# Page 3 | IBM Cognos Analytics Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 3 - Is IBM Cognos Analytics the right Reporting solution for you? Explore 137 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/240583/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/reviews --- IBM Cognos Analytics 4.2 (137) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/240583/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 3 - Reviews of IBM Cognos Analytics ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 51-75 of 137 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Gerson M. IT Consultant Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A great solution for your financial planning" February 22, 2018 5.0 Take your time and implement it right and the rewards will be very good. Pros It has integration with with other IBM products like business intelligence. The excel functionality is great for finances. The product to meet our needs perfectly for all our needs. Cons Creating reports is overwhelming at the beginning but if you dedicate time and resources there will be the face of your deployment. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Product Manager Medical Devices Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "IBM Cognos is a top business analytics software keeping internal reporting easy" August 20, 2022 5.0 It has been good, but I am still looking for the best to match my business practices Pros It allows the user to create reports and customize based on user needs Cons It is expensive compared to a lot of the other software out there Switched from [LinkedIn for Business](https://www.capterra.com/p/213505/LinkedIn-for-Business/)[Meta for Business](https://www.capterra.com/p/213257/Facebook/) Reporting Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Accountant Accounting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "One of the best time keeping software in the market" April 12, 2018 5.0 Pros Most employers love this software because it is easy for employees to use. Since it is fast, efficient, simple, and does its job well. You can also run great reports in it too. Cons Sometimes the software has a glitch here and there, but every product does. I am sure there are less expensive products on the market, but why use something that isn't tried and true? Review Source MW Michelle W. Financial Supervisor Used the software for: 2+ years ### "This report writer is linked to our accounting software. " March 29, 2018 4.0 Pros You can write your own reports and pull out the data you need from our accounting software. You have the ability to create advanced reports and format in multiple ways. Cons Sometimes the fields that are in Cognos do not match exactly or have different names from the actual software so it is a guess at what field you are pulling. The report studio portion is advanced report writing and in order to create these reports it is recommended to have additional training in order to make reports be beneficial for your company. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Bank Clerk Financial Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Intuitive BI and Reporting Software " May 10, 2018 5.0 Good enterprise product for business intelligence and trend analysis Pros We have used IBM Cognos to create customer insights and patterns to help in our marketing and targeting campaigns. The dashboards and graphs have multiple styles and formats and can be scheduled to be generated at specific times Cons Larger reports tend to be slow to generate from the report studio. Installation can also be challenging and may require purchase of vendor support Review Source SN Sayali N. Business Intelligence Developer Real Estate Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Reviewing IBM Cognos Analytics" September 16, 2019 4.0 I have a pretty decent experience with cognos with some of the new inbuilt features but there is always a scope of improvement Pros I love the fact that Cognos Analytics is so flexible as we deal with a lot of reports which needs to be emailed to the higher authorities as and when they run. Cognos has this inbuild feature, where it can also write the reports to the internal file system. This helps us to keep a track of the recipients of the reports. Cons The Cognos 10 version was a little laid back on the visualization side as it did not had much interactive visuals available for reporting. But they have overcome it in Cognos 11 version. Review Source KC Kim C. Systems Analyst Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Almost unworkable product" June 8, 2017 3.0 A reporting framework that can be used to access back end data. Pros Unfortunately, there is not much to write in this section. The only possible "pro" in all cases would be the flexibility offered in the product as far as setting up the framework. Other than that, not much to like. Cons User interface was slow and clumsy. The user experience was not smooth at all. There was no ease of use whatsoever. The retrieval times from the back end were even worse. We had to retrofit an existing n-tier system to use the reporting side of this software and it was a disaster. There is no way I would recommend to anyone to purchase this system. Review Source EL Eddy L. Project Supervisor Management Consulting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Powerful but complicated" November 12, 2020 3.0 Implementing the tool is painful but once is running is great. Pros Being a IBM product it pack quality. great functionalities and features that defeat the competition. Cons It's hard to setup. Installation and configuration process is a pain. The space usage for this software is to high. The IBM Windows services is slow on startup and service errors can be very difficult to diagnose due to bad log structure or description. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Lider Tecnico de Soluciones de Gestion de Clientes TI Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Before leaving their Web version, they had a very good desktop application" May 22, 2018 3.0 with it we can visualize in a more comfortable way our information of DW and cubes Pros Before leaving their Web version, they had a very good desktop application, but they discontinued it. is a powerful tool, with ease for the reporter Cons it is traumatic for its administration, it depends on the active directory, which can be an advantage, but in other cases it makes it cumbersome Review Source LP Leon P. SENIOR BI ARCHITECT AND ADMINISTRATION LEAD Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cognos is sophisticated BI application for large enterprises " December 3, 2015 4.0 Cognos is one of 2 major Business Intelligence tools on the market. If it is implemented correctly, it could provide complete web-based business solution based on the data analysis. It is a platform which allowing to deliver mission critical analytics to the business including but not limited to Enterprise reporting, Planning & Forecast, OLAP cubes technology, etc. Pros \- The application designed to enable business users with limited technical knowledge to extract data, analyze it and make business decision based on the analysis; - It could be used within relational or multidimensional data sources; - It is included a mobile version allowing users to access a complete version of Cognos from mobile devices; Cons \- very sensitive in implementation; - requiring significant resources in order to maintain and support; - too expensive for mid-size companies; Review Source KB Katherine