Betty Lou (fictitious name) called me and said she needed a better tool for budgeting. She’s done with the annual Excel process that is very laborious. Betty Lou wanted a better planning and forecasting solution that would plug into her Cognos BI. Someone told her to check out TM1. As I pulled Betty Lou’s entitlements, I noticed she had 1 Analytics Admin, 2 Business Analytics Explorers and 15 Business Analytics Users for a total of 18 users on an Enterprise licensing model. She said she would only need about 18 licenses for TM1. Read on to see how Cognos Express Savings on TM1 and BI can be yours!

Based on Betty Lou’s requirements, Betty Lou should be looking at the IBM Cognos Express licensing model. Express is a midmarket/departmental solution that has most of the functionality of the Enterprise IBM Cognos licensing model but at a fraction of the price. IBM restricts the Express licensing to less than 100 totals users of which no more than 50 can be TM1 and a single server installation. Betty Lou could easily live with the restrictions. The problem is that Betty Lou’s existing BI licenses were purchased prior to IBM creating Express and therefore were Enterprise licenses. Because Express and Enterprise are not designed to talk together, one would assume Betty Lou would have to purchase Cognos Enterprise TM1. Not necessarily!

Enterprise BI Clients Purchasing Cognos Express TM1

IBM Cognos Clients that have small BI deployments and want to purchase less than 50 TM1 users, may want to look at Cognos Express. Cognos Express has a license that includes TM1 and BI in one user. This allows you to invest in Cognos Express for TM1 (much cheaper than Enterprise) and move your BI content to Cognos Express so the TM1 users can leverage your existing BI work. How cool is that? Lodestar Solutions did some preliminary testing for Betty Lou and were amazed how easy it was to move the BI content to Express. (Anticipate a future blog and video on this topic).

Enterprise BI Clients with Cognos Planning Consider Purchasing Cognos Express TM1

IBM Cognos Clients that have small BI deployment and less than 50 Cognos Planning users may want to look at Cognos Express. Despite my love for Cognos Planning, it’s time to migrate to TM1. The new features and functionality of TM1 kick Planning’s keister. But the licensing cost to migrate to Enterprise TM1 may be an issue. Cognos Express has a license that includes TM1 and BI in one user. This allows you to invest in Cognos Express for TM1 (much cheaper than Enterprise) and move your BI content to Cognos Express so the TM1 users can leverage your existing BI work.

Enterprise TM1 Enterprise clients with a smaller deployment.

IBM Cognos Clients that have small TM1 deployments less than 50 users may want to look at Cognos Express too in order to gain the BI functionality at a lower cost. Cognos Express has a license that includes BI and TM1 in one user. This allows you to invest in Cognos Express for BI (much cheaper than Enterprise) and move your TM1 content to Cognos Express so the BI users can leverage your existing TM1 model. There are some design considerations in moving Enterprise TM1 to Express for TM1 so call Lodestar Solutions for details.

In summary, be open to exploring alternative licensing models that might better fit your organization and your budget. IBM Cognos Express does have some restrictions like number of users but if you can live with them, the software has almost all the functionality of Enterprise at a fraction of the price. Lodestar Solutions is happy to answer any questions you may have 813-415-2910 or email Sales@LodestarSolutions.com.

If you liked this blog on Cognos Express Savings, check on this blog the depreciation of Analysis and Query Studio by clicking here.