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IBM Cognos is a suite of business intelligence and performance management software, that includes dashboards, reports, forecasting, visualization & automation.
SAP BusinessObjects is a business intelligence suite with reporting and visualization tools for gaining insight into key metrics such as sales performance, revenue, budgets, and more. Empower business users with anytime, anywhere access to key insights delivered in context and in real time.
Starting from
10.60
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Starting from
14000
Per year
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Verified reviewer
Computer Software, 10,001+ employees
Used monthly for less than 6 months
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It's an excellent reporting tool mainly used for data analysis. The best part is its interface that is really catchy.
Cognos is a Business intelligence tool but it's costlier to buy and implement.
Gary M.
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering,
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Users love it, but it has a steep learning curve.
It's a bit outdated in terms of GUI compared to BusinessObjects.
Verified reviewer
Financial Services, 501-1,000 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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Good enterprise product for business intelligence and trend analysis
We have used IBM Cognos to create customer insights and patterns to help in our marketing and targeting campaigns. The dashboards and graphs have multiple styles and formats and can be scheduled to be generated at specific times
Larger reports tend to be slow to generate from the report studio. Installation can also be challenging and may require purchase of vendor support
Catarina A.
Information Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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I use IBM Cognos daily, as this is the tool made available by SAP Concur to work with Business Intelligence reports. I use it to provide the necessary information to those who require it, and it works more or less like a database, where you can apply SQL language - but in a slightly different format.
I think this tool is quite good, since it allows the user several functionalities: create and adapt BI reports, automate the export of a report in a set period and for the necessary containers (they do not need a license to receive), etc. . I love working with this tool from IBM. It allows some SQL language, and some configuration features that are very good too.
One thing I can point out as a cons of this tool, is the fact that it does not always return the correct information (because the user, without knowing it, can mix incompatible information) - and only at a more advanced stage do we notice that the information is not correct - because we have no error information. When we actually have information about the errors, this is also not very detailed, that is, we are left without knowing what the error is anyway. It is difficult to make correct associations in this tool, because it is very restricted in relation to the use of the database and the compatibility of the data between them.
Gerson M.
Used other for 2+ years
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Take your time and implement it right and the rewards will be very good.
It has integration with with other IBM products like business intelligence. The excel functionality is great for finances. The product to meet our needs perfectly for all our needs.
Creating reports is overwhelming at the beginning but if you dedicate time and resources there will be the face of your deployment.
Justin S.
Higher Education, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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General business intelligence tool that is showing its age and needs to be geared more for agile. Not a great solution for small user numbers or more towards hardcore analyst/data scientist.
The latest versions have improved the report writer experience by consolidating a few of the modules. Generally robust at connecting to single data sources.
Steep learning curve for writing reports and setting up Framework Manager packaging is way too time consuming. The end user interface got more complicated and less easy to use in their attempt for more flashiness. The latest versions have been extremely buggy. Data blending and quick turnarounds are not its strong point.
kalyan k.
Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
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Business intelligence tools (BI tools) are a way for companies to monitor data and generate business insights – necessary components in making smarter, better decisions that drive results. But once you start research and compare BI software, you realize there are many types, from business analytics and big data statistics to reporting tools and dashboards that offer at-a-glance information across indicators.
Very Powerfull
It' Great Product
Leon P.
Information Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees
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Cognos is one of 2 major Business Intelligence tools on the market. If it is implemented correctly, it could provide complete web-based business solution based on the data analysis. It is a platform which allowing to deliver mission critical analytics to the business including but not limited to Enterprise reporting, Planning & Forecast, OLAP cubes technology, etc.
- The application designed to enable business users with limited technical knowledge to extract data, analyze it and make business decision based on the analysis; - It could be used within relational or multidimensional data sources; - It is included a mobile version allowing users to access a complete version of Cognos from mobile devices;
- very sensitive in implementation; - requiring significant resources in order to maintain and support; - too expensive for mid-size companies;
Verified reviewer
Government Administration, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall it is a great product to use
Cognos Analytics is a flexible software for Standard Business Intelligence Reporting as well as for Self Service Data Visualization capability. You have the option to connect to a variety of the Data Sources as well as Multi-Dimensional Cubes. The new invention of Cognos Analytics software provides a greater flexibility for enterprise deployments and upgrades. It has the new feature of NLP (natural language processing) for predictive analytics by IBM Watson.
