IBM Cognos Analytics
What is Cognos?
IBM Cognos Analytics is a set of business intelligence tools available on cloud or on-premise. The primary focus is in the area of Descriptive Analytics, to help users see the information in your data through dashboards, professional reporting and self-service data exploration.
The latest version of IBM Cognos Analytics is 11.1, in this version the BI software has brought in capabilities that were previously in Watson Analytics, bringing diagnostic analytics capabilities to the forefront.
Read more on Definitions, Features and Examples.
Types of Licenses
Cognos Analytics is available either on Cloud or On-Premise.
Licenses are controlled via roles as shown below.
| License role | Description |
| Analytics Administrators | Members have the same access permissions as Analytics Explorers. They can also access the IBM Software Development Kit. |
| Analytics Explorers | Members have the same access permissions as Analytics Users. They can also access Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel, Cognos Framework Manager, Cognos Cube Designer and Dynamic Query Analyzer, and Transformer. |
| Analytics Users | Members can create new reports, dashboards, stories, new jobs, data server/source connections, or data modules. They can execute reports, respond to prompts, and upload files. They can also access Cognos for Microsoft Office, Cognos Workspace, Cognos Event Studio, Cognos Query Studio, and Cognos Analysis Studio. |
Please contact us for pricing, we may be able to negotiate better terms through our IBM relationship.
View our latest work with Cognos:
Cognos Training
We have selected the latest version of Cognos 11 training courses below or see full list of Cognos courses.
> See our Full list of Cognos courses
A Definition Overview
IBM Cognos Analytics is a set of business intelligence tools available on cloud or on-premise. The primary focus is in the area of Descriptive Analytics, to help users see the information in your data through dashboards, professional reporting and self-service data exploration.
The latest version of IBM Cognos Analytics is 11.1, in this version the BI software has brought in capabilities that were previously in Watson Analytics, bringing Diagnostic Analytics capabilities to the forefront.
New exploration features in the program now highlight interesting relationships within the data, helping users to find insights they may not even be looking for, allowing users to not only see what has happened with Descriptive Analytics but allows them to understand why it happened with Diagnostic Analytics.
Cognos 11.1 contains high-level data exploration ability, dashboarding and storytelling, professional report authoring and automated data planning. Delivered on a single integrated and extremely secure platform.
Product features:
- Intuitive, easy tool to learn technology – Cognos does not have a steep learning curve, dashboards and reports can be up and running quickly and easily
- Natural language Q&A – ask questions using natural language and the system will present the information back to you in a format that makes sense
- Slack integration – allows insights to be shared and co-workers to collaborate more easily
- Guided data preparation – built-in intelligence to recommend joins and data blending
- Re-use content – frequently used objects can be ‘pinned’ for easy re-use
- Easier to find insights – recommended visualisations and related visualisations designed to allow further exploration
- Pattern recognition – unearthing hidden patterns in the data to allow further exploration
Tour de France
In 2018, we ran a social media campaign, presenting some interesting insights within the data from the Tour de France; such as a ‘timeline of past distances & times’, a ‘timeline of average speeds from 1903-2017’ and a ‘results overview by decade’. We used IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1 on cloud to generate the imagery for the campaign as shown below:
See demo video using IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1
Cognos Trial/Demo
IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1
Want to experience the all new Cognos Analytics 11.1 with our Accelerated Impact (AI) package* for FREE? Simply fill in this form!
We will assist you with getting the free trial.
Along with giving you guidance on how best to get started.
(* subject to availability, we can offer tailored advice to help you get the most out of your software trial).
Support for Older Versions
Below is a summary of earlier versions of Cognos BI products and tools.
| Date | Version | Comment | End of Support |
| 2018 | IBM Cognos Analytics 11.1 | The current version of Cognos | |
| 2015 | IBM Cognos Analytics 11 | Redesign of the user experience | |
| 2010 | IBM Cognos Analytics 10 | Introduced social collaboration | 30 April 2018 |
| 2009 | IBM Cognos 8 Express | Lighter version, aimed at mid-size companies | |
| 2005 | IBM Cognos 8 BI | Brought a wide range of capabilities into one product (Report studio, Query studio, Framework Manaher and more) | 30 September 2013 |
If you need support or upgrade advice for any of these products, please get in touch in the form below.
If you would like to find out how Cognos Analytics 11.1 can help you to find hidden patterns in your data, or how it can help work smarter and faster with ‘Augmented Intelligence’ then please get in touch.
+44 (0)114 399 2820