Early 2019 IBM “announced” a new program to their traditional license compliance verification. This program is called the “IBM Authorized SAM Provider Offering” (IASP) and is on invitation basis only.
TIP #68 December 2020: Softline's alternative for the IBM IASP audit approach enables to save substantially on IT investments. Our IBM expert will gladly help!
So far, a limited number of customers signed up for IASP.
What exactly is IASP?
Signing up for this program (as an alternative for a traditional audit or software license review) is possible for a period of maximum 3 years at customers cost. When you adhere to the IASP conditions, IBM will not send you an audit notification letter during this period. In return, customers are obliged to collaborate with an external SAM / ITAM service provider and must negotiate with this service provider on pricing levels and services to be delivered. The customer pays for activities of the external service provider, as opposed to traditional audits where IBM pays for the auditor expenses.
How is the Softline approach different?
Customers costs for the service provider running the IASP are significant. However, Softline is able to operate at the same level and deliver similar activities and deliverables for only a fraction the price you would pay for an IASP program.
Softline will support you at implementing ILMT, BigFix, Flexera FlexNet Manager, ServiceNow SAM Pro or Snow License Manager, and analyse software deployments and your Passport Advantage (PA) entitlements. All IBM metrics, including PVU based metric, will be in scope and IBM’s Sub-capacity conditions will be validated as well.
The activities performed by Softline are similar to activities during an IASP- or regular audit. Both “pay what you use” (compliance position) and “use what you pay” (yearly software cost, S&S) are investigated, analysed and reported by Softline.
The bottom line
Compared to the cost of an IASP program, the Softline approach enables you remain agile in the decision making and to invest significantly less time and money. We strongly recommend to analyse and weigh the advantages against the cost of the IASP program.