IBM Licensing Newsletter Oct 2022

News for the month from the world of IBM Licensing.?Links to posts, webinars, announcements with expert commentary.?I've done the digging so you get only the good stuff.

Thoughts on IBM licensing????

I had the opportunity to work with an internal audit and compliance team recently for a large organisation. The focus was on IT compliance in particularly SOx compliance. I urge you if you get the chance to have a chat with the IT Compliance teams in your organisations. You'll learn from their perspective on IT risk and how they manage it. They will also be one of the stakeholders when you get a license audit.

One of the tools they use is a Risk and Control Matrix or RACM and I thought it had application to license management.

A RACM is a tool (usually excel) that can help an organization identify, rank, and implement control measures to mitigate risks. It is frequently used by the internal audit and SOx team but is equally useful in the management of enterprise licensing.

Going through the exercise of developing an RACM for big vendors like IBM can be very useful especially when you want to build the business case to get more resources. You are doing more than just identifying the risk. You also declare what control you are going to put in place to manage the risk, the frequency of the checks and the evidence that checks were done.

You need to always be looking to improve your game, what ever your focus. Seeing what other successful teams are doing and using is a great way to achieve this.

I'd love to hear your thought and questions related to IBM licensing.?Leave a comment below or email me at [email protected]

??News and IBM Announcements

• Who moved my IBM License Information? ?????? You are not crazy IBM have a new license information site. I'm still trying to find my way around the new portal. You can still get to the old IBM LI portal.
• IBM have recently updated the page on IBM partial renewals. Clients have historically been bothered by the all-or-nothing wording in clause 3.8 of the IPLA but there is now renewed focus on this. Clients are being asked to provide "compliance verification information" to the IBM S&S renewal team.?
• HCL have announced the release of BigFix Inventory 10.0.10.0. Most of you reading this will rely on the BFI module of BigFix as the source of deployment information for your organisation so this release should be looked at closely. You need to keep BFI up to date, not older than 2 versions.
• Congratulations to FisherITS ?? on their recent acquisitions by AnglePoint ??

What I've been reading, listening or watching ?? ????

• This may have passed you by, I know I missed it first time,?NIS / EU direct tice on critical assets. This will renew the focus on ITAM and the quality of organisation CMDBs.
• Good post from Niall Eddery on IBM replacing the License Information Search engine. He's not impressed ??.
• Checking out IBM Communities ?? ?? ?? ?? recently.?There's a lot of content.?A search?combination of product name and "licensing" is a good start.?Here's what showed up when I searched for?ITAM
• Another cast from the Two Irish Guys discussing software.??? Focus this month on IBM mainframe.?Spoiler alert, mainframe is not dead??.
• The team at ITAM Forum has started a new discussion forum that includes a topic/threat on IBM licensing. A little quite at the moment but that should change in the coming months.
• Listening ?? to Ryan Holidays latest book, Discipline is Destiny.?The audio is recorded by the author and excellent so far.

I encourage you to use the hashtag #ibmlicensing when you find a post?this audience might be interested in so it can be found more easily.

Events / Webinars ????

here's a few webinars I found interesting:

• Found an old webinar I did on IT Asset Management I did a few years ago for ServiceNow and ITAMorg.
• Q&A webinar on audit defense from USU / FisherITS which included IBM audits.
• Integration Works webinar on Leveraging ILMT to optimise your IBM licenses on demand.
• This was a really good webinar from IBM on FinOps + IT Asset Management.?You know it will be good when one of the OGs of SAM, Ron Brill, is speaking.?(be patient with the opening, it gets better )

IBM Licensing Tips ??

Two tips this month

• Don't let the version of BigFix Inventory (BFI) fall behind by more than 6 months or you are at risk of compliance issues and false deployment numbers. Schedule BFI upgrades in advance so there are not excuses
• Considered developing a Risk and Control Matrix (RACM) for IBM licensing (or indeed any big vendor). A simple tool but very effective at getting you thinking about how you manage risk.

You want more?

• ?? ?? ??The IBM Licensing Group on LinkedIn where you can connect with others interested in IBM licensing.?
• ?? My blog at https://www.ibmlicensingexpert.com for past articles and subscribe to my IBM license tips.
• ?? Watch IBM Licensing Expert?on YouTube.
• #???Search LinkedIn and Twitter using the hash tag #ibmlicensing
• ???Archive of past newsletters

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