Vendor Expertise

IBM Licence Advisory

We help you meet IBM’s new annual reporting requirement accurately and risk-free.

IBM updated its Passport Advantage Agreement (the base terms and conditions for all IBM software) again in August 2024, quietly introducing a highly contentious new requirement: all IBM customers must now proactively self-audit and submit their software deployment reports to IBM.

What’s worse, this goes beyond a simple self-declaration. Customers must also submit evidence such as ILMT reports (for sub-capacity reports) and system tools outputs to support (for metrics not tracked by ILMT) their declared usage.

Previously, this level of detail was only required during an official IBM audit. Now, IBM has effectively shifted the burden – and cost – of auditing from its own auditors to its customers. It also means that instead of being randomly selected for audit once every 2–3 years, all IBM customers are now effectively being audited annually.

Key challenges

Guaranteed annual compliance risk

Little room for negotiation

Tooling and reporting workload

Under IBM’s new annual reporting requirement, customers are now confronted with a set of growing challenges. What was once a theoretical risk of non-compliance has effectively become an annual certainty, as organisations must submit detailed usage reports regardless of whether an audit has been triggered.

When these self-declared positions are submitted without a thorough understanding of their implications—particularly if they expose licensing gaps—it can severely undermine any opportunity to negotiate favourable outcomes with IBM.

On top of this, compiling an Effective Licence Position is no small task. It demands in-depth knowledge of IBM’s licensing rules and technical tools, making it a resource-intensive process. With this now becoming a yearly obligation, the operational burden and risk exposure for many organisations are significantly heightened.

How we can help

Our team of ex-IBM auditors and tooling specialists brings over 15 years of experience in IBM licence audits, audit defence, and ongoing licence management. We can seamlessly integrate with your internal SAM or ITAM team to support this new reporting requirement—or take full ownership of your IBM licence management and tooling maintenance, depending on your needs.

IBM Tooling Services

We provide health checks, remediation, deployment, and integration of IBM’s official licence tools, including ILMT, ILS, IRS, and the mainframe SCRT, ensuring they function correctly and report accurate data.

Non-IBM Tooling Support

If you use third-party solutions like Flexera for IBM licence reporting, we offer health checks, remediation, and ongoing maintenance to ensure accurate and compliant outputs.

Complex Metric Management

For IBM products licensed by non-standard metrics (e.g. Users, Terabytes), we help you collect and interpret measurement data to build a reliable compliance position.

Compliance Risk Remediation

When risks are identified - weither from tooling or complex metrics - we provide clear explanations and practical steps to resolve them cost-effectively, often without needing new licences.

Annual Reporting Service

We prepare your IBM licence position using IBM’s required format, guide you through iterative remediation, and ensure you’re confident in the final submission.

Fully Managed Service

Beyond annual reporting, we take over day-to-day IBM licence management, including tooling and purchase records, delivering a service level comparable to IBM’s IASP, but at a lower cost.

Audit & Contract Advisory

Whether you’re facing a formal IBM audit or approaching the end of an ESSO/SSSO agreement, we help you negotiate strategically to reduce financial risk and maximise value.

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Why us

Poacher-turned Game Keeper

Many of our team came from software sales or compliance auditing backgrounds, providing invaluable insight to cost governance and risk mitigation.

IBM Licensing Experience

Our team has been at the forefront of IBM audit defence since the early 2010s and currently leads the IBM licensing course on the ITAM Forum’s LISA Training Platform.

Governance Expertise

Our team has an average 10 years of technology governance experience covering fields such as IP protection, information security and data privacy.

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