BusinessObjects Board

BO vs COGNOS

general discussion
#1

Kalyanasundaram.SubramoniaIyer@PRUDENTIAL.COM

Can somebody help me with a comparison between BO and Cognos? I dont have access to the web, so kindly send me any document that would highlight this. we are trying to recommend BO for a forthcoming project. any suggestion, please???

Kalyan.

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Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Comparing BO with other tools
#2

I have worked with both cognos and bo. I found BO much better = than cognos in most respects…=20
=20
To list out some differences, =20
BO =
Cognos

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#3

Users,

We’re in the phase of evaluating BO vs Cognos. We have 2 companies using BO and 1 company using Cognos. We’ve been told by Corporate that we need to choose 1 tool for our DW project. Has anyone switched from Cognos to BO? Could you give me some reasons why? Of course I’m really trying to stay with BO so any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Christy

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#4

Cognos nice but we don’t use it.
Actually, we like BusinessObjects and InfoReports combination.

B.O. great tool for users and developers alike. The only drawback is depending on your report query it can be slow with data retrieval. InfoReports, THE BEST as far as Batch reporting goes. Unlike B.O. or Cognos it has a UNIX standalone(no window parent running) executable which when setup hums when creating our batch reports. Example, we have 136 reports going to 35 users each month which are run and distributed via email within 3 hours. Only drawback is that it is tedious to create a report.

good luck

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#5

Christy:
Another thing to look at - if you need remote power users, Cognos has no fat client. BO does.

Devon Watson

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#6

If you compare then you will get a few finer points in BO and a few finer points in Cognos. The decision is to balance what u want and what U want not.

At least U can measure human intelligence by IQ or Diplomas or Degrees earned but with these products - No bench marks .

But try answering these questions urself and if u get a answer – Add/subtract each point over the competitor.

Does BO support XML delivery and presenttaions ? any XML api’s? Are there out of the box financial, mathematical / statictical functions that you can add depending upon ur requirements ?

Happy Comparing …

On Fri, 9 Nov 2001 07:59:34 -0500, Christina_Hartman@FORETHOUGHT.COM wrote :

Users,

We’re in the phase of evaluating BO vs Cognos. We have 2 companies using BO and
1 company using Cognos. We’ve been told by Corporate that we need to choose 1
tool for our DW project. Has anyone switched from Cognos to BO? Could you give
me some reasons why? Of course I’m really trying to stay with BO so any info
would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Christy

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#7

Hi ,

Here is some points. I did not write these points <<
Selling against Cognos
Cognos is Business Objects’ main rival for leadership of the Business Intelligence tools market. The Cognos business intelligence product line ? Impromptu and PowerPlay (includes the Transformer module) - offers similar functionality to BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence.

Top Cognos Knockoffs

  1. The Cognos Product line is not integrated. Lack of integration makes Cognos more expensive to own, and more difficult to learn. Each additional product means additional metadata and security to administer and another interface for end users to learn.
    In a full client deployment, a customer could end up with three different Cognos products ? Impromptu, PowerPlay and NovaView ? to achieve what can be done with BusinessObjects alone.
    In a web deployment, a customer could end up with 4 different Cognos products ? Impromptu Web Reports, Cognos Query, PowerPlay Web, and NovaView Web Edition ? to achieve what can be done with WebIntelligence. Also, because there is little integration between full and thin client products, customers are not able to easily migrate from one platform to another. Cognos has announced plans to offer common metadata (Architect) and common security (Access Manager). These products only work with the Impromptu and PowerPlay product lines, and do not cover NovaView, Scenario, or Visualizer.

  2. Cognos product line limits workflow. Because Cognos supports OLAP in PowerPlay and Query and Reporting in Impromptu, the end user is limited in workflow. Cognos markets the concept of “Analyze then Query.” This is the single workflow which they support ? i.e., slice and dice data in PowerPlay, then “drill through” to Impromptu to get detail. Once an end user has the new information, there is no way for that user to get it into PowerPlay for further analysis. And once a user has done analysis in PowerPlay, there are weak mechanisms for formatting and distributing that analysis. Also, there is no way an end user can receive an Impromptu report and immediately start drilling. An end user cannot reverse the workflow. Moving from Impromptu to PowerPlay requires the Transformer tool and IT intervention. Adding Visualizer, the unidirectional workflow gets even worse.
    Business Objects supports “Analyze then Query” and “Query then analyze” and any other permutation on that slogan. Business Objects allows users to access, analyze, format and share data in a simple and flexible manner. Business Objects puts the user in control and s/he remains in the same product. The user is always in the right product.

