IBM negotiation. The ELA is a bundle. Price every part.
Enterprise License Agreements, Red Hat subscriptions and Cloud Pak entitlements, negotiated from the buyer side by people who sat on IBM's side of the table. We take the bundle apart, reconcile what you actually run, and negotiate before IBM's 31 December year end.
IBM software, and what rides inside the ELA.
IBM's ELA is built to grow. We negotiate what you run today, price what you may add tomorrow, and keep the products that do not belong in the bundle out of it.
Enterprise License Agreements
The ELA scope, term and uplift negotiated line by line against executed IBM agreements.
IBM ELA renewalRed Hat
RHEL, OpenShift and Ansible priced on their own merits, inside or outside the ELA.
Cloud Pak entitlements
Virtual processor core counts sized to real deployments, not to the conversion IBM proposes.
Db2, MQ and WebSphere
The core middleware estate reconciled to what is deployed and priced against the market.
ILMT reconciliation
Your own sub capacity reports used as negotiation evidence, before IBM's numbers frame the deal.
Mainframe and Tailored Fit Pricing
MLC against Tailored Fit Pricing modeled on your MSU profile, with the capacity terms negotiated.
Where IBM deals are made.
IBM opens with a best and final that is neither. Across our enterprise ELA renewals the signed number landed 19 to 34 percent below it.
What moves it: Cloud Pak sizing, a Red Hat carve out, the uplift cap
See the full benchmark →- 01
Reconcile before IBM counts
A deployment baseline built from your own ILMT data changes the starting point of every IBM number.
- 02
Cloud Pak sizing
Conversions to Cloud Pak entitlements often overstate need. Sizing to real use is the largest lever in many ELAs.
- 03
The Red Hat carve out
Red Hat priced inside the ELA hides its real cost. Priced on its own, it becomes a lever.
- 04
The uplift cap
Five year ELAs compound. A cap on renewal uplift protects every year after signature.
- 05
Year end timing
IBM's fourth quarter carries the heaviest software bookings and the most approval attention.
Reconciled first, negotiated second.
IBM's fiscal year ends on 31 December. The ELAs that close best start with a baseline IBM cannot dispute, two quarters before the deadline.
Reconcile
Entitlements against ILMT and real deployments, product by product.
Price the bundle
Every line against executed IBM agreements of your scale.
Unbundle
What stays in the ELA, what is carved out, and what is dropped.
Negotiate and sign
Every round drafted and every IBM document reviewed before signature.
Fixed fee, or 25 percent of what we save you.
You negotiate your best deal first. Then you bring us the vendor's best offer, and we either confirm it is market best or we beat it. Our fee is 25 percent of what we save you. You keep 75 percent.
- No saving, no fee. If the vendor's offer is already market best, we tell you so and you pay nothing.
- Savings are a lower price, or credits that mean you pay the vendor less. Reduce the bill of materials and the baseline is recalculated.
- Calculated per agreement year and paid per year, over three years at most, however long the agreement runs.
- Prefer a fixed fee? Every negotiation can run that way, scoped to the work and agreed up front. We never bill by the hour.
IBM results, documented.
A tier one European bank cut a USD 72M IBM ELA renewal by 25 percent across Db2, MQ, WebSphere and Red Hat OpenShift.
European bankIBM · Red HatA global tech company cut its Red Hat renewal by 15 percent across RHEL, OpenShift and Ansible.
Global tech companyIBM · 85 case studiesIBM negotiations documented in our case study library, from ELAs to Red Hat to mainframe.
Browse the IBM libraryIBM research from our desk.
What buyers pay at enterprise scale.
ServiceHow our negotiators run an IBM ELA renewal.
TimingWhen IBM and eleven other vendors close their books.
GuideThe four answers to ask for before you negotiate.
IBM negotiation, answered.
How much can we save on an IBM ELA renewal?
At enterprise scale, our ELA renewals closed 19 to 34 percent below IBM's opening best and final, with a median of 27 percent.
Should Red Hat be inside our IBM ELA?
Sometimes, but priced on its own first. Inside the bundle its real cost is hidden; priced separately it becomes a lever for the whole negotiation.
How do Cloud Pak entitlements affect the price?
Conversions to Cloud Pak virtual processor cores often overstate what you need. Sizing them to real deployments is one of the largest levers in an IBM renewal.
When should we negotiate with IBM?
IBM's fiscal year ends on 31 December, and its fourth quarter carries the heaviest software bookings. Start two quarters earlier so the reconciliation is done before IBM's numbers arrive.
How is an IBM negotiation priced?
A fixed fee, or 25 percent of what we save you. No saving, no fee. Never hourly.
Are you independent of IBM?
Yes. 100 percent buyer side: no IBM partnership, no reselling and no referral fees.
IBM ELA renewal coming? Reconcile before they count.
Send the proposal or the current ELA. Within 24 business hours: where IBM's numbers sit against the market, and the move we would make.