What can IBM Baseline Services do for you? The goal of these services is to balance two things:

• The number of copies of software you have installed
• The number of copies you’re entitled to have under your license

You can see these numbers when you run a report called the “Effective License Position,” or ELP. That report can show you if:

• You’re running more copies of the software than your license allows OR
• You’re paying for more copies of the software than you actually use

We offer two types of IBM baseline services:

• The IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT): This service creates reports only on some IBM software, including software licensed by Processor Value Units (PVUs) or by Resource Value Unit Managed Activated Processor Cores (RVU MAPC).
• All IBM Licensing Products: This service creates reports on all IBM software no matter how it’s licensed. It includes PVU and RVU MAPC counts, along with other IBM products that are lumped into a single “Non-PVU” category.

What are the goals of software asset management (SAM)? For any company, the goals should be:

• Total compliance with the terms of software licenses
• Being ready for an audit at any moment

Most SAM services out there will just set up a SAM tool for you or report on your baseline SAM readiness. But if they don’t put people and processes in place to make sure your SAM data stays current, your baseline readiness can quickly get out of date.

That’s why we offer a customized plan that will help you to stay compliant and ready for an audit at all times. We can also assist you in the work of getting ready for any IBM licensing audit.

What can optimization services do for you? When your business is optimized you will be at the highest level of IBM software asset management (SAM) maturity, you’ll experience the benefits of: 

• Only paying for the software you actually need
• Having your software licensed in the best way for you
• Getting the lowest or best price for your software licenses

Optimization is a service that is usually included in a full IBM Managed Service.

Do you have a large amount of IBM license entitlements? Do you have an ELA (enterprise-level agreement)? If you do, IBM requires your business to send them reports on how many copies of their software you’re actually using.

To help create these usage reports, we have a team of IBM licensing experts. They spend their time studying IBM License Information Documents (LIDs) all day. Why? So they can figure out the most effective way to determine license metric consumption.

As a result, we have helped hundreds of IBM customers set up processes to capture their IBM software usage accurately. We can help you create reports that fulfill IBM’s reporting requirements completely.

IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) helps IBM Passport Advantage® (PA) customers determine their full and sub-capacity processor value units (PVU) licensing requirements.

• A full-capacity license allows software to be run on all of the available computer processors at a company. 
• A sub-capacity license allows you to pay less for software to run on only some of your available computer processors. 

The ILMT can also report the number of processors that are currently running the software. That helps you stay under the limit set in your license, and it keeps you ready for an audit. 

The difference between full- and sub-capacity license pricing can be millions of dollars for some enterprises, so it’s crucial that you get the ILMT running on your system and create accurate reports. 

Our IBM consulting services have helped hundreds of customers produce complete and accurate ILMT reports, and we can do the same for you.