Seven Considerations for Planning for an IBM Software License Review
It is not ‘’if’’ but ‘’when’’ you will be approached by IBM for an IBM Software License Review. Even if you are in an IBM Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) you still need to make a self-declaration (soft audit) before you renew for another 3 years.
As a license review from IBM is a certainty, it only makes sense that your organisation prepares. Some planning now could help to avoid a large, unbudgeted bill for additional IBM licenses later.
In our day-to-day working with a broad range of enterprises, our License Consultants have delivered hundreds of vendor audit projects with the objective of gaining control of the audit process and mitigating against unbudgeted costs. Based on this experience, we have prepared some of the key steps to consider as you plan for your next IBM Software License Review.
- Have an Audit Letter Response Process
When your organisation receives an audit letter from IBM it will usually be sent to the office of the CIO or CFO. Having a simple process already agreed for handling an IBM (or another vendor) audit letter will ensure it is passed to the right person quickly. It also allows other stakeholders to be notified so they are prepared should the topic come up in a meeting.
2. Develop an Audit Response Plan
Developing an IBM license audit response plan will help your organisation to quickly establish a project to defend an audit. Many of the tasks in an audit response plan apply to any big vendor audit but you should also think about IBM audit specific tasks, such as:
• Agreeing audit scope
• Generating an entitlement inventory report from Passport Advantage
• Running a license audit snapshot report from ILMT
Having an audit response plan also allows you to capture lessons learned from past audits.
3. Establish an IBM Audit Response Team
An IBM audit will require the support of several teams in your organisation. Having the members of the Audit Response Team agreed in advance will be a distinct advantage. Agreeing on the roles and responsibilities in a RACI chart will also speed up the decision-making process. We would suggest representatives from the following business areas:
• Office of CFO
• Software Asset Management
• Finance
• Legal
• IT Operations
• PMO
• 3rd party consultants
4. Update Designated Contacts for IBM
Your organisation will receive frequent updates from IBM about product changes, via eNotifications
They will also receive updates about changes to IBM entitlement from the Passport Advantage portal.
Are the right people getting these updates — are they still in the organisation?
A regular check to see who are the Designated IBM Contacts will ensure you don’t miss any important notices that might be relevant in the event of an audit.
5. Understand your IBM License Entitlement
Your IBM license entitlement will change over time as products are upgraded and IBM S&S is renewed or cancelled. Performing a review of your IBM entitlement at least once a year will highlight any shortfalls or changes that might show up in an audit and give you time to fix these.
6. Check Health of ILMT/BigFix
An up to date BigFix and IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) deployment is critical if your organisation is taking advantage of sub-capacity license rules. You will need to ensure that every quarter, these tools are running with no problems and the audit report is being generated so you are ready in the event of a request from the auditor. If there is any doubt about the quality of data in BigFix or ILMT, get a health check while you still have time to correct any problems.
7. Get Help with IBM Licensing
IBM licensing rules are complex. The cost of making even a small deployment error can be huge. Seek advice before you make any infrastructure changes such as:
• Physical to virtual migrations
• Adding nodes to a VMware cluster
• Additional CPUs to a server
This will help you avoid compliance risks and unbudgeted costs at a later date.
An IBM Software License Review will always be stressful, potentially expensive, and disruptive to your organisation. However, if you implement some of the steps suggested, you can reduce that burden and mitigate any unbudgeted cost significantly.
Version 1’s license experts have considerable experience in helping enterprises prepare for an audit and support you through an audit to a successful conclusion, mitigating unbudgeted costs and risks. If you have been approached by your vendor and need guidance or would like to be more prepared in the event of an audit, then contact us to find out how we can help.
About the Author
Jason is Head of SAM at Version 1, with our independent licensing consultants (covering all aspects of enterprise licensing) providing expertise to customers globally, ensuring customers get the best value from their assets. If you would like more information about mitigating against the cost and risk of License Audits, get in touch with the independent licensing experts at Version 1 today.
About Version 1
Why choose Version 1? We will always put you, the customer first. We are vendor agnostic, providing independent licensing advice and guidance on a broad range of enterprise vendors with sophisticated levels of expertise on Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM to name a few. We can support you in making better, more informed decisions on your software estate; ensuring you understand the options to make the right decisions to deliver reduced cost and risk, and ongoing license compliance
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