Cognos Express vs Cognos 8

[bbrown]

Our I.S. department is pushing for Cognos Express but I think we probably need the full version (although I'm still trying to figure out if it will do everything our current software does).  Can all you experienced users give me an opinion?

Currently we are using SPSS Showcase (bought out last year by IBM and the writing is on the wall!)

Does Cognos (Express or 8.0) allow the following:

Creation of dataviews to be used in queries?
Creation of tables to form basis of new queries?
Embed multiple queries in Excel and refresh all queries with macro to run and update workbook?
Run iterated reports using a query for the iterations and output to a folder on a portal based on iteration for viewing by relevant party.

There is probably more but that's probably enough to go on with :).

Also.....I'd love to hear opinions from anyone who has gone from Cognos Express to the full version or vice versa.

Thx!
Brenda