International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)

ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803

Power BI v/s Tableau v/s Cognos: A Data Analytics

Research
Sanskar Haritash
UG Student B. Tech in Computer Science and Engg., SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

Abstract: Data Science now a days is being used in almost all the fields of IT and Computer Engineering. With the technological
revolution, data went from expensive, difficult to find and collect to abundant, cheap, but incomprehensible. It is arduous to store,
understand and analyze increasingly larger volumes of data with traditional software’s. This is where Big data comes into play. Big data
is used for predictive analytics, analyzing user behaviour or other data analytics processes to bring value to data. This paper presents a
research survey done in the field of Data Visualization Tools which ease the understanding of various data sets by representing them
graphically or pictorially, no matter how big the data set is. Data Visualization is the process of transforming data into charts, images,
graphs and even videos that explain the numbers and allow us to gain insights from it. Using Data Visualization tools in order to analyze
the data is the new era of development. In this paper, three popular Data Visualization tools are taken into consideration, namely: Power
BI by Microsoft, Tableau by Salesforce and Cognos by IBM. This research work provides knowledge about Data Analytics and aims to
find out why Power Bi and Tableau are more popular in people whereas Cognos is not, and what advancements/changes do Cognos
need in order to increase its reach.

Keywords: Data Analytics, Data Visualization, Power BI, Tableau, IBM Cognos Analytics

1. Working with Data Analytics might clean spaces in front of letters or symbols or remove
duplicates. This is a vital step-because ultimately, the
Mainly there are five major steps in analyzing any data set. accuracy of our analysis will depend on the quality of our
These are as following: data.

Step 1) Ask the Right Questions-Before we start collecting Step 4) Analyzing The Data-We now have a wealth of data.
data, we need to first understand what we want to do with it. We’ve spent time cleaning it up. It’s as organized as it’ll
Take some time to think about a specific business problem ever be. Now we’re ready for the fun stuff. In this step, we’ll
we want to address or consider a hypothesis that could be begin to slice and dice our data to extract meaningful
solved with data. From there, we’ll create a set of insights from it. Using the techniques and methods of data
measurable, clear, and concise questions that will help analysis, we’ll look for hidden patterns and relationships,
answer that. Starting with a clear objective is an essential and find insights and predictions.
step in the data analysis process. By recognizing the business
problem that we want to solve and setting well-defined Step 5) Interpreting The Results By Visualising The
goals, it’ll be way easier to decide on the data we need. Data: After we’ve interpreted the results and drawn
meaningful insights from them, the next step is to create
Step 2) Data Collection-This brings us to the next step: data visualizations by selecting the most appropriate charts and
collection. Now that we have a solid idea of our questions, graphs. For visualising we would need tools provided by
it’s time to define from what data we need to find those various companies like Power BI, Tableau, Cognos
answers. As a starting point, we’ll want to determine if the Analytics, Google Data Studio etc. These tools will now help
data is readily available within our organization-like within us in making the charts, graphs and mapping the regions. We
employee survey results or annual performance reviews in can create dashboards, presentations which our stakeholders
the HR case. Then, ask ourselves: do we have all the data we would use using these tools. But pretty visualizations aren’t
need or will we also need to externally source it? If it’s the all that are needed here. If we want our valuable discoveries
latter, we may decide to run an experiment or conduct to be implemented, we need to be able to present it to
another survey. Whatever we choose, the end goal of this decision-makers and stakeholders in a manner that’s
step is to make sure to have a complete, 360-degree view of compelling and easy to comprehend. The best way to do this
the problem we want to solve. is through what’s called data storytelling, which basically
means turning our data into a compelling narrative.
Step 3) Data Cleaning- We’ve collected and combined data
from multiple sources. Great. But it’s not yet, its time to roll 2. Introduction to Data Visualization
up our sleeves and dive into it. That’s because raw data is
seldom usable in its current form. We’ll often find flaws Data visualization is the practice of translating information
within it, like missing values. While seemingly minor, these into a visual context, such as a map or graph, to make data
can actually be quite pernicious: even the tiniest inaccuracies easier for the human brain to understand and pull insights
can skew our results. Here’s where we’ll spend some time from. The main goal of data visualization is to make it easier
polishing the data to ensure it’s in tip-top shape. This to identify patterns, trends and outliers in large data sets. The
process, called data cleaning, consists of amending or term is often used interchangeably with others, including
removing incorrect or superfluous data, as well as checking information graphics, information visualization and
for incompleteness or inconsistencies. For instance, we statistical graphics.

