Cognos is a developer of Business Intelligence software developed by IBM. Cognos is designed for the Business users who have no technical Knowledge to extract corporate data, analyze it and assemble reports. Cognos is a combination of nearly three dozen software products.

Cognos was an Ottawa, Ontario-based company making Business Intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) software. Founded in 1969, at its peak Cognos employed almost 3,500 people and served more than 23,000 customers in over 135 countries. Originally Quasar Systems Limited, it adopted the Cognos name in 1982. On January 31, 2008, Cognos was officially acquired by IBM. The Cognos name continues to be applied to IBM’s line of Business Intelligence and performance management products.

In 2005 IBM’s leading performance management software Cognos 8 Business Intelligence suite was first introduced. Cognos 8 Business Intelligence’s capabilities include reporting, analysis, dash boarding and scorecards, delivered through a web-based service-oriented architecture.

In 2007, following SAP’s acquisition of Business Objects and Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion, IBM announced its acquisition of Cognos in November for $4.9 billion.It continued to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary (Cognos, an IBM company) until January 1, 2009, when it was absorbed into IBM’s Information Management brand within the company’s Software Group. The software is now called “Cognos Business Intelligence and Financial Performance Management” or Cognos BI and FPM.

in September 2009 IBM Cognos Express launched an integrated Business Intelligence and planning solution purpose-built to meet the needs of midsize companies. The features of the Cognos Express are:

Cognos Express Reporter (Self-service reporting and ad hoc query)
Cognos Express Advisor (Freeform analysis and visualization)
Cognos Express Xcelerator (Microsoft Excel-based planning and business analysis)
IBM Cognos also offers several Application Development Tools:
IBM Cognos PowerHouse 4GL
IBM Cognos PowerHouse Web
IBM Cognos Axiant 4GL

In October 2010, IBM released Cognos 10, which integrates Cognos with other IBM products, including SPSS Predictive Analytics and Lotus Connect. Cognos 10 comes with mobile capability, allowing users to access a complete version of Cognos from mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones. IBM’s Cognos products are used by over 23,000 companies around the world, and are consistently ranked in the “leaders” category of Gartner Magic Quadrants for Business Intelligence.

The main objective of Business Intelligence is to bring the right information at the right time. Usually, the data is pulled from several sources and transformed into accurate and consistent information which is stored in the Data Warehouse. Now Cognos is one of the largest suppliers of Business Intelligence Tools globally and the name is recognized as a leader in their field of Business Intelligence reporting.

TrainingCognos Trainer-lead Cognos Online Training is live, real-time and interactive. It is not self paced or pre-recorded, and provides many of the same benefits of in-person classroom training, With inter-active live chat and online collaboration features, information flow between students and their instructors or peers can equal or even surpass that of the classroom training experience.