Everyone seems to be asking the same question:
“When should we migrate from Cognos to Power BI?”
Perhaps the better question is:
“Should we migrate at all?”
I’ve spoken to many organisations that have already decided on a migration before clearly identifying the business problem they’re trying to solve.
A migration can be expensive, time consuming and disruptive.
So before committing to a multi-year project, ask yourself:
Are users struggling with the current platform?
Is Cognos preventing the business from achieving its goals?
Are there functionality gaps that genuinely need to be addressed?
Will Power BI deliver measurable business value or is it simply the newer platform?
Have you calculated the total costs of the migration, training and ongoing support?
In some cases migrating makes perfect sense, in others, organisations discover that modernising their existing Cognos environment, improving governance or redesigning key reports delivers most of the benefits at a fraction of the cost.
Technology decisions should be driven by business outcomes not market trends.
Cognos and Power BI are both excellent platforms, but the right answer isn’t always a migration. Sometimes the best investment is making better use of the platform you already have.
Before asking how to migrate, make sure you’ve answered why.