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1088
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
Data visualization provides a quick and effective way to
communicate information in a universal manner using visual
information. The practice can also help businesses identify
which factors affect customer behavior; pinpoint areas that
need to be improved or need more attention; make data more
memorable for stakeholders; understand when and where to
place specific products; and predict sales volumes. Other
benefits of data visualization include the following: the
ability to absorb information quickly, improve insights and
make faster decisions; an increased understanding of the next
Figure 1: Depicting various charts in Data Visualization steps that must be taken to improve the organization; an
improved ability to maintain the audience's interest with
Data visualization is one of the steps of the data science information they can understand; an easy distribution of
process, which states that after data has been collected, information that increases the opportunity to share insights
processed and modeled, it must be visualized for conclusions with everyone involved; eliminate the need for data scientists
to be made. Data visualization is also an element of the since data is more accessible and understandable; and an
broader data presentation architecture (DPA) discipline, increased ability to act on findings quickly and, therefore,
which aims to identify, locate, manipulate, format and achieve success with greater speed and less mistakes.
deliver data in the most efficient way possible.
The increased popularity of big data and data analysis
Data visualization is important for almost every career. It can projects has made visualization more important than ever.
be used by teachers to display student test results, by Companies are increasingly using machine learning to gather
computer scientists exploring advancements in artificial massive amounts of data that can be difficult and slow to sort
intelligence (AI) or by executives looking to share through, comprehend and explain. Visualization offers a
information with stakeholders. It also plays an important role means to speed this up and present information to business
in big data projects. As businesses accumulated massive owners and stakeholders in ways they can understand.
collections of data during the early years of the big data
trend, they needed a way to quickly and easily get an
overview of their data. Visualization tools were a natural fit.
3. History of Data Visualization
The concept of data visualization is not new. Moreover, it
Visualization is central to advanced analytics for similar
has been around for centuries. The earliest and most obvious
reasons. When a data scientist is writing advanced predictive
examples of data viz projects are maps. Then you have the
analytics or machine learning (ML) algorithms, it becomes
pie chart which first showed up in the early 19th century. A
important to visualize the outputs to monitor results and
few decades later, Charles Joseph Minard used statistical
ensure that models are performing as intended. This is
graphs in order to map Napoleon Bonaparte’s Russian
because visualizations of complex algorithms are generally
campaign of 1812, combining multiple metrics: the number
easier to interpret than numerical outputs.
of troops, temperature, distance, directions, and more.

Figure 2: Histogram graph of past visualizing the data

Other notable milestones in the history of data visualization that he invented bar charts in the 14th century, although it
include but are not limited to works of Nicole Oresme, was Playfair who later gave the bar chart the form we know
Joseph Priestly, and William Playfair. All of them greatly today. Priestley, in his chart of biography, used a timeline
contributed to the data viz progress. Oresme was one of the with bars to compare multiple persons’ life spans. Playfair is
greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages, and it could be said also credited with the first use of area charts.
Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1089
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
To learn more about the data visualization history, explore “Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography,
the biggest known milestones Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization: An Illustrated
Denis from York University featured in their book Chronology of Innovations. ”

Figure 3: Map of firsts

The idea of visualizing data kept evolving over time, and visualization. The best tools also can output an array of
with the advent of computers and rapid growth of different chart, graph, and map types. Most of the tools
technologies, the discipline definitely took a quantum leap below can output both images and interactive graphs. There
forward. Nowadays, even massive amounts of data - and big are exceptions to the variety of output criteria, though. Some
data itself - can be processed by dataviz software at a very data visualization tools focus on a specific type of chart or
high speed, opening up new exciting opportunities in the map and do it very well. Those tools also have a place
field of data analytics and business intelligence. among the “best” tools out there.

4. Data Visualization Tools Finally, there are cost considerations. While a higher price
tag doesn’t necessarily disqualify a tool, the higher price tag
Data visualization tools provide data visualization designers has to be justified in terms of better support, better features,
with an easier way to create visual representations of large and better overall value.
data sets. When dealing with data sets that include hundreds
of thousands or millions of data points, automating the There are dozens, if not hundreds, of applications, tools, and
process of creating visualization, at least in part, makes a scripts available to create visualizations of large data sets.
designer’s job significantly easier. Many are very basic and have a lot of overlapping features.
But there are standouts that either have more capability for
These data visualizations can then be used for a variety of the types of visualizations they can create or are significantly
purposes: dashboards, annual reports, sales and marketing easier to use than the other options out there.
materials, investor slide decks, and virtually anywhere else
information needs to be interpreted immediately. Seeing the current trend in the industry there are 3 most
popular visualization tools in the market: Power BI (Version
The best data visualization tools on the market have a few 2.78.5740.861), Tableau (Version 2019.1.8) and Cognos
things in common. First is their ease of use. There are some Analytics (Version 11.0.10).
incredibly complicated apps available for visualizing data.
Some have excellent documentation and tutorials and are 5. Gartner Magic Quadrant
designed in ways that feel intuitive to the user. Others are
lacking in those areas, eliminating them from any list of Gartner, Inc, officially known as Gartner, is a Stamford,
“best” tools, regardless of their other capabilities. Connecticut-based technology research and consulting
company. The company's products and services include
The best tools can also handle huge sets of data. In fact, the research, executive programs, consulting, and conferences.
very best can even handle multiple sets of data in a single Gartner clients include large corporations, government

