We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Microsoft BI has a slight edge in this comparison. According to its reviewers, it is a more lightweight solution than IBM Cognos.
"The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools."
"The most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"Comparing IBM Cognos to other applications, once a person is trained on it or they have developed a skill set to operate the application, it is best in its category."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"A drag-and-drop interface for selecting creating ad hoc reports makes this product very easy to use."
"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling."
"The most valuable feature would be the abundance of connectors. It is also easy to use."
"It has provided customer purchase patterns and great visualization."
"Microsoft BI was very helpful for me because I had a huge variety of connections. It is very convenient to build reports, even if somebody has no experience using BI tools or data visualizations. Additionally, the performance is very good when generating reports."
"Microsoft BI is scalable."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility, how many ways you can interrogate the data, and the the graphical visualization."
"It's a straightforward setup."
"It provides good visibility."
"Provides a full platform (database, ETL, reporting, analysis, and so on)"
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"It would be nice to offer free online training on the tool for end-users."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"This product could use improvement in terms of usability for those with less technical know how."
"Data modeling needs to be improved. We use the ETL process, and when we get errors, we then need to identify which structural change is required. The error messaging should be better. They should be descriptive rather than semantic."
"It could have more options for themes."
"I don't like that when we use Colab packages, we get less functionality. For example, you can make groups of data with Excel or with the data sets from the packages, but when you use the Colab packages directly, you can only group the data when you analyze it with Analysis Studio. I think Cognos needs to improve more on this functionality."
"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."
"I have a little problem with Synapse Analytics because it's very new. It's a product that has many capabilities, but it is not very well developed. I have to see the list of permissions from one object. I can't do this in Synapse. I have to search on the web for a solution because I don't have the tool for it."
"I would like to see some AI incorporated into this solution in the future."
"In Microsoft Excel, you are able to have tabs. However, in Microsoft BI you do not have this flexibility."
"Microsoft needs to provide more drivers to connect other data sources in a native way."
"The upgrade process could be improved."
"The data source definition is all over the place."
"here are some limitations with the data models needed to build the report."
"In an upcoming release, the solution could be simplified and have a more complete product package rather than a suite of products that we have to put together."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 132 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in Reporting with 297 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. 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 Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". IBM Cognos is most compared with Oracle OBIEE, Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Oracle Hyperion and Amazon QuickSight, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. See our IBM Cognos vs. Microsoft Power BI report.
See our list of best Reporting vendors and best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.
We monitor all Reporting 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.