Too many modelling tools (Cognos FrameWork Manager, Dynamic Cube Designer, Cognos Transformer) for modelling the content. Too many studios (Report Studio, Query Studio, Analysis Studio and Event Studio) for report development. Maintainence and cost is huge
Luca P.
Banking, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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L'uso di IBM Cognos Analytics si è rilevato utile quando è stato necessario ottenere molteplici informazioni da grandi quantità di dati per pianificare budget. In questo ha aiutato l'ampio portafoglio di strumenti analitici (OLAP, data mining, e simulazione di scenari). In particolare usando Cognos TM1, ho potuto simulare scenari diversi e comprendere l'impatto sul budget.
IBM Cognos Analytics contiene un insieme di strumenti di business intelligence che lo rendono discretamente completo. Il software offre molteplici modalità di analisi dei dati, tra cui reportistica, OLAP, data mining, pianificazione e simulazione di scenari. La piattaforma ha uno strumento di progettazione di report wysiwyg ed efficaci funzionalità per la pianificazione e il budgeting. IBM Cognos Analytics è disponibile in modalità ibrida e può essere implementato on-premise o come soluzione cloud.
Il prodotto risulta sicuramente costoso, specialmente se utilizzato in realtà piccole e poco strutturate. Inoltre potrebbe migliorare nell'interfaccia grafica, che risulta poco accattivante e datata
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Letizia G.
Management Consulting, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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All’interno di alcuni istituti bancari, in qualità di consulente, mi sono ritrovata ad utilizzare IBM Cognos Analytics al fine di monitorare la redditività di alcune branch della banca, individuare zone di miglioramento e definire le azioni da intraprendere per aumentare la redditività in base alle analisi dei dati. In particolare il software è stato utile per monitorare i KPI di ogni brand dell’istituto, definendone le prestazioni in modo oggettivo sulla base del numero di conti aperti e del numero di prestiti (o in generale prodotti) venduti. Una volta individuate le branch più deboli è stato necessario analizzare il tasso di propensione alla chiusura del conto, di prepayment del prestito e la tipologia di clientela, per identificarne le caratteristiche. Delineato il profilo della clientela, e forniti alcuni report al reparto marketing, sono state strutturare campagne e prodotti ad hoc. Con Cognos, infine, è stato monitorato l’andamento delle campagne, evidenziandone l’efficacia e costruiti dei report da presentare al management.
IBM Cognos Analytics è una soluzione di Business Intelligence, basata sul cloud, che grazie alle funzioni Self Service permette ai reparti business di un azienda, solitamente composti da soggetti non tecnici, di accedere ai dati ed effettuare sugli stessi semplici, ma efficaci, analisi e creare report personalizzati di dettaglio. In linea generale Cognos Analytics, il quale è in grado di connettersi a diverse tipologie di database, permette di pulire i dati e crearne dei modelli utili ad implementare report o dashboard. I report e le dashboard interattive presentano un elevato grado di personalizzazione e risultano semplici da creare mediante funzioni di drag & drop. In tal modo i report business di un azienda possono monitorare i KPI e prendere decisioni informati sui dati.
IBM Cognos Analytics consente di effettuare, tendenzialmente, semplici analisi dei dati. Per andare maggiormente in profondità è necessario integrarlo con altri prodotti IBM, come IBM Watson Studio, con relativo incremento del costo delle licenze per le aziende.
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VIKAS S.
Information Services, 10,001+ employees
Used other for 6-12 months
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It is AI driven, improves the business outcomes.It enhances decision making.Overall it improves business agility.