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1090
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
agencies, technology companies, and the investment 3) Visionaries
community. In 2018, the company reported that its client A vendor in the Visionaries quadrant delivers innovative
base consisted of over 12, 000 organizations in over 100 products that address operationally or financially important
countries. Founded in 1979, Gartner has over 15, 000 end-user problems at a broad scale, but has not yet
employees located in 100+ offices worldwide. demonstrated the ability to capture market share or
sustainable profitability. Visionary vendors are frequently
privately held companies and acquisition targets for larger,
established companies. The likelihood of acquisition often
reduces the risks associated with installing their systems.

4) Niche Players
Figure 4: Gartner logo Vendors in the Niche Players quadrant are often narrowly
focused on specific market or vertical segments. This
Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) is a series of market research
quadrant may also include vendors that are adapting their
reports published by IT consulting firm Gartner that rely on
existing products to enter the market under consideration, or
proprietary qualitative data analysis methods to demonstrate larger vendors having difficulty developing and executing on
market trends, such as direction, maturity and participants. their vision.
It basically demonstrates the market research and trends in
Gartner Critical Capabilities complement Magic Quadrant
the current scenario. Their analyses are conducted for several
analysis to offer deeper insight into the products and services
specific technology industries and are updated every 1–2
offered by multiple vendors.
years: once an updated report has been published its
predecessor is "retired"

Gartner rates vendors upon two criteria: completeness of

vision and ability to execute.

Completeness of Vision: Reflects the vendor’s innovation,

whether the vendor drives or follows the market, and if the
vendor’s view of how the market will develop matches
Gartner’s perspective.

Ability to Execute: Summarizes factors such as the vendor’s

financial viability, market responsiveness, product
development, sales channels and customer base.

These component scores lead to a vendor position in one of

four quadrants:

1) Leaders
Vendors in the Leaders quadrant have the highest composite Figure 4: Gartner’s Magic Quadrant
scores for their Completeness of Vision and Ability to
Execute. A vendor in the Leaders quadrant has the market Gartner’s Magic Quadrant (2020) was mapped for various
share, credibility, and marketing & sales capabilities needed companies for Analytics and Business Intelligence. A scatter
to drive the acceptance of new technologies. These vendors plot was formed between the Ability to Execute and
demonstrate a clear understanding of market needs, they are Completeness of Vision which had various MNC’s offering
innovators and thought leaders, and they have well- data analytics and BI tools. The results were as follows:
articulated plans that customers and prospects can use when
designing their infrastructures and strategies. In addition, 1) Power BI was at the top of them all. The reason analyzed
they have a presence in the five major geographical regions, behind this was the ‘viral spread’ of this software. It was
consistent financial performance, and broad platform provided at the community server and most of the people
support. can use this BI software very easily and free of cost just
by making a Microsoft Account. The features of this
2) Challengers software were also relevant and more as compared to its
A vendor in the Challengers quadrant participates in the opponents. The interface was very simple and easy to
market and executes well enough to be a serious threat to use. It was very similar to the present day IDE’s.
vendors in the Leaders quadrant. They have strong products, 2) Tableau was seen next to Power BI. With Google using
as well as sufficiently credible market position and resources it in it’s data analytics courses, it was seen to be very
to sustain continued growth. Financial viability is not an popular among students. It showed uncertainty as it is
issue for vendors in the Challengers quadrant, but they lack backed by Salesforce. Tableau has various features but
the size and influence of vendors in the Leaders quadrant. the issue that arose which made it came to the second
place was the poor report delivery. Although it had most
of the features which Power BI did but it could not be

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1091
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
everyone’s favourite as it did not had a good user was extremely high pricing i.e. $70. It has been seen that
interface. IBM Cognos charges very much as compared to its rivals
3) IBM Cognos Analytics was seen playing catch up in the Power BI i. e $20 and Tableau i. e $35. Thus results in
graph. It was very much lagging behind all other tools. the Niche Players.
There were many reasons to it but the one above those all

Figure 5: Gartner Magic Quadrant 2020 for various companies offering Data Visualization

6. Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a suite that is a collection of business
intelligence tools such as software services, apps and data
connectors. It is a cloud-based platform used to consolidate
data from varied sources into a single data set. These data
sets are used for data visualization, evaluation, and analysis
by making sharable reports, dashboards, and apps. Microsoft
offers three types of Power BI platforms i. e. Power BI
Desktop (a desktop application), Power BI Service (SaaS i.e.,
Software as a Service) and Power BI Mobile (for iOS and
Android devices).