  3. The Cognos product line is difficult to deployable to the enterprise. Extend the deal beyond small departments to larger deployments wherever possible. Business Objects has more 1,000 and 10,000 user deals than any other BI vendor.
    … Impromptu is not deployable, because its Catalog (semantic layer) is file based, which means it must be placed locally on a file server in each Local Area Network. Larger companies will usually have multiple LANs, which makes maintenance and synchronization of Catalogs a difficult task. Cognos architect is repository based which may remove the file-based restriction. … PowerPlay is not deployable because it prevents end users from accessing the data they need, when they need it. End users are dependant upon IS to build cubes for them. Therefore in an enterprise environment as the number of users increases, the number of cubes increases greatly and the IT effort increases tremendously.
    … Cognos Product Line is not deployable, because it does not support seamless migration from full client to thin client deployments. 4. Impromptu is at best a mediocre query and reporting tool. Compete against Impromptu wherever possible. Limitations of Impromptu include: … No multi SQL generation means no guarantee of correct results … Cannot access multiple data sources
    … No aggregate awareness
    … Single result set per report
    … Charting/graphing limited to highest level of detail only

I can send more if you write me directly

Thanks
Stephen W.N Choo Quan
Information Architect for BO apps in HR
“You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.”

This communication is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument or as an official confirmation of any transaction. All market prices, data and other information are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. Any comments or statements made herein do not necessarily reflect those of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#8

Great info!

PowerPlay is Cognos’ flagship product. It really competes with tools like Essbase. It does have both a thin and thick client.

Impromptu is the query tool. It realy can’t hold a candle to Business Objects. Meta data is weak. If you are at all interested in end-user adhoc query, you gotta go with BO.

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#9

Hi Christy

I agree 100% with Steve. We replaced Cognos with BusinessObjects a few years ago and now have 750 very happy users (many doing ad hoc queries) on our Data Warehouse - there is no way we could have done that with Cognos and Impromptu - we would have spent all our time supporting it. I have to admit to being doubly biased since I’m both a user and responsible for the Data Warehouse.

I found the following in the archives - I remember when reading it, being amazed that Cognos still appeared to be missing some basic functionality. I hope it helps.

Good Luck

Doreen Stevenson

I have worked with both cognos and bo. I found BO much better than cognos in most respects…

To list out some differences,
BO
Cognos

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#10

Hi All,
Looking at all the mails related to the topic, i just couldn’t hold back any more…
Indeed all the points brought forward in favour of BO are very correct.
Ad Hoc query as well as analysis from the same product is impossible in Cognos.
Also, functionality wise BO is much better than Cogons. For a simple yet powerful implemetation, for providing great yet easy-to-learn features to end-users, BO is THE product. Infact , in our company , we have made a comparison of BO with other reporting tools… The good news listers, is that BO is the best. There are some slick features in some other products, but as a total suite , BO scores over the rest.
Regards,
Debashis.

Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

#11

Hi,

can you please tell me if Cognos have a VBA-SDK like BO?

thanks,

Naidoo

naidoo (BOB member since 2006-12-16)

#12

I believe you should ask Cognos this question directly.

substring :us: (BOB member since 2004-01-16)

#13

Thank you for your answer.

I have called Cognos but they don´t give me a precise answer for my question.

Can someone tell me please which Cognos-Tool plays the role of Universe Designer in BO.

Cheers,

Naidoo

naidoo (BOB member since 2006-12-16)

#14

That tool would be the Framework Manager and you can build framework with it. Those frameworks have the same function as a universe: the metadata layer.
Although Framework Manager has much more features. Like you can use multiple fact tables in one framework and create packages (a subset of the framework) for each datawarehouse star diagram and built reports on packages.

HenkK

HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

#15

Ok this is what my friend who has worked with BO for many years and is working with Cognos had to say.

Cognos8 = BO6.5

Cognos is not even near XIR2. BO XIR2 is superior and better in every aspect.

monty4u :us: (BOB member since 2006-12-12)

#16

I’d like to see more on your comparison of Cognos versus Business Objects. Thank you

jmbadd (BOB member since 2006-04-10)

#17

Have you compared Cognos8 and BOXIR2 in every aspect :wink: ? I work with both at the same time and can’t decide which is better as a whole :crazy_face: .

It’s no use saying this is better or that’s better. Always look at what YOU need and then choose the BI product that fits your needs.

HenkK

HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

#18

Thank you for your Feedback.

Now I´m working in a Project to automate the creation of an Universe in BO with VBA-SDK.

The goal of my question about Cognos is: “which API in Cognos can I use to create automatically a Framework?”.

The Impromtu and Powerplayer Transformer Tools could be do this task, but i´m not sure.

Br.,

Naidoo

naidoo (BOB member since 2006-12-16)

#19

The easy way would be to use the Framework Manager tool to import the BusinessObjects universe. Another good feature of Cognos8 :yesnod: .

HenkK

HenkK :netherlands: (BOB member since 2004-03-02)

#20

Gartner produced a magic Quadrant for BI early this year and I promised wo include the link in an earlier post. Might add perspective to high level evaluations. Check it out!

Decisys :de: (BOB member since 2004-05-21)