The best thing is "Quality reports can be run at any time and by any representative with a substantial log-in " at IBM Cognos Analytics.The AI enabled exploration and dashboard capabilities are easy to use and exceed expectations
It is not simple to use. User has to get the formal training to utilise it to maximum extent. Report pulling is not that much fast. It take quite some time to load and display.
Verified reviewer
Medical Devices, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
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It has been good, but I am still looking for the best to match my business practices
It allows the user to create reports and customize based on user needs
It is expensive compared to a lot of the other software out there
Verified reviewer
Banking, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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one of the best complete solution for delivering insights from data at enterprise level
the powerful framework manager, allow us to implement complicated logic into model and deliver a package to end user, business user can do ad-hoc report easily.
steep learning curve for beginners. not mention people who doesn't have BI experience, Had a few new team members from tableau background. the FM package complexity is much more than they have done in the tableau data source.
Alvaro R.
Management Consulting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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TM1 allows you to build business models that display online results available to all authorized users of the organization.
IBM Cognos TM1 facilitates the creation of business models with the participation and contribution of users throughout the organization regardless of their physical location. TM1 is a enterprise-level platform that allows an integral, flexible, rigorous and perfect control over the users that contribute with the creation of the budget. It allows building multidimensional models that incorporate the business rules that govern the financial processes of the company.
IBM Cognos TM1 needs to train personnel to administer the platform. The construction of the models requires specialized IT staff. The cost of the licenses is for medium and large companies.
Nathan P.
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Really easy to integrate with Oracle systems to pull reports ad hoc or scheduled. Simple solution for IR departments to use in multiple business fields.
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Matt F.
Construction, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It gives big data meaning and helps us answer business question so we can make smart decisions and provide relevant and cleanly formatted data to our customers.
It is straight-forward and feature-rich. We have combined dozens and dozens of queries into a single report without any issue before, so it has that advantage over most of the alternative solutions.
The version of Cognos we are running currently makes it difficult to pinpoint the bottle-neck of certain reports.
Federico A.
Banking, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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It was the greatest experience we have with a BI tool. We really loved it.
This solution has everything for Data Analysis, since ETL to Visualization. Great tool for Business Analytics. Supports a wide variety of data sources, great reporting features and capabilities, you can publish to PDF, predictive analytics, and easy to create Dashboards with multiple templates.
They need to work on their compatibility with web browsers, it did not work with Opera. The price is a little high per user. You cannot share a Dashboard unless the other party has a license.
Nicolas P.
Financial Services, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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It provides a set of highly flexible and customizable features that help improve our analytics and positively impact our decision-making.
It allows you to connect the data thrown by different sources and create personalized reports that you can share in real time. It allows planning operations based on pre-established rules to model the entire business process and obtain the best results on the implemented strategies.
Its license has a high cost compared to similar platforms. It has a steep learning curve and its user interface has a lot of room for improvement.
Tracey S.
Computer Software,
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What I like best about Cognos BI is the ability to use the Analytics reports to easily create whatever kind of analytical view I want and to change it on the fly. It is so easy to use. The Cube dimensions, levels, categories, and measures give me the power that I need to run any report I want and to create new ones as the business changes.
There is a lot to the installation of this product, but it's worth it.
Robert G.
Construction, 10,001+ employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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It brings a lot of functionality all under one roof. Our team found the "visualization" a little easier in Cognos vs Power BI, but the paginated reporting better in SSRS/PBIRS. We ended up transitioning entirely from Cognos to the MS stack and the broad consensus by the team is it was an overall welcomed upgrade. We're starting to consider Tableau or Looker, but returning to Cognos isn't on our horizon.
The ability to visualize data in many way all using the same utility is beneficial so we don't have to worry about multiple deployment/support patterns. Having an in-memory OLAP option made performance less of an issue compared to hitting an on-prem database directly for everything. The ability to add custom code allows for some really creative solutions to unique business problems in reporting.
We felt the interface and functionality was a little dated - our more technical employees were fine but the more analyst-type developers preferred something "prettier"/"friendlier" like Tableau/Power BI. It also got expensive for us which was one of the two the primary reasons we transitioned. This is obviously dependent on the number of users, so consider your own environment of course.