Power BI can be deployed both on-premise and on-cloud. It

can also import data from local databases/data sources,
cloud-based data sources, big data sources, simple Excel
files, and other hybrid sources. Thus, Power BI, a leader
amongst a lot of other BI tools proves to be an efficient and
user-friendly tool for data analysis. It enables the users to Figure 6: Power BI logo
consolidate data from multiple sources, make interactive
dashboards, evaluate data, create informative reports and Features of Power BI:
share it with other users.
1) Range of Attractive Visualizations: Visualizations i. e.
the visual representation of data plays a central role in
Power BI. It offers a wide range of detailed and
attractive visualizations. You can create reports and
Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1092
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
dashboards using as simple or as complex visualizations for and return it to the user. The cognitive technology
as you want to represent your data set with. There is also uses rephrasing, autofill, suggestions and other such
a library available for custom visualizations. In Power techniques to fulfill the search requirements of users.
BI you can create visualizations such as: Stacked bar 9) DAX Data Analysis Function: The DAX functions are
chart, Stacked column chart, Clustered bar chart, the Data Analysis Expressions found in Power BI. These
Clustered column chart, 100% stacked column/bar chart, analysis functions are predefined codes to perform
Line chart, Area chart, Stacked area chart, Ribbon chart, analytics specific functionalities on data. There are
Waterfall chart, Scatter chart, Pie chart, Donut chart, about 200 functions in the Power BI function library
Treemap chart, Map, Filled map, Funnel chart, Gauge as of now. The creators keep on adding new ones.
chart, etc. 10) Help & Feedback Buttons: Help & feedback buttons
2) Get Data (Data Source): Get Data feature lets Power are used for multiple setting options such as
BI users to select from a range of data sources. The data downloading, asking for support and assistance, giving
sources are anywhere in the spectrum from on-premise feedback to the Power BI support team, etc.
to cloud-based, unstructured to structured. New data 11) Great Collection in Content Packs: Power BI offers
sources are added every month. Some of the latest content packs which contain dashboards, data models,
available data sources are as follows: Excel, Power BI datasets, embedded queries, etc. Users can directly use a
datasets, Power BI dataflows, SQL Server, MySQL collection of elements in content packs instead of
database, Analysis Services, Azure, Text/CSV, Oracle, looking for elements separately.
PDF, Access, XML, JSON.
3) Datasets Filtration: Dataset is a single set of data Summarizing all the features, we can conclude that Power BI
created as a result of taking data from multiple data is power packed with all the features. It has the best in class
sources. You can use the datasets to create visualizations user interface which is why it is the most premium Business
of different kinds. A dataset can be made of data taken Intelligence tool in today’s world. Like every coin has two
from a single source like an Excel workbook or from sides Power BI too has some negatives also. The cons of
more than a data source. You can filter the datasets and Power BI are as follows:
have smaller subsets containing only the important data
and contextual relevance. Power BI provides the users Cons of Power BI:
with a wide range of in-built data connectors such as
Excel, SQL database, Oracle, Azure, Facebook, 1) Table Relationships: Power BI is good with handling
Salesforce, MailChimp, etc. Users can easily connect to simple relationships between tables in a data model.
such data sources and create datasets by importing data But, if there are complex relationships between tables,
from one or more sources. that is, if they have more than one links between tables,
4) Customizable Dashboards: Dashboards are a Power BI might not handle them well. You need to
collection of visualizations offering meaningful create a data model carefully by having more unique
information or insights into data. Typical dashboards in fields so that Power BI does not confuse the
Power BI are composed of multiple visualizations as relationships when it comes to complex relationships.
tiles. They are single pages from the reports. The 2) Configuration of Visuals: In most cases, you might not
dashboards are shareable as well as printable. feel the need to configure and optimize visualizations in
5) Flexible Tiles: A tile is a single block containing Power BI. But even if you do, Power BI does not
visualization in a Power BI dashboard. Tiles segregate provide many options to configure your visualizations as
each informative visualization properly to provide a per your requirements. Thus, users have limited options
clearer view. These tiles can be adjusted and the size can for what they can change in visuals.
also be changed. Also, they can be placed anywhere on 3) Rigid Formulas: As we know, the expression language
the dashboard as per the users’ convenience. used to deal with data in Power BI is DAX. However,
6) Navigation Pane: The navigation pane has options of you can perform a lot of actions using the DAX
datasets, dashboards, and reports. Users can formula in Power BI, it is still not the easiest language
conveniently work in Power BI and navigate between to work with. Sometimes the formulas you create work
datasets, dashboard they are working on, and reports well in Power BI, sometimes they don’t. You can
they are creating. concatenate up to two elements but concatenating more
7) Informative Reports: Reports in Power BI are a than two elements needs nesting statements.
combination of dashboards having a different kind of 4) Handling Large Data Volumes: Power BI has a limit
visualizations relevant to a particular business topic. A of ingesting data at a time which is approximately 2
report shows a complete and structured presentation of GBs of data. If you wish to import and use data of even
data represented in different ways and revealing greater volumes, you need to extend your free version to
important insights from the data. Users can easily share a paid version of Power BI. Also, users have reported
