Gartner 2011 Magic Quadrant for BI

[Lynn]

http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol2/article15/article15.html

It mentions that Cognos 10 was introduced just after the survey closed. Two interesting quotes in the article:

just over 20% of IBM Cognos customers indicate they plan or are considering discontinuing using the software within five years

IBM customers also continue to have less-than-optimal customer experiences, with support and sales interaction rated near the bottom of all vendors reviewed in this report. The Cognos acquisition occurred nearly three years ago and ratings have not recovered to anywhere near pre-IBM levels. So far, SPSS customers do not report diminished customer experience ratings.

[cognostechie]

Lot of it has to do with the fact that Cognos resources are hard to find and the consulting companies who provide implementation have less than average resources resulting in the customers believing that the software is not good enough.

From what I have seen, after buying the software , companies asked IBM to suggest some consulting company to do the implementation. The consultants who were supposedly so-called experts did an inferior job and the customer believed that to be a limitation of the software because the customer still believed that the consultants were proper since they were referred by IBM !!

I, myself, worked with a couple of those clients and after turning things around changed their perception of Cognos !! 

One client actually suffered for 3 years and finally went for Business Objects.

[Lynn]

I agree techie. It would have been interesting if the reasons why were provided regarding respondents plans to change.

It seems to me that the BI tool is only one piece of the puzzle. Just take a look at Rob's very nice answer to this question and it is clear there are many complex components that factor into a successful implementation.

Issues with master data management, poorly architected infrastructures, bad management, lousy understanding of requirements, etc. are all factors that carry an impact. The BI team may find themselves left without a chair when the music stops. As a leader in the space with many customers, it seems plausible to me that Cognos could take the unfair hit for initiatives with issues beyond what the tool's role is in the grander scheme. I guess they'd only learn that if they switch to another tool and find themselves in the same boat.