Michael B.
Primary/Secondary Education, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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My company has been using IBM Cognos for the past 4 years. When we purchased IBM Cognos it was the best fit for our situation. It has been a valued piece of software in our business. It has given us the ability to tie data from multiple data sources. It has given the ability for our departments to run reports that we haven't been able to in the past.
The software is very intuitive. If you have knowledge of SQL, it is a very easy software to pick up. The Help portion of the Cognos interface is very helpful also.
Customer Support for this product isn't the best. We have been on Cognos 10.1.1 for a while and when it came up for licensing renewal, we were charged for a newer version of Data Manger. When we inquired about this through our support contract we were going to be charged for the new software.
Henri A.
Computer Software, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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We have been using Cognos BI for many years for data reporting and performance analysis. Our business analysts were constantly complaining about the long delays to get data extracts. Withe Cognos Analytics we were in a position to give the BA access to pertinent data extracts in record time and with minimum hands-on training. This empowered them and allowed them to spend more time on building predictions and preparing recommendations for corrective actions.
The quick learning curve which turns every intuition into a positive experience
The story telling capabilities are not seamless enough and consume too much efforts to be reach the desired effect.
Glenn H M.
Oil & Energy, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I utilized it to complete projects as part of my Coursera studies; it is taught step by step, and cloud computing was much more familiar to me. On a monthly basis, we do key reconciliations to predict, and reports allow us to record all data pieces. IBM Cognos Analytics recognizes business demands and improves job productivity; it can manage big volumes of data; and it makes it extremely simple for all departments to build reports to see the data. While reporting, you may effortlessly combine numerous searches or arrange your data; no background or technical expertise is necessary.
The software is highly intuitive since it recognizes the demands of the business and promotes work productivity; it can manage a big quantity of data and allows all departments to easily build reports to examine the data. While reporting, you may effortlessly combine numerous searches or arrange your data; no background or technical expertise is necessary. The process is quite fluid, and compared to other cloud services I've tried, IBM Cognos offers a well-designed interface that is simple to educate personnel on. Reports give significant detail that can be exported and edited to explain crucial choices. They are simple to run and compatible with office applications.
Reports may take some time to execute depending on their size; reporting software may include cautions about where students committed errors and the report will not run; alternatively, more thorough instructions for new employees are provided. You obviously require proper training, and anyone who aren't familiar with SQL will struggle to put it up. I've been seeing some delays while switching sites or loading materials, but I appreciate IBM's ability to work on this issue.
Laura T.
Management Consulting, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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L’uso prevalente che personalmente faccio di IBM Cognos Analytics è quello della creazione di report. In particolare creo report finanziari di dettaglio per i miei clienti, al fine di evidenziare, ad esempio, l’andamento delle vendite in diverse aree geografiche o per diverse linee di business. Uso Cognos anche per definire dashboard interattive utili a montare in tempo reale le performance finanziare, queste dashboard includono KPI come fatturato o margine operativo. L’attività di reportistica risulta molto semplice in Cognos sia per la sua capacità di collegarsi a più fonti dati, sia per la possibilità di manipolare il dato mediante query SQL.
IBM Cognos Analytics, software di BI, dispone di una suite completa di funzionalità di reporting, dashboarding, data exploration e data modeling. Il modulo reporting, che utilizzo di frequente, il quale ha un motore basato su SQL, permette di creare report dettagliati, utilizzando input multi-fonte, e disponendo i dati in modo strategico grazie alla possibilità di manipolarli con query SQL. Un altro modulo che utilizzo è quello di dashboarding, che permette di creare dashboard di sintesi con widget interattivi. IBM Cognos Analytics non dispone di sole funzionalità di reporting, ma grazie al modulo explorations è in grado di analizzare un grande quantità di dati ed identificarne pattern nascosti con l’uso di algoritmi di machine learning, i quali sono in grado di suggerire anche la miglior tipologia di visualizzazione di dati per identificarne dei legami.
