Since your active IBM Subscription & Support (S&S) may expire soon, it is a good idea to start planning and preparing right away. Careful planning and thorough preparation will probably save you a lot of money on a yearly basis.
TIP #14 - October 2019:While planning and preparing your IBM renewal, there are some topics to pay attention to.
In many cases, organisations plan their renewals too late, which means they are forced to renew the same numbers and products as the year before. This is often too expensive and unnecessary.
While planning and preparing, pay attention to the topics described underneath:
- A first analysis can be done whether further S&S is still needed for each product running on a specific environment. May be no significant soft- or hardware changes have been made and the environment is already frozen for a long period of time. Why continue paying for the yearly S&S for such an environment?
- IBM’s Terms and Conditions changed since the latest International Passport Advantage Agreement (IPAA) regarding S&S. Determine the impact for your organisation.
- The all or nothing clause has been changed. “If Client elects to continue IBM S&S for an IBM Program at a designated Client Site, Client must maintain IBM S&S for all uses and installations of the IBM Program at that Site”. Just reducing the numbers (partial renewal) of a specific product will not be accepted by IBM anymore. “If Client requests to renew expiring IBM S&S Support at a lesser quantity of IBM Program uses and installations than the expiring quantity, Client must provide a report that verifies current IBM Program usage and installation, and may be required to provide other compliance verification information”.
- The IBM yearly S&S price increase on regular products will be much higher than the normal general price index %. Products bought in the past with an additional discount will have a much higher price increase percentage wise, and IBM might try to revoke discounts the customer negotiated in the past.
- With a break-even period of 2 years, stopping your renewal and re-instating it at a later date for a specific product can be very attractive. Also, third parties are offering very good support and financially attractive propositions to reduce your cost significantly.
For a variety of reasons, you may be able to save a lot of money by planning and preparing an upcoming renewal. A recent case study shows that Softline Solutions has been able to assist a customer in reducing their yearly IBM software expenses by at least 42%.
If you want to establish a quick scan on your savings potential regarding the next IBM renewal, please contact us. Our experience tells us that, on average, the ROI is at least between 50 and 100 times the consultancy costs.