MicroStrategy Business Objects Cognos comparision

Single Metadata – Object definition is stored in a database (called metadata), How easy is changes to be integrated made from one interface to another.

64 Bit support – 32 bit system can’t address more than 4 GB of system space. All non-Windows OS are available in 64 bit for ages. Windows also got it in June 2005, but BI vendor should be able to support 64 bit OS.

Scalability – Any calculation performed in database is the best and fast and let very small load on the BI architecture. But not all BI vendors let it happen.

Reusable Objects – Make once use zillion times.

Objects Version Control – Ability to have different version of same (schema) objects.

WYSIWYG – Look and feel of what you created and finally how it looks.

Security – Object, User security.

Personalization – Single report but show different output to different users.

Manual fine-tuning SQL – Easily making changes to generated SQL.

Ease of SQL Generation – Make Schema object and system and forget about the right SQL generation.

MS Office integration – Run report directly from Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

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	MicroStrategy	Business Objects	Cognos
Single Metadata	Yes	No	No
64 Bit support	Very Good	Good	Good
Scalability	Excellent	Good	Very Good
Reusable bjects	Excellent	Good	Good
Objects Version Control	Very Bad	Excellent	Very Good
WYSIWYG	Very Good	Very Good	Very Good
Security	Very Good	Good	Very Good
Personalization	Very Good	Good	Bad
Manual fine-tuning SQL	Good	Excellent	Excellent
Ease of SQL generation	Excellent	Very Good	Very Good
MS Office integration	Very Good	Bad	Good
Learning Curve	Bad	Very Good	Very Good
Number of Clients	10000	42000	23000
Number of Employees	2000	NA	3500
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$
Average Pay (USD)##	83000	78000	79000
Job Security	Good	Excellent	Very Good
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$

## - indeed.com