IBM Cognos Analytics ha un ammanco nella gestione della governare, elemento necessario in un software di BI. Infatti il software non dispone di opzioni per gestire il ciclo di vita dei dati, elemento fondamentale per organizzazione di un certo livello con dimensione ragguardevoli.
Showing original review in Italian. See translation
Verified reviewer
Chemicals, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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This is definitely a good tool for self service analytics and good for data preparation
For an SAP environment, this is best tool for reporting, since it can be connected effectively with SAP
The connectivity of this tool with non SAP tools is not straight forward or simple
jigar m.
Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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The ability to navigate through the product is just amazing. Its easy for anyone to get a hang on and use the product.
There could be more data cleansing features.Also the some advance analytics functions could also be embedded.
Xiaojun S.
Used weekly for less than 6 months
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I used it to teach business analytics. It serves as a great tool to get students interested.
I like the most about this software is it is easy to use, fast and cool looking. There is little prior knowledge required.
What I like the least about the product is sometimes different to find help and its documentation is not clearly written.
Verified reviewer
Biotechnology, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Establishing a culture of self service analytics within the organization with initial training and support as and when required.
SAP business objects is an easy to learn and use analytical tool especially in the context of self service analytics by end users. One is able to re-use the same query and also share the query with other users as well and modify the query at any given time for customization purposes. It is also fast.
As with any new tool, there is an initial learning curve to get ramped up - however there is fairly good documentation available for this purpose. In addition, need good network bandwidth especially when there are multiple users trying to run queries at the same time
gaurav s.
Computer Software, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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no support for cube based technology
Nice SAP product which integrates with all databases and connects to different tools for reporting and analytics
Not good in performance while connecting to multi dimensions and in-memory analytics and reporting, no support for cube based technology
alla g.
Banking, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, really great product used by many international banks.
This software is excellent to use for data analytics, to create graphs, tables, and overall financial reporting.
The software is locking a really good support team to address user's issues. The 24 hours support is necessary
NavyTim o.
Medical Devices, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Better data capture from SAP than available within SAP
Directly takes SAP data as is and is flexible to allow re-positioning and formatting of data to meet analytics and graphics needs
Latest BOXI revisions are a bit temperamental and require extensive IT pro help and support to avoid data confusion and incorrect messaging
Prince T.
Computer Software, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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You have options to upgrade, SAP Lumira is the next amazing product to always upgrade to when you are ready for the next level of analytics and graphical representation of your data
SAP BI itself is still stagnant in its improvements, sticking on to the traditional functionalities of the product, it has a huge gap between its next level of reporting.
Rupesh A.
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SAP BO/BI 4.1 is Excellent tool for Analytics Feature & functionality wise. We can easily make analysis base on BW/HANA & RDBMS database. In BI 4.2 SAP has provided very good Feature as Parallel query execution, Recycle bin, Commenting & Shred element.
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Manasseh K.
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Any organization may change the game with SAP as a tool. Due to its ease of use and of integration.
In the context of self-service analytics by end users, SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence is a simple to learn and use analytical tool. The same query can be used repeatedly, shared with other users, and changed at any time for customized needs.
Learning how to utilize it could be a little challenging, but once you do, it's really pretty helpful.
Shankar N.
Consumer Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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SAP Business Objects is the pioneer in BI space and now a leader with the release of 4.2 packed with tons of features and easy to implement architecture. Whether you are taking from SAP data or other systems, Business Objects is one stop solution for all your reporting and analytics needs
Ease of use and All in one
Deprecation of some old features
Attila M.
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 10,001+ employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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BusinessObjects offered a wide range of reporting and analytics tools. Non-technical users could simply design a report, schedule it for timely refresh and get it delivered to the end-users in a fully automated way. SQL scripts also available to identify data sources, table connections etc...
It takes time to fully discover and understand all the functionalities, but it will pay out on the long run. Data load takes longs when working with large databases.
Aubree S.
Insurance, 501-1,000 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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