaces and reports, edit content in your workspaces, and share your workspaces via email.

    • IBM Cognos Analytics: IBM Cognos Analytics utilizes built-in AI and intuitive searches which helps users to quickly create the visualizations and a wide range of reports. Cognos Analytics provides cognitive and managed self-service, enabling you to gain insights from controlled and trusted data.

    • IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Query Studio: Easily create structured and query reports. IBM Cognos allows users to create application and report templates. In addition, report authors can reuse report objects to apply filters, fields, and styles to reports. Users can set the language of the user interface and report content according to the user's native language.

    • IBM Cognos Event Studio: Receive notifications of events that occur within your organization in real time. Event Studio enables the creation of agents that detect the occurrence of business events, failures, or anomalies, based on the change of specific events or data conditions. Notification can be sent via email, publication in the portal, or by triggering reports.

    • IBM Cognos Connection: This is the Web portal for IBM Cognos BI and is the central area for accessing all the IBM Cognos functions. In the web portal, users can schedule and distribute reports, create tasks, administer the server and the access permissions, and more.

    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.”

    TIBCO Spotfire is a versatile data analytics platform that can handle large datasets and be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. Its dynamic reporting, easy creation of dynamic dashboards, and highly customizable tool make it a valuable asset for process data analysis, industrial performance dashboards, problem root cause analysis, business intelligence, and real-time analytics for IoT devices in the energy sector. 

    The solution also offers data science functions, map visuals, R and Python integration, and the ability to write HTML and JavaScript text areas. Spotfire has helped organizations deliver projects more efficiently and cost-effectively, allowing for faster data analysis.

    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.
    Allergan, ASSS de Montreal, Avantium, Blue River, Bank of Montreal, Citibank, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann Logistics, Merck, Novartis
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Healthcare Company8%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization58%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government4%
    REVIEWERS
    Energy/Utilities Company22%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Computer Software Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Energy/Utilities Company12%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business8%
    Midsize Enterprise62%
    Large Enterprise31%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise9%
    Large Enterprise77%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Cognos is ranked 7th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 132 reviews while TIBCO Spotfire is ranked 10th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 67 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while TIBCO Spotfire is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of IBM Cognos writes "Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department". On the other hand, the top reviewer of TIBCO Spotfire writes "Empowers us to extract insights and provide valuable business analytics to support decision-making within our organization". IBM Cognos is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Oracle OBIEE, Tableau, Oracle Hyperion and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, whereas TIBCO Spotfire is most compared with Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, QlikView, Qlik Sense and Amazon QuickSight. See our IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Spotfire report.

    See our list of best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.

    We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.