① Guide · Baseline
A product list is not an inventory. The record that holds up in an audit and creates leverage in a renewal captures nine fields per product, reconciles three independent data sources, and stays current month to month. This is how to build it on the buyer side.
You cannot negotiate what you have not counted.
Every audit defense and every renewal we run starts in the same place: the baseline. Before a single number is challenged or a single uplift is contested, you need to know exactly what you license, what you have installed, and what you actually consume, product by product. Most large estates do not have this. They have a procurement spreadsheet, a vendor portal view, and a set of contracts in three different systems, none of which reconcile. That gap is not a clerical problem. It is the exact space the vendor's auditor walks into, and the exact leverage you forfeit at renewal.
The inventory is the asset that closes the gap. Built properly, it tells you where you are overlicensed, where you are exposed, and which products carry the renewal levers worth pulling. It is the first deliverable in our Baseline, Reconcile, Leverage, Close method, and the foundation under every license negotiation we lead.
One row per product · the fields that create leverage are marked
| Field | What it records | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Product and current owner | Official name and publisher after any acquisition | Ownership drives who you negotiate with and under which terms |
| Licensing metric | MSU, MIPS, capacity, authorized user, or other | The metric is what gets measured and disputed |
| Contracted entitlement | What you are licensed for, from the order document | One half of the gap that drives audit risk and savings |
| Measured consumption | Actual usage from SCRT, SMF, or product reports | The other half of the gap; reconcile it independently |
| Contract vehicle and term expiry | Agreement type and the date it renews | Term expiry sets the negotiation clock and the leverage window |
| Maintenance basis | Perpetual plus support, subscription, or consumption | Determines your residual rights and exit position |
| Footprint | LPARs and machines the product runs on | Sub-capacity scope and audit boundary |
| Renewal or audit exposure | Known uplift pattern, audit history, dispute status | Flags where the pressure will come next |
| Replacement credibility | Whether a real alternative exists and at what cost | The walk away that disciplines the renewal |
The two fields that move money are contracted entitlement against measured consumption, and term expiry. Everything else is context that makes those two negotiable.
Entitlement lives in contracts and order documents, not in the vendor portal alone. Pull the actual agreements, including amendments and true ups, because the portal often reflects the vendor's view rather than your negotiated rights.
Contracts beat portals when they disagree.
Installed product data comes from SMP/E and the running configuration. This is where shelfware hides: products licensed and installed but never used, and products running that no one has mapped to an entitlement.
Installed is not the same as used.
Consumption comes from SCRT and SMF for IBM sub-capacity products, from product specific usage reports for ISV tools, and from your own capacity records. Validate it yourself rather than accepting the vendor's measurement unchallenged.
Measure your own R4HA before they do.
The value is in the gaps between the three. Overlicensed products are savings; underlicensed ones are exposure; unmapped running products are the audit risk that surfaces first. Reconciling all three independently is the whole point.
The gaps are where the money is.
④ What the inventory is worth
The vendor arrives with their numbers. The inventory is how you arrive with yours. The side with the better record sets the terms.
Typical reduction negotiated on renewal spend
Mainframe spend negotiated on the buyer side
Engagements delivered since 2019
Per product: the product and current owner, the publisher, the licensing metric, the contracted entitlement, the measured consumption, the contract vehicle and term expiry, the footprint, and the renewal or audit exposure. The two fields that move money are entitlement against consumption, and term expiry.
Entitlement from contracts, not the portal alone. Consumption from SCRT and SMF for IBM sub-capacity, product reports for ISV tools, and your own capacity records. Installed data from SMP/E. The discipline is reconciling all three independently.
Treat it as living. Refresh capacity and consumption monthly from SCRT and usage data, because the rolling four hour average moves with workload. Capture entitlement changes the moment they happen. A twelve month stale inventory is the one the auditor finds first.
Yes, and ideally well before either. The inventory is the baseline that lets you challenge the vendor's numbers with your own. Built ahead of time it is leverage; built in response to an audit letter it is damage control. See our audit defense approach.
Related: the SAM manager guide to the mainframe estate · sub-capacity vs full capacity · audit rights clauses to negotiate · license negotiation service
Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
Get expert help →