Business Analytics

Why do we use data and analytics platforms in the first place? 

In my job as a product manager, I use data and analytics to: 

• Check on the health of the area of the business that I’m responsible for and answer questions like:

  • Are we hitting goals set for us?

  • Are we performing at a level that we would expect for a business of our profile?

  • How are we doing now versus last quarter or last year?

  • Is the work I’m doing having an effect on our business objectives?

  • If it’s not, should I be doing something different?

• Explore and understand trends in customer behavior like:

  • Is the outreach we are doing bringing more people to awareness of our product?

  • Do new customers respond to promotions?

  • When I see a spike in usage, why did that happen? Should we take credit? Was it because of something we did intentionally or for other, uncontrollable factors?

These questions that help me understand the health of my business and choose what to do next are not unique to my situation. Using data to answer questions similar to these can be helpful to people working in a wide variety of jobs in many different industries. Whether it’s simply a health check on the business or more exploratory discovery work, using data can help people make better choices in order to have a better impact on their business outcomes. 

What tools are most commonly used for analytics across industries? 

Because the demand for tools to help businesses use data in this way is so large, the IT advisory firm Gartner publishes a yearly report to help organizations learn about capabilities available for this purpose. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms report highlights the top 20 analytics and BI tools they see in the market and compares them based on technical capabilities and market adoption.

IBM has been providing analytics capabilities to organization all over the world for many years, and now for the third year in a row, IBM has been named a “Visionary” in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. 

What’s special about what IBM offers?

Whether it’s a small business that needs to visualize and present data from spreadsheets or a multinational corporation planning to report on enterprise operational metrics, IBM Cognos Analytics can help organizations that need to accomplish these core activities of providing accountability to keep teams on track towards goals and giving business people better understanding about the business they are responsible for. 

Cognos Analytics enables you in particular to: 

• Connect directly to your source systems to query data so you don't have to create new copies of your data in multiple locations - not every tool allows for this

• Prepare a business-friendly view of the raw data stored in data warehouses or other systems - don’t forget this important part of the process

• Give professional data authors a platform to create highly customized content - Cognos Analytics is heavily used by organizations all over the world for this

• Schedule delivery of content to large groups so users can receive the info that's relevant to them - don’t make everyone have to log into yet another tool 

• Allow developers to embed analytics content in other apps - put helpful data along other content in apps used by your team

In addition to the capabilities provided in Cognos Analytics, IBM also provides tools focused on other specific analytics tasks you might need in your organization: 

• Cognos Analytics - share common objectives with stakeholders and discover insights in your data

• Analytics Content Hub - make your organization institutional knowledge searchable and accessible

• Planning Analytics - create business models and scenario plans at the scale and complexity needed in real world organizations

• watsonx BI Assistant (coming soon) - give your teams the ability to ask data questions and keep tabs on the metrics that matter to them

What next?

• If you use Cognos Analytics on your team, leave us a review & get a $25 gift for yourself or a charity of your choice

• See how other people use Cognos Analytics on Gartner Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’ Cognos Analytics page

• Learn more and try out the latest capabilities in a Cognos Analytics 12 trial

• Join the waitlist for the watsonx BI Assistant 

___

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER, MAGIC QUADRANT and PEER INSIGHTS  are trademarks and service marks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

___
Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/analytics-business-intelligence-platforms/vendor/ibm/product/ibm-cognos-analytics