Microstrategy and Cognos license their product by Roles. There is a different cost associated with each Role. There are also many options such as do you want the MS Office tools.
I think that a real high-level average cost per user is about 2,000 for Cognos and 2,200 for Microstrategy. This excludes the cost of the Cognos Data Manager product, since Microstrategy does not have an ETL tool.
Some Cognos Roles
Cognos 8 BI Consumer
This role is aimed at users, who will view scheduled reports and run reports interactively through the Cognos Connection portal. It provides the rights to:
Cognos 8 BI Business Analyst
This role is aimed at business users, who need to view scheduled reports, run reports interactively, and need to perform interactive analysis. It provides the rights to:
Use of all of the rights defined for the Cognos 8 BI Consumer role
Use the Cognos 8 BI Analysis Studio module and functionality
I think that a real high-level average cost per user is about 2,000 for Cognos and 2,200 for Microstrategy. This excludes the cost of the Cognos Data Manager product, since Microstrategy does not have an ETL tool.
Some Cognos Roles
Cognos 8 BI Consumer
This role is aimed at users, who will view scheduled reports and run reports interactively through the Cognos Connection portal. It provides the rights to:
Cognos 8 BI Business Analyst
This role is aimed at business users, who need to view scheduled reports, run reports interactively, and need to perform interactive analysis. It provides the rights to:
Use of all of the rights defined for the Cognos 8 BI Consumer role
Use the Cognos 8 BI Analysis Studio module and functionality