We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and SAP Crystal Reports based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Reporting solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."A drag-and-drop interface for selecting creating ad hoc reports makes this product very easy to use."
"We are able to generate quality reports easily which allows us to decrease response time."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"Report Studio: This is the most powerful and sophisticated tool for professional reporting."
"One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
"It is an user-friendly solution."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a fantastic way of generating reports."
"The initial setup of the solution is pretty easy."
"We use SAP Crystal Reports for operational reporting."
"The most valuable feature is that from a user's point of view, it is easy to use and requires just a simple click to generate a report."
"I find Crystal Reports very easy to use, even for a non-technical person."
"SAP Crystal Reports offers a plethora of features, many of which were available much earlier than in the Crystal Reports we previously used. We extensively use its capabilities for generating general reports, working with Kaspersky data, and even incorporating images into our reports. The range of functions available in SAP Crystal Reports is diverse, and we leverage them across various systems for our needs."
"The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"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."
"The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions."
"I would like for the platform to become more standard. If we make a development on our report and our dashboard, it will not be used in another solution. That means there is no portability for the developers."
"They should provide improved visual reporting."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"SAP Crystal Reports has some compatibility issues with third-party products."
"There could be improvements made to the analytics capabilities."
"If at all possible, a little bit of improvement on the analytical side is needed."
"It has significantly enhanced security features, especially when compared to the standard security features of the earlier PeerSpot version I purchased. I've observed improvements in security, and overall, it's quite commendable. Regarding potential enhancements for the next release of this solution, I haven't closely examined SAP Crystal Reports 53. I've only encountered it briefly, perhaps once or twice. However, I anticipate that it likely offers advanced features distinct from its predecessor. I believe there may be notable improvements and additions in the latest version, and I look forward to exploring them further."
"A real improvement would be a simpler system that allows users to play with the visualization without needing specialized skills and code."
"SAP Crystal Reports should provide better support for dynamic connectors."
"The financing part needs improvement."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 132 reviews while SAP Crystal Reports is ranked 9th in Reporting with 48 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while SAP Crystal Reports 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 SAP Crystal Reports writes "Helps analyze your data by creating richly formatted, pixel-perfect, and multiple reports from virtually any data source, delivered in over a dozen formats". IBM Cognos is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Oracle OBIEE, Tableau and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, whereas SAP Crystal Reports is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, TIBCO Jaspersoft, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Tableau and Oracle OBIEE. See our IBM Cognos vs. SAP Crystal Reports report.
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