reports created on Power BI with other users. that Power BI takes a little more than usual time or even
8) Natural Language Q & A Question Box: The Natural hangs while processing millions of rows and columns of
Language Q&A i. e. question and answer box is a data.
unique feature of Power BI. Using the Q&A box, a user 5) Complex to Understand and Master: Usually, Power
can ask questions in natural language to search for data BI is the easiest to use BI tool if you are using it simply
and information available in Power BI system. The to import data and create reports. But Power BI is an
cognitive engines of Power BI will search for the data or entire suite having a lot of other interrelated tools. When
visualization or a part of the report that is been searched the purpose of your use is more than just creating
Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1093
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
reports in Power BI Desktop, you need to learn and Features of tableau:
master several other tools like Gateways, Power BI
Report Server, Power BI Services, etc. 1) Tableau Dashboard: Tableau Dashboards provide a
wholesome view of your data by the means of
7. Tableau visualizations, visual objects, text, etc. Dashboards are
very informative as they can present data in the form of
Tableau is a powerful and fastest growing data visualization stories, enable the addition of multiple views and
tool used in the Business Intelligence Industry. It helps in objects, provide a variety of layouts and formats, enable
simplifying raw data in a very easily understandable format. the users to deploy suitable filters. You even have the
Tableau helps create the data that can be understood by option to copy a dashboard or its specific elements from
professionals at any level in an organization. It also allows one workbook to another easily.
non-technical users to create customized dashboards. 2) Collaboration and Sharing: Tableau provides
convenient options to collaborate with other users and
Data analysis is very fast with Tableau tool and the instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets,
visualizations created are in the form of dashboards and dashboards, etc. in real-time. It allows you to securely
worksheets. The best features of Tableau software are Data share data from various data sources such as on-premise,
Blending, Real time analysis, Collaboration of data. The on-cloud, hybrid, etc. Instant and easy collaboration and
great thing about Tableau software is that it doesn’t require data sharing help in getting quick reviews or feedback
any technical or any kind of programming skills to operate. on the data leading to a better overall analysis of it.
The tool has garnered interest among the people from all 3) Live and In-memory Data: Tableau ensures
sectors such as business, researchers, different industries, connectivity to both live data sources or data extraction
etc. from external data sources as in-memory data. This
gives the user the flexibility to use data from more than
one type of data source without any restrictions. You
can use data directly from the data source by
establishing live data connections or keep that data in-
memory by extracting data from a data source as per
their requirement. Tableau provides additional features
to support data connectivity such as automatic extract
refreshes, notifying the user upon a live connection fail,
etc.
4) Data Sources in Tableau: Tableau offers a myriad of
data source options you can connect to and fetch data
Figure 7: Tableau logo from. Data sources ranging from on-premise files,
spreadsheets, relational databases, non-relational
Tableau connects and extracts the data stored in various databases, data warehouses, big data, to on-cloud data
places. It can pull data from any platform imaginable. A are all available on Tableau. One can easily establish a
simple database such as an excel, pdf, to a complex database secure connection to any of the data sources from
like Oracle, a database in the cloud such as Amazon webs Tableau and use that data along with data from other
services, Microsoft Azure SQL database, Google Cloud SQL sources to create a combinatorial view of data in the
and various other data sources can be extracted by Tableau. form of visualizations. Tableau also supports different
kinds of data connectors such as Presto, MemSQL,
When Tableau is launched, ready data connectors are Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Cloudera, Hadoop,
available which allows you to connect to any database. Amazon Athena, Salesforce, SQL Server, Dropbox and
Depending on the version of Tableau that you have many more.
purchased the number of data connectors supported by 5) Advanced Visualizations (Chart Types): One of the
Tableau will vary. key features of Tableau and the one that got its
popularity is its wide range of visualizations. In
The pulled data can be either connected live or extracted to Tableau, you can make visualizations as basic as a: Bar
the Tableau’s data engine, Tableau Desktop. This is where chart, Pie chart and as advanced as a: Histogram, Gantt
the Data analyst, data engineer work with the data that was chart, Bullet chart, Motion chart, Treemap, Boxplot and
pulled up and develop visualizations. The created dashboards many more. You can select and create any kind of
are shared with the users as a static file. The users who visualization easily by selecting the visualization type
receive the dashboards views the file using Tableau Reader. from the Show Me tab.
6) Maps: Yet another important feature of Tableau is the
The data from the Tableau Desktop can be published to the map. Tableau has a lot of pre-installed information on
Tableau server. This is an enterprise platform where maps such as cities, postal codes, administrative
collaboration, distribution, governance, security model, boundaries, etc. This makes the maps created on
automation features are supported. With the Tableau server, Tableau very detailed and informative. You can add
the end users have a better experience in accessing the files different layers of geology on the map as per your
from all locations be it a desktop, mobile or email. requirements and create informative maps in Tableau
with your data. The different kinds of maps available in

