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.
"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"The most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"The correlation analysis is excellent. It's one of the best that I have used to date."
"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 have found the product very stable and reliable."
"Technical support is quite good."
"Many of my customers already use Microsoft products like Office 365, so I often propose Microsoft Power BI because it integrates well with all the standard Microsoft business tools. And it's the quickest tool to implement and start using daily."
"The most interesting feature of Microsoft Power BI is that it's very user-friendly."
"It's quite flexible, and it's easy to create reports using this system. It is very graphic and very user friendly."
"It is easy to work with and very chic."
"The feature I find most valuable is the ability to publish Power Bi reports, using an embedded link, directly onto a website."
"I like Microsoft BI's drill-down feature and its overall ease of use."
"I would like to see is more easy building, movement in the reports, and dashboard functionality within reporting. Overall more simple elements within reports. If the elements are simple then you don't have to render a full page, but you can move separate parts in the page."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."
"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."
"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"The solution could improve by simplifying the user interface and adding integration or compatibility with APA."
"In Microsoft Excel, you are able to have tabs. However, in Microsoft BI you do not have this flexibility."
"The product could have better analytics capabilities."
"We would like improvements made to the paginated reports so that it produces quality similarly to SSRS."
"Real-time updating needs improvement."
"I have found using Microsoft BI is not easy. For example, trying to use the auto-refresh feature is not simple."
"The biggest thing with Microsoft right now is better support. There should be more timely support. We can do 90% of it ourselves by the same token. When we're into the 10%, we do not get timely support via Microsoft's support team."
"The data source definition is all over the place."
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.