BusinessObjects Board

Comparing on BO and Cognos

Hi all

I just need some help in comparing BO and Cognos! Our company is currently using BO but is thinking about switch to Cognos. I need to do some analysis in comparing the two products and provide some input for the mgmt to decide which product is a better fit for the company. (The currently experience for user on BO is very unpresent and they believes Cognos may be a better alternatvie for them)

Does anyone know of any good Cognos forum that I can go in and browse around?

I have already looked at all the discussion in the forum on the topic and I just need more info since I have no experience in Cognos at all!

Thanks!

Thanks!


JShih (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

JShih:

Interesting question. I have some knowledge of each. Both products have their +'s and -'s. Instead of listing all the potential items let the board know what user items your seeking to resolve by looking at another vendor? You’ll likely get better feedback. Also, what Cognos products are considering? They have so many, it can be difficult to compare.

Sincerely,

DWWIZARD


DWWIZARD (BOB member since 2003-04-17)

In a phase of work that resulted in my appointment, our company went for Business Objects ahead of Cognos and Crystal. I believe that they went for BO because although it is not as good as Cognos on the OLAP side (the reason given, not my view), BO is more user friendly on the development and deployment side as well as for ongoing support.

This sticky thread might be useful.


Nick Daniels :uk: (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

I wouldn’t make that assumption. When they say they want to switch from BO to Cognos, they probably mean to the new product they have that looks and feels like BO. It is called ReportNet. If your experience with BO is poor it may likely be because the people who design your universes don’t have a good enough understanding to make sure they are efficient and easy to use. Switching tools won’t improve things.

I’ve seen ReportNet and have used BO for years. ReportNet looks cool. It has some advantages over BO if the hype proves out (multiple linked data providers, a catalogue…or is it called a package?? (synonymous with a BO universe), can contain data from multiple databases. It also has shortcomings (no @AA unless you do it in the database). I suggest you do a thorough analysis, see ReportNet, interview Cognos ReportNet customers (which may be a challenge since it was only released to market September of this year). Good luck! I’ve walked in your shoes :roll_eyes: .

I’ve been using the one at Tek Tips.


Cindy Clayton :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-11)

Thanks for all the reply and this is what we are currently using:

  • InfoView for all the canned report (flat report without any drilling capability)
  • Zabo for Ad hoc and report drilling (which the user complaint the most in terms of the drilling capability and they think that Cognos will be do better job)
  • BCA for scheduling and Supervisor for administration
  • Webi but just didn’t use it a lot since the Webi functionality in 2.X is so limited!
  • Supervisor for Admin

BO and Powerplay is what we are currently comparing. Does anyone has any idea on the $ side?


JShih (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

BO and PowerPlay do not compare in ANY way.

PowerPlay is a server-based OLAP tools. It competes with Essbase from Hyperion, MS Analysis services, and other products that require that use build cubes. PowerPlay is not a great reporting tool. It is meant for users who want to drill up, down and sideways.

If you are going to do any ad-hoc work, you will end up with Impromptu which is not a great product. ReportNet is what Cognos is now pushing, but it’s so new, I wouldn’t trust it.


Steve Krandel :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

JShih:

I generally agree with Steve’s accessment of Cognos, but I would consider ReportNet a strong offering (for it’s single use intended purpose). Cognos makes good technology, but the main struggles facing customers is a lack of true cross product integration along with the high maintenance of building and managing cubes. ex: manual replication of security into each cube. Also on the + side, they can say yes to almost any requirement, but it takes multiple products and $$$.

If your intent is to move from BOBJ, even with v6’s advantages, then I would take a hard look at other BI Platforms ala the Gartner definition. You may find that the integrated services offered by companies such as MicroStrategy, Microsoft or your ERP vendor may be better suited to your long term requirements and strategy.

IMO, over time and product releases there will be less and less difference between the BI Suites and BI Platforms. Cognos and BOBJ are both enhancing their products to relieve the common problems found in BI suite products; most of which were developed as single point solutions and now “integrated” under a pseudo web framework. Time is your friend.

This probably hasn’t made your decision any easier, but the famous SYMS retailing slogan of “an educated consumer is our best customer” truely fits. Besides, if it wasn’t hard, it wouldn’t be called work. :slight_smile:

Best of luck.

DWWizard


DWWIZARD (BOB member since 2003-04-17)

Just 1 more final question! I was being told that in terms of deployment, BO is a lot easier than Cognos but why?


JShih (BOB member since 2002-08-15)

The repository makes BO very easy. I don’t know about Report.net, but in the past when people where using all full-client based software. BO was much easier. When something was done, you put it in the database.

With Cognos, you were forever mailing files around and makeing sure that reports and catalogs were available in shared directories.

As I asid, I don’t know how ReportNet works. But, since it’s 100% web-based, I would imagine it’s a little easier to deploy than before.

The tool used to build Cognos Catalogs was never very good compared to Designer. So, building metadata was much easer. Considering that BO allows for so much more complex metadata, this was a big deal.


Steve Krandel :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

JShih:

I think you’ll find the tradeoffs are in different areas.

Cognos has all the “classic” issues with deploying any file based solution. BOBJ resolves these in part via the repository and use of Webi. However, you the adminstrator still have to manage publishing reports and versions. Also migrating objects between universes requires special care since BOBJ doesn’t provide a migration tool. With BOBJ the upkeep is just less obvious to the end user.

With Cognos cubes are pre-created. In BOBJ the microcubes are created on the fly. So you have a performance tradeoff on when to take the query hit.

Both products have relatively modest practical data volume limits. Not uncommon for any cube based technology. You can investigate sources like the OLAP Report for more info. The importance of this depends upon the type of analysis and reporting you need to provide.

There are also integration and functional tradeoffs - ReportNet doesn’t do OLAP, despite the demo. It’s really PowerPlay running in a ReportNet “frame” and you have to licese PowerPlay seperately. ReportNet is a new architecture for Cognos so metadata integration is also a work in progress. With BOBJ the story is somewhat better, but still far from ideal. Incompatabilites between Webi and Full Client reports, to name but one.

I’m less familiar with Cognos server side architecture so I won’t comment. However, for each make sure you understand the hardware and network requirements to support your uptime and performance committments. For example, currently BOBJ architecture does not remove all single points of failure. You can work around it, but it will cost you extra for 3rd party load balacing gear and extra nodes.

To net it out, both are good tools, just make sure you ask the hard questions about what “ownership” is really like. There is no need to get surprised.

DWWizard


DWWIZARD (BOB member since 2003-04-17)

Hi

We have gone through a similar evaluation process, and have selected Cognos for reasons I wont go into.
We have ReportNet, Metrics Manager, Powerplay Web, Transformer, and Framework Manager.

I am currently trying to find any discussion forums for ReportNet that could help us during our deployment and give us any tips or warnings about any problems we may experience.

We will be using Oracle 9i for the data warehouse and SQL Server for OLAP cubes (Powerplay will just be used for the front end).

The information in this thread is the best I have found so far.

Also if anyone has any examples sites for ReportNet that arent in Japanese that would be great :smiley:

Thanks
Brendan


brendan (BOB member since 2003-04-07)

Brendan,
please don’t post the same question in multiple topics

Let’s use this one to continue the discussion.

Topic locked.


Steve Krandel :us: (BOB member since 2002-06-25)