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

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Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1094
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
Tableau are Heat map, Flow map, Choropleth maps, his/her own account. A great number of accounts
Point distribution map, etc. increases the chances that the system may be hacked.
7) Robust Security: Tableau takes special care of data and 3) IT Assistance for Proper Use: Although the software
user security. It has a fool-proof security system based allows for certain ease in its routine application, Tableau
on authentication and permission systems for data still requires significant involvement of an IT department
connections and user access. Tableau also gives you the in its further configuration and basic functionality
freedom to integrate with other security protocols such expansion. Many operations require the creation of SQL
as Active Directory, Kerberos, etc. An important point queries, which is impossible without using the services of
to note here is that Tableau practices row-level filtering a skilled developer. Even though untrained business users
which helps in keeping the data secure. may leverage the solution, they can not get the best out of
8) Mobile View: Tableau acknowledges the importance of it without the assistance of IT.
mobile phones in today’s world and provides a mobile 4) Poor Versioning: Only recent Tableau versions support
version of the Tableau app. One can create their revision history, while for the older ones, software rolling
dashboards and reports in such a manner that it is also back is impossible.
compatible with mobile. Tableau has the option of 5) Embedment Issues: Although the vendor claims that its
creating customized mobile layouts for your dashboard tool can be easily embedded into any business IT
specific to your mobile device. The customization landscape, in reality, the solution’s capabilities do not
option gives the option for adding new phone layouts, allow for a smooth embedment. Seamless Tableau’s
interactive offline previews, etc. Hence, the mobile view integration into a company’s product is a real challenge
gives Tableau users a lot of flexibility and convenience from both the financial and technical points of view.
in handling their data on the go. 6) Time-and Resource-Intensive Staff Training: Basic
9) Ask Data: The Ask data feature of Tableau makes it use of the application does not demand hyper-focused
even more favored by the users globally. This feature knowledge in Tableau. However, the tool’s visualization
makes playing with data just a matter of simple searches potential is nearly unlimited, while the learning curve is
as we do on Google. You just need to type a query about incredibly steep for non-analyst users. Getting to know
your data in natural language and Tableau will present all of the tool’s capabilities without comprehensive
you with the most relevant answers. The answers are not employee training is nearly impossible. The learning part
only in the form of text but also as visuals. For instance, alone, on both the development and consumption side,
if what you searched for is already present in a bar may take weeks or months, before one can make the best
graph, the Ask data option will search and open the bar use of the tool’s functionality and get an immense benefit
graph for you instantly. Such features make data more from it. At the same time, it increases the cost of
accessible to users who can easily dig deep into data and ownership significantly.
find new insights and patterns.
10) Trend Lines and Predictive Analysis: Another 8. IBM Cognos Analytics
extremely useful feature of Tableau is the use of time
series and forecasting. Easy creation of trend lines and Cognos is a business intelligence and performance
forecasting is possible due to Tableau’s powerful management software suite sold by IBM. The software suite
backend and dynamic front end. You can easily get data was designed to enable non-technical personnel in large
predictions such as a forecast or a trend line by simply enterprises to extract corporate data, analyze them and then
selecting some options and drag-and-drop operations produce reports that would help the business make informed
using your concerned fields. From this, we can conclude decisions. The suite is composed of more than a dozen
that tableau is a very useful tool loaded with user- separate products, which were built on open standards to
friendly features and functionalities which helps us allow them to communicate with various third-party
extract valuable information from raw data and analyze technologies, from multidimensional and relational databases
it using visualizations. to enterprise-grade software such as SAP and Oracle.

Cons of Tableau:

1) Poor After-Sales Support: On multiple message boards,

users complain that Tableau software lacks proper after-
sales maintenance. If a customer has a software
performance problem, the support team doesn’t settle the
matter by investigating the problem’s root and
eliminating it. The best they do is to advise purchasing a
feature, which will compensate for their software’s
shortcoming.
2) Security Issues: Since visualizing solutions manipulate
some confidential data, the vendors draw special
attention to security enhancement. Despite Tableau ’s
deep concern for information safety, it fails to provide
centralized data-level security. It just allows establishing
a row-level security, which stipulates that every user has
Figure 8: IBM Cognos Analytics logo
Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1095
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
Cognos was originally the name of the company that created Cons of IBM Cognos Analytics:
the Business Intelligence suite that is now named after it.
The company was founded in 1969 by Alan Rushforth and 1) Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is more significant than
Peter Glenister, and was originally called Quasar Systems other tools
Limited, which was then a consulting company working for 2) Minimal forecast capabilities
the Canadian government. It shifted its focus to software 3) Investment in Cognos R&D by IBM is declining
sales in 1980 and renamed itself to Cognos in 1982, taken 4) Won’t work smoothly with large data sets having many
from the Latin word "cognosco,” which means "knowledge parameters
from personal experience,” a rather apt name for the type of 5) Cross-browser compatibility is often problematic
industry the company was in. The company was later
acquired by IBM on January 31, 2008, losing its independent 9. Flow of Data
existence but retaining its legacy in the software suite it
developed, which also bears the same name. Flow of data in Power BI

