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.
"Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability."
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"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."
"We are able to generate quality reports easily which allows us to decrease response time."
"When it comes to decision-making, the product is very useful and used in many departments since a lot of people prefer the reports to be generated by IBM Cognos."
"The feature I find most valuable is the ability to publish Power Bi reports, using an embedded link, directly onto a website."
"I like that I can use Power BI to upload data. That is very important for me. The visualization is also convenient and easy to use."
"It is easy to use. It has got a desktop where people can develop their own dashboards. Basically, we have figured out how to connect finance contracts and all programs for the government agency. So, they can see everything in a dashboard. So, it is very easy to use from a technical standpoint of view."
"We have found the product very stable and reliable."
"It's a pretty scalable product."
"Easy to use and the visualization is valuable."
"There is also a chart store where we can download charts, which is extremely useful."
"Like all Microsoft products, it is very easy to set up initially."
"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."
"I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information."
"The charts and graphics are weak."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"Extending features on dashboards so it becomes a real dashboard building application, not only a data exploration tool."
"The product could have better analytics capabilities."
"Power BI could be improved by implementing more options for data integration. Nowadays, the cloud takes care of scalability and security. As we all know, data sources are increasing, so we get data from a variety of streams. But if we could get the downstream data into the database and update the reports more easily, Power BI would be better."
"Its setup and support should be improved. We would like to see more material for developers that provides clear explanations about how we can do data mining by using Microsoft BI. It would also be good if we can connect a feature to other customized machine learning solutions."
"The report server feature is quite limited."
"I would like for there to be some type of user manual that shows steps on how to navigate the solution."
"The way you navigate the product, compared to other products in this industry, that could be improved a bit."
"Microsoft BI has its own challenges in terms of user interface and how quickly somebody can learn how to use it."
"The graphic interface could be better."
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.