Where are the Cognos User Groups?

[DaBaker]

Do we have some upcoming Cognos Analytics User Groups?

If you do, please share them here or maybe you want to start one up in your region and gauge the interest? 

[cognostechie]

As far as I know, Cognos is now almost dead, killed by Power BI, in spite of licensing cost going down so user groups won't really matter anymore. The only companies who now use Cognos are the ones who have applications sold to them by vendors who have BI made in Cognos and who have not migrated yet (Ex: Deltek who sells their ERP along with a BI made using Cognos without a Data Warehouse - the worst BI I have ever seen)

[dougp]

An unfortunate outcome of Microsoft evangelism and indoctrination in offices and college and high school classrooms.  Power BI continues to have more and more followers even though it is inferior to products like Cognos Analytics.

I've seen this myself.  I have had complaints that people want Power BI instead of Cognos because Cognos changes too often.  A little confusing for me based on facts:  I upgrade Cognos every 2 years.  The last upgrade and the next have little that users notice.  So no noticeable change for most users for at least 4 years.  Meanwhile, Power BI changes every month.  I've seen step-by-step instructions written 3 weeks ago that can no longer be followed.  I've also seen that reports created this month can't be opened in last month's Power BI Desktop.  So it's clear that people make that decision based on religious preference, not based on actual product capabilities.

[cognostechie]

Cognos does have better features and is more versatile but it also requires technical resources which were hard to find. Most developers are average and nobody was able to make self-service BI which resulted in inferior results. Power BI is easier to use even if it provides less results overall and average resources are sufficient for it.

[dougp]

Seems like that on the surface -- attending training asking trivial questions against trivial data.  But when the business user needs to answer a real-world question using actual data...  How many end users do you think will become experts in DAX and M?

[cognostechie]

Agreed that for the complex reports, both would need technical developers but Power BI still scores on easier reports for which the users don't need technical knowledge. The interface is much more user friendly for easy stuff. They prefer to make 4 easy reports instead of one complex report in Cognos giving them their independence.