Cognos is a Web-based, integrated business intelligence There is a specific sequence for data to pass through before
suite that provides a powerful toolset for mining, analyzing, getting reported in the end. Power BI like every other BI tool
scorecarding and monitoring of events, data and metrics. It has its report server too called as Power BI Report Server.
allows a business to become top performing and analytics
driven, giving it the capacity to actually predict or find It is basically a cloud based server with light report editing.
market trends and then react to them with informed It works on premises centralized hosting environment. Once
decisions. The software suite contains the following basic the report is published and exported from the Power BI
components: desktop, multiple users can access it if the owner allows
them. Also all the people on the web server can view the
Query Studio-allows for simple queries and self-service dashboard or the visualization made by the host. Hence it is a
reports that answer all basic business questions data analysis and report creating tool on cloud server thus
not limiting to only one person.
Cognos Connection-the Cognos Web Portal, the starting
point for all functions provided in the suite It has data source connections with limited modelling and
the released versions are all behind the Power BI desktop.
Report Studio-used to create management reports including
maps, charts, lists and repeat functions For data cleaning Power BI has its very own Query editor
named as Power Query. It is basically the heart of Power BI.
Event Studio-a notification tool which reports on enterprise With this editor, one can clean the data very easily using
events in real-time significant tools present in the toolbox provided at the top.

Analysis Studio-used for analyzing and understanding

information about a business event or action, identifies
trends and helps users understand anomalies and deviations,
also contains OLAP functionalities, among others

Features of IBM Cognos Analytics:

1) Lower costs-Reduces maintenance due to complete

report coverage and a zero-footprint environment.
2) Faster results-Shortens reporting time due to seamless
integration and adaptive authoring.
3) Improved decision making-Reports and dashboards
present data in easily-understood formats.
4) Ability to use a variety of charts-Crosstabs, bar or 3D
bar, pie or doughnut, line, gauge, funnel, scatter, dot Figure 7: Flow of data in Power BI
density, waterfall, and so forth.
5) Multiple export formats-Excel, Portable Document Flow of data in Tableau
Format (PDF), Extensible Markup Language (XML),
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and Comma In tableau also there is a set format through which data needs
Separated Value (CSV). to be passed before it reaches the end user. The report server
6) Adaptive authoring automatically adjusts report layout of Tableau is named as Tableau Prep Builder and Conductor.
when objects are added, moved, or removed. This report server of tableau is responsible for combining,
7) Ability to work with data using familiar business terms. cleaning and shaping the raw data into useful one. It is used
8) Ability to create complex, multi-page layouts using for scheduling, monitoring and managing the flaws of the
different data sources. data. All the flaws are removed before the data goes for
9) High performance data access across all sources. visualization. The Tableau Desktop is used to transform the
10) Complete connectivity regardless of environment. statistical data into interactive visual representation. All the
data in the record form is made into charts and graphs using
Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021
www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1096
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
Tableau Desktop. It is also used to build in reports to give Summarizing this, we can conclude that the Tableau desktop
insights to decision makers or the stakeholders of the is responsible for the development of the report and the
company. server is responsible for the sharing and collaboration on the
web.
Now the Tableau Server Publishes, Shares and the admin
checks the desktop content. The setup now grants
permissions on workbooks and data sources.

Figure 8: Flow of data in Tableau

Flow of data in Cognos Analytics production systems we can change the gateway from the
default to CGI gateway.
Cognos Analytics, an IBM tool for BI has a separate three- The second tier which comes is the tier of applications. The
tiered architecture for the flow of data. These are basically Server on this tier is referred to application server. It is
web, applications and data. Each of these tires can be basically the content Management Dispatcher of the whole
separated by a firewall. data flow. It manages the applications and then dispatches
for the delivery to be done at the end.
In this web based interface (Cognos Analytics), the first tier
is the web server. In that, we use compiled gateways for The third tier, or the final stage of this data flow is the
production systems. For improving the performance of database itself. Now the data gets compiled and loaded into
the database and thus is ready for the work to be done on it.

