Hubble (from insightSoftware) and IBM Cognos are two of the most widely used BI solutions today. Both solutions are top rated and highly recommended by users from various industries.

Hubble is an integrated financial performance management solution that can be deployed on-premise and accessed through the cloud. IBM Cognos is a web-based integrated business intelligence suite that was designed to enable business users without technical background to extract corporate data, analyze it, and assemble reports.  

In this article, we’ll compare the features of Hubble and IBM Cognos so you can determine which BI software fits your business better. If you want to learn more about other BI solutions, use our Product Selection Tool. You’ll get a list of the trusted BI software vendors.

Hubble vs. IBM Cognos: An overview

Hubble (from insightsoftware) is an award-winning BI software designed for businesses using Oracle E-Business Suite and JD Edwards. This software has features for basic reports, dashboards, sales reporting, data visualization, financial reporting, analytics, and automatic scheduled reporting. Hubble is suitable for small, mid-sized, and large businesses and has average pricing.

IBM Cognos, formerly called Cognos, was acquired by IBM in January 2008. This BI software enables users to process data from multiple sources, query it to find necessary information, create visualizations and reports, and share data throughout the organization. IBM Cognos has features for standard and ad hoc reporting, scheduling, data discovery and visualization, and forecasting. It is ideal for mid-sized to large organizations and has high-end pricing.

Comparing the features

Hubble and IBM Cognos have features for reports, dashboards, and data visualizations.

Reports

Hubble offers a selection of ready-to-use reports to help users create reports in seconds. Pre-built reports in Hubble include Government Entity, Daily Cash Flow, Construction KPIs, Advanced Payables Aging, and Advanced Receivables Aging reports. This BI software also allows users to create flexible and custom reports.

With the reporting feature of IBM Cognos, users can select from different report types: List Reports, Grouped List Reports, or Crosstab Reports. Users can also customize some properties of the reports such as title, text, data, rows, page breaks, and borders. Reports in IBM Cognos may be exported in PDF, CSV, XML, and Microsoft Excel formats. They can also be shared through the IBM Cognos Report Studio and printed as a hard copy.

Dashboards

With Hubble, dashboards can be built directly inside MS Excel. Users can analyze metrics without having to know the underlying data structure in their ERP system. They simply need to drag and drop the data they want to analyze and create sophisticated BI dashboards directly in Excel with minimal effort. Users can also choose from the out-of-the box dashboard templates offered by Hubble.

IBM Cognos users can create a dashboard or copy an existing dashboard, modify the parameters, and then save it as a new dashboard. Users can add dashboard objects to present business metrics graphically as charts or indicators. IBM Cognos has interactive dashboards that allow users to drill down to reveal hidden data. Users can create custom filters and set the dashboards to refresh periodically.

Data visualizations

Hubble lets users take advantage of data visualization objects to create stunning dashboards and easy-to-understand reports. Pre-built data visualization items in Hubble include waterfall, donut, pie, line, stacked area, vertical bullet, column, bubble, funnel, area, bar, and combination charts.

IBM Cognos allows users to choose from their built-in graphs and charts including pie, bar, line, gauge, scatter, bullet, donut, radar, range indicator, and point charts. Users can also change chart background, customize chart properties, and add notes to charts in IBM Cognos. In addition, users can add widgets to their dashboards. These widgets can be text, images and shapes, web pages, and video or audio files.

Integrations

Hubble integrates seamlessly with applications for enterprise resource planning, finance, database management, cloud computing, and accounting:

    • Oracle

    •  Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

    •  SAP HANA

    •  NetSuite

    •  Sage 100

Integrations for IBM Cognos include solutions for automation, cloud budgeting, conducting surveys, analytics, and business expense management:

    • NetDispatcher  

    • Limelight  

    • Key Survey  

    • Workpuls 

    • Captio Expenses   

Choosing between Hubble and IBM Cognos

Hubble and IBM Cognos have an impressive set of features and capabilities that makes it difficult to choose between the two BI solutions. Think about the features your business actually needs when making your choice.

Hubble has an extensive selection of report and dashboard templates that could be useful if you want reports and dashboards to be created quickly. Since Hubble dashboards are created within MS Excel, Hubble offers a familiarity that might be helpful for new users. 

However, if you need a BI software with better customization capabilities then IBM Cognos is the better choice for you. IBM Cognos also has dedicated mobile applications that allow users to create dashboards and interact with data remotely, so the Cognos Analytics mobile app will come in handy if you have remote team members. 

There are plenty of other reputable BI options if you’re still undecided. Use our Product Selection Tool to explore more BI platforms.