Significant changes for all IBM Passport Advantage customers!

On 1 February 2023, IBM published far-reaching changes to its Passport Advantage license agreements. Niall Eddery has described the most important points excellently in this post (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ibm-radically-changes-passport-advantage-customers-need-niall-eddery/?trk=public_post_comment-text). We would like to make this important information available to our network in German.

Who is affected?

Firstly, all IBM customers who do not obtain their software through an Enterprise Agreement (ELA/ESSO). However, we expect that the changes will also apply to these customers in the future in the event of a contract renewal.

What will change?

All IBM customers must now provide IBM Software annual reports. Customers who are requested to do so by IBM must submit a license status report within 30 days. The form of the report will be specified by IBM. However, it is not yet clear what form it should take. According to the new contract terms, each customer undertakes to “create, retain and provide IBM and its auditors with accurate written records, system tool output and other system data”.

The retention period is also not precisely defined in the new contract terms; it is likely that IBM will also request such reports from previous financial years.

If IBM or an independent auditor appointed by IBM identifies a license violation, you as a customer will be required to pay overage fees, software subscription and support for up to 2 years.

Despite the annual reports, IBM reserves the right to conduct audits of its clients with reasonable advance notice.

There have also been some changes to the agreement when it comes to changing the subscription and support volume when renewing a contract. If the volume is reduced, you as the customer must now prove that your software usage was already reduced at least 30 days before the contract was extended. If you forget to provide proof of this in good time, you will have to extend the software you no longer need and will also have to bear the price increase.

Has anything changed in our favor?

There are advantages for customers who use IBM software on platforms that are not eligible for sub-capacity licensing. Here, customers can submit a migration plan. If this is approved by IBM, the environment can continue to be sub-capacity licenced for the duration of the plan.

Other small, important changes:

IBM is no longer required to notify clients individually of changes to this agreement in the future. Future changes will only be published on the IBM Terms website. You must therefore check independently whether there are any changes here.

There are now terms for software subscriptions in this agreement. We see this as preparation for more offers in this area from IBM.