Figure 9: Flow of data in Cognos Analytics

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1097
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
10. Dashboards-The best tool for Data analytics process by compiling data and visualizing trends or
Visualization occurrences, and uncovering an objective view of
performance metrics that can be immediately understood.
A dashboard is a data visualization tool that tracks, analyzes, Dashboards feature visualized data via charts, tables, and
and displays KPIs, metrics, and critical data points. gauges. Viewers use these visualizations to monitor the
Dashboards empower technical and non-technical users to health of the organization against established goals and
understand and leverage business intelligence to make more industry benchmarks.
informed decisions. Users actively participate in the

Comparing dashboards of Power BI and tableau v/s IBM Cognos Analytics

Power BI and tableau

Dashboard of Power BI:

Figure 10: Power BI dashboard

Dashboard of Tableau:

Figure 11: Tableau dashboard

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1098
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
The dashboard of Power BI and tableau are very simple, They mostly use drag and drop for designing. The charts and
interactive and have sharing capabilities to foster graphs could be formatted in the user’s design very easily.
collaboration.

IBM Cognos Analytics

Dashboard of IBM Cognos Analytics:

Figure 12: IBM Cognos Analytics Dashboard

The dashboard offered by IBM Cognos Analytics is very in-built features, Ease of development, Community Support
much complicated. Most of the users find it difficult to and Project maintenance.
understand. It has less features as compared to its rivals
Power BI and Tableau.

IBM Cognos Analytics provides us a very different user

interface and beginners find it very difficult to use. Once a
person is familiar to this kind of dashboard, then it is easy to
use this platform.

11. Conclusion-The Final Survey

Many Data Scientists have already done a lot in the field of
data visualization. But as we know there is nothing like
perfect tool. Every tool needs an upgrade over a period to
make itself best in the era. So a survey was conducted for the
students and faculty of TCA-Training and Development (An
institution for Computer Sciences) to study the tools in a
practical way. A questionnaire was made, which had both
subjective as well as coded questions.

The subjective questions contained Accessibility (Ease of

usage), Connecting to Data, Data preparation/Data cleaning,
Security and General Feedback about all the three BI tools
Figure 13: Survey page
whereas the coded questions involved Visualization, Use of

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1099
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
Survey Results

Figure 14: Results of the survey conducted

The results of this survey were aren’t very surprising. They Responses for IBM Cognos Analytics
were also in accordance to the current trend in the industry.
The results suggested that Power BI and Tableau were close 1) Accessibility (Ease of usage): The UI of the tool feels
in the areas of interest whereas IBM Cognos Analytics outdated and has a steeper learning curve than more
lagged behind. The results were very much familiar to the modern tools, such as Power BI and Tableau.
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant which showed that IBM Cognos 2) Connecting to Data: According to many users, it was
Analytics played a catch up and was in the Niche Players fairly easy to connect the report to the database.
quadrant. 3) Data Preparation and Data Cleaning: Cognos does
not offer much flexibility in preparation/Cleaning. All
Responses for Power BI the work done before saves us huge time.
4) Security: Cognos should be secured as users have
1) Accessibility (Ease of Usage): The tool was found to accessed it both in network and outside network.
be intuitive, and the online service had the same user-
friendly permission management as other Office365
apps.
2) Connecting to data: Power BI was able to connect to
the various data sources the user worked on.
3) Data Preparation and Data Cleaning: Power Bi itself Feedback of the survey
provide data cleaning/prep tools via Power Query
4) Security: The tools security was found to be good. Power BI
People could mask the data which they want to present 1) Potential to grow since there are regular updates every
as well so they found it secured. month
2) Smooth integration with other Microsoft tools
Responses for Tableau 3) Run script directly and import the resulting dataset
4) Cost-effective and easy to obtain a license
1) Accessibility (Ease of Usage): Tableau had a learning
curve. Once someone understands how the software Tableau
works, it is easy to use, has a large community to help 1) Ease of creating Calculated fields and Parameters
with questions and a powerful tool for data 2) Tableau Server and Tableau Online provides easy web
visualizations. access
2) Connecting to data: People loved the connectivity of 3) Higher Cost as compared to alternatives
this tool to various data sources. They used Excel, Data 4) Time consuming as data preparation required before
Extracts and MySQL. usage
3) Data Preparation and Data Cleaning: Many people
been using Tableau Prep more and more and they find IBM Cognos Analytics
it's a pretty intuitive tool. 1) Good for running Excel Reports
4) Security: Tableau has good security and so far, have 2) Development is time consuming
not faced any issues with respect to security concerns. 3) Tool is not intuitive

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1100
 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
ISSN: 2319-7064
SJIF (2020): 7.803
4) Lack of Online Community

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Guide

Volume 10 Issue 11, November 2021

www.ijsr.net
Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
Paper ID: SR211121185807 DOI: 10.21275/SR211121185807 1101