B. HRIS Admin Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cognos is it!" June 13, 2018 5.0 Pros Cognos has such great data available and we use it through our HRIS - it has changed the way we report out on data Cons The only hard thing is getting used to the reporting, but once you learn then it is smooth sailing!! Review Source SK Sagar K. BI Lead Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great Reporting tool for your datawarehousing need" July 3, 2018 4.0 Pros Cognos tool suite is perfect for your enterprise needs, with different tool available for different user level. The tool can handle all the reporting needs (charts, table, list, crosstab). With the addition of active reports and Cognos mobile it makes a complete solution Cons Enhancement of geographical reporting, current available option for Maps are very limited and should be extended. Review Source VIKAS S. Software Engineer Information Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "IBM Cognos Analytics Review" April 28, 2021 5.0 It is AI driven, improves the business outcomes.It enhances decision making.Overall it improves business agility. Pros The best thing is "Quality reports can be run at any time and by any representative with a substantial log-in " at IBM Cognos Analytics.The AI enabled exploration and dashboard capabilities are easy to use and exceed expectations Cons It is not simple to use. User has to get the formal training to utilise it to maximum extent. Report pulling is not that much fast. It take quite some time to load and display. Review Source Hilary S. Business Systems Analyst Banking Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Cognos Developer" July 27, 2019 4.0 Pros Cognos is a great tool for reporting. The visuals are not awesome but there is a lot of customization you can do for reporting. Cons It can be difficult to learn at first. It is not as easy to pick up as Tabeau. Googling for solutions can be tough. Review Source KS Kristin S. Sr Budget Analyst Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Cognos is a very easy to use application for most areas of the business's finances" June 7, 2017 4.0 Pros Easy to use, easily connects to many ERP softwares. Houses budgeting and planning, financial reporting and dashboarding and metrics all in one suite. Cons Requires in-house administration, is not an out of the box software and requires monthly maintenance on the reports and the planning applications. Review Source GH George H. Technical Data Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "IBM Cognos Analytics allows me to access our data warehouse" December 21, 2019 4.0 I mainly use it to get data from the customer information system. Cognos allows me access to customer information without getting access to the other system. Pros We use Cognos to access our customer info. The IT team set ups the report and we are able to export it for viewing and analysis. If built correctly, the reports can be easily run by the users. The users do need to know how to enter the parameters and known the data structure to fully utilitzed Cognos. We run Cognos through the browser. No need to install software. Cons Users need to understand the data structure in order to enter parameters. If the parameters are not entered correct, there will be no data, exports, or graphs. You also need to make sure the back-end servers are fast if you have a lot of data. Review Source Derek L. Manager Oil & Energy Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good send User Experience" February 28, 2020 4.0 My limited experience and exposure has been good. Works well for a casual user (assuming an admin did a good job setting up and maintaining) Pros Once set up, the end user can easily get into advanced reports and simply navigate as needed to get information in a repeatable manner. Cons There are some odd, not intuitive quirks; however, I presume that’s a consequence of an organizations configuration and less about the software Review Source CM Christopher M. Finance Manager Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "IBM Cognos Analytics" January 13, 2022 3.0 Pros Extensive features, vast ability to access, mine and report on data. Cons Steep learning curve, this software requires intensive training, is not intuitive and requires a dedicated analyst. Review Source BC Brian C. Senior Data Analyst Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Tons of Features, very powerful, not for a novice" December 5, 2019 4.0 I have been very pleased with it since getting over the giant hurdle that is learning how to do anything at all in the product. Pros It can handle enormous amounts of data and allows a user to create extremely complex data models from almost any number of disparate sources Cons Super complex and difficult to learn. The least intuitive software I have ever used, and the help documentation is pretty much useless. Review Source wR worapot R. Senior MIS Utilities Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good product for BI Tools." May 12, 2017 4.0 Pros I like the ability to create reports its has many functions ( Explore, Analysis, Report Studio, Event Studio). Cons I dislikes its. Because of so hard of setting page or design report page when it set wide and height. Review Source Peter T. Cubewise CARE Manager / Specialist Performance Management Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "null" April 3, 2017 5.0 Review Source SA Sue A. Operations Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Ok tool " May 30, 2018 3.0 Pros I had used the IBM Cognod Sales Compensation tool while working a global high tech company. It took a while to learn the system but once you figure it out then it was easy to use and configure the plans. Cons The only issue I had at the time was the very long time it would take to run a calculations. Average was an hour. Review Source KJ Kathy J. Payroll & Benefits Manager Mining & Metals Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Not easy to Use" August 27, 2019 2.0 This is the reporting system our payroll company provides us with for weekly reports, its not easy to use and is frustrating. They do have a lot of options for running the report but its difficult to get the report to run. Pros If you can figure out how to make the reports run you can create nice reports with lots of information. Cons Not easy to create a report, some reports will stop working for no reason, they just will spin and not generate. Difficult to change the layout and information. Review Source TK Tanzeela K. Associate Consultant Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "One of the most recommended Software for Dashboarding " February 14, 2021 4.0 Pros I would definitely recommend this to people who want to create effective dashboards and reports. It has user friendly interface. I is good alternative for tableau or power BI. Cons It needs to upgrade a little bit to give features like Power BI Review Source SV Sameer V. Systems Accountant Chemicals Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Cognos" July 22, 2020 4.0 it is a great software depends on the the organisation ability to set up and master its capabilities Pros Capabilities of this software is far reaching and varied and it depends on the organisation ability to use it to their advantage. Cons the support from the consultant was great but costly. Switched from [Microsoft Excel](https://www.capterra.com/p/176574/Excel/) because depending on excel is not a good option for any purpose. 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