IBM Internal compliance review

IBM Internal Compliance Review

Knowledge leads to compliance and savings

IBM is one of the most complex software vendors in terms of license compliance, with a broad software portfolio and wide variety of license models.

The high value of IBM’s server-based products often makes them a top priority in any software asset management (SAM) program.

We offer a robust combination of technical, contractual and audit expertise in IBM software and services license compliance. We help you to not only simulate compliance assessments from IBM’s auditors, but also to explore licensing alternatives that could deliver significant savings for your organization.

Internal compliance review stages

  • Entitlements reconciliation

    The foundation of every internal compliance review is a careful assessment of what you are currently entitled to. We process passport advantage (PA) order history data and other contractual information, and help you obtain any missing evidence.

  • Information collection plan

    Based on the IBM product scope and existing software discovery tools, we develop a detailed information collection plan which includes collecting technical evidence for medium and high-risk products.

  • Deployment evidence collection

    We guide internal stakeholders and administrators to establish the deployment quantity for each IBM product, and ensure you have accurately accounted for all installations.

  • Compliance report

    Our effective license position (ELP) report reflects the compliance position for each IBM product in scope. If there are any apparent license shortfalls, we recommend remediation or optimization measures.

Key benefits

  • No tool dependency

    We do not require any specific tools to be installed for our assessment and can fit our approach to suit your current set-up.

    Although ILMT is recommended in order to benefit from sub capacity licensing, we can use any other data sources to calculate PVU and RVU MAPC deployment. If you do not have any software discovery tools, we provide scripts to collect basic software and hardware details.

  • Non-processor based licensing expertise

    Many consulting parties on the market limit themselves to basic counting of PVU and RVU MAPC deployment values. We specialize in measuring all other licensing models, including those of product categories such as Cognos, Maximo, Tivoli (TB), Informix (Concurrent Session), Rational, InfoSphere (non-PVU), Content Manager, TRIRIGA, Tealeaf, SmartCloud and SPSS.

Results

  • Financial Services

    Pre-audit compliance and contract review lead to a total of $37M risk mitigation, through removal of unnecessary software components and reconfiguration of virtual machines.

  • Health

    Performed high-level IBM compliance risk assessment to identify key compliance mitigation priorities. Final report identified est. $115M in compliance risk avoidance and $1.8M potential annual S&S savings.

  • IT Services

    Measured IBM license compliance position for full scope of IBM products in anticipation of IBM license compliance audit. Remediation actions lead to total of $50M risk reduction.