Telecoms Giant Boosts IBM Governance, Visibility, and ROI with Comprehensive ITAM Program Operations Service

The Challenge

As one of IBM’s largest global accounts, this telecom company faced significant challenges stemming from the absence of a cohesive, end-to-end governance structure for managing its IBM software estate. Without a unified framework in place, the organization struggled to maintain control over software installations. The team had to rely on manual calculations, which made tracking and decision-making time-consuming. Opportunities for optimization—such as license re-harvesting were often difficult to identify. Compounding these issues, POCs frequently led to purchases that did not align with business needs and there was no standardized process existed for uninstalling or retiring software that was no longer needed. These gaps in governance had profound business consequences. The organization regularly overspent on underutilized IBM products, and its decentralized structure made optimization and standardization more challenging. The company’s organizational structure added another layer of complexity. Leadership transitions, changes to the SAM team, acquisitions, and shifting strategic priorities disrupted continuity, added complexity, and diluted accountability. Furthermore, prior IT Asset Management (ITAM) service providers failed to help the company seize control of its IBM estate. In particular, the departure of its most recent ITAM provider left behind operational gaps, outdated documentation, and no stable ownership of key governance functions. Ultimately, these factors led the company to seek fresh external support. The company’s internal leaders, having worked with Anglepoint in the past, trusted that Anglepoint could deliver the level of rigor and expertise required. The timing was critical: an upcoming IBM renewal and audit threats demanded immediate action. With new stakeholders stepping into key roles, the company sought a trusted partner to refine and rebuild its IBM software management processes from the ground up.

The Solution

To address the organization’s challenges, Anglepoint deployed a coordinated approach that combined operational oversight with deep licensing expertise. The engagement brought together the Anglepoint’s IPO team—responsible for managing the catalog, overseeing installation governance, and processing software requests—with the organization’s own IBM and Red Hat licensing teams, who were tasked with creating Effective License Positions (ELPs) and Risk & Opportunity Assessment Report (ROARs), assessing compliance, and shaping licensing strategy. Together, these teams developed a unified framework, seamlessly integrating operational execution with licensing insight to stabilize the environment and implement long-term controls. The initial phase focused on immediate stabilization. Anglepoint worked closely with the departing sourcing manager to capture critical institutional knowledge, conducted a thorough discovery exercise and built on the key findings from the workshop to identify gaps, gain consensus, and set objectives. To strengthen structure, Anglepoint implemented processes to manage software requests, introducing ServiceNow intake forms and workflows designed to streamline operations. Missing or incomplete processes left by the previous ITAM specialist were reconstructed, while standards and controls were established to reduce compliance exposure and provide a foundation for ongoing governance. Several critical issues were uncovered during this assessment.

• From a people perspective, the in-house SAM team and remaining sourcing team had limited historical `knowledge. This lack of historical knowledge and visibility increased the potential risk.
• Process challenges included the absence of a formal RACI, governance structure, or documented policies, combined with a decentralized organizational model that required manual request handling.
• From a licensing perspective, without strong processes and governance, the contract reflected a more conservative position vs a right sized position.
• On the technology side, the lack of a SAM tool made reconciliation entirely manual and therefore hugely time-consuming.

Anglepoint addressed these challenges through a series of targeted actions:

• To control installations, access to Passport Advantage sites (PPAs) was consolidated and restricted, while unauthorized binary distribution channels were also eliminated. License key management was centralized, with keys issued, tracked, and revoked systematically, and proper key usage was communicated via targeted education initiatives. Licensing optimization processes were also implemented, ensuring that each software request was evaluated for business need and compliance. Meanwhile, forecasting mechanisms were introduced to support long-term budgeting and planning.
• Strategic vendor governance processes were established, ensuring a consistent approach to managing the IBM estate. Alignment across key stakeholders and Anglepoint was critical to ensure effective management with IBM. KPI reporting was introduced to track software requests, communications, and process gaps, providing visibility into operational performance. In particular, POC governance was strengthened to ensure correct application of trial versus permanent licensing and was used to track outcomes, justify spend and disposition, including revocation or conversion of temporary keys. Disposition management ensured that software was uninstalled, or servers retired following failed evaluations, preventing orphaned licenses and reducing compliance risk.
• In addition to these immediate measures, Anglepoint recommended several enhancements to support ongoing optimization. This included the full implementation of Flexera to support discovery and entitlement management, leveraging the IBM POC process to reduce unnecessary purchases, establishing a centralized team mailbox and shared ID for software license management. The team also advised refining software request intake forms to improve usability and cleaning up catalog offerings to remove end-of-life or non-contract products.

The implementation of these measures took approximately six months to stabilize. Anglepoint has since remained engaged, refining processes, optimizing licensing, and maintaining a robust governance framework. Crucially for the client organization, Anglepoint has not only made recommendations on how the company can boost the governance and efficiency of its IBM estate, the Anglepoint IPO team has implemented and managed the IBM ITAM program. Acting as an extension of the client’s in-house SAM team, the IPO team oversees daily operations and provides direct access to Anglepoint’s deep IBM licensing expertise. With this partnership, the organization continues to benefit from Anglepoint’s proven experience in designing, implementing, and supporting best-practice ITAM programs.

Results

• Increased visibility into IBM license usage across previously siloed business units and regional divisions
• $43M in cost avoidance through the introduction of a structured POC process
• Faster and controlled license key management
• Established KPIs across onboarding, disposal, and request processes
• Greater ability to forecast spend and reduce overspend
• Lower compliance and audit risk through tightened controls
• With Anglepoint’s specialist IPO team managing day-to-day operations, the organization has full confidence in its IBM licensing management
• Increased transparency and better strength for future IBM negotiations
• Continuous process refinement
• Flexera SAM tool implementation and future optimization efforts