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① Commercial desk · Broadcom (CA)
CA portfolios changed hands; the cost discipline did not come with them. We strip the estate to what you actually run, reconcile entitlements against consumption, and convert the difference into a smaller number before Broadcom's quote sets the anchor.
Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
Get expert help →Since Broadcom acquired CA Technologies, the renewal pattern buyers commonly report is consistent: substantial uplifts, frequently in the 30 to 80% range where capacity grew without negotiated caps, paired with pressure to consolidate into portfolio agreements or the consumption based Mainframe Consumption Licensing (MCL) program. Bundled portfolio pricing makes the estate look simple on one line while hiding which product families, from CA 7 and Endevor to Datacom, IDMS, and Top Secret, still earn their place.
Underneath the commercial layer sits the metric layer: legacy MIPS based contracts, newer MSU sub-capacity terms, and the transition between them, which is where renewal exposure typically spikes. Where sub-capacity reporting has lapsed, exposure commonly defaults toward full capacity. The cost optimization work exists to close all of that before it gets priced against you. Background: the Broadcom (CA) publisher guide.
Five steps, in order
The portfolio stops being negotiated as one opaque number. Broadcom's uplift gets answered with a documented inventory showing exactly which families carry workload and which are shelfware funding the increase. The MIPS to MSU conversion gets independently calculated rather than accepted from the vendor's spreadsheet. And the credible walk away, the displacement and retirement plan Broadcom knows you could execute, exists in writing before the final round, which is what typically moves the number.
We have run this sequence across hundreds of engagements. The pattern holds: the savings are in the estate before they are in the negotiation.
Across 500+ engagements and $180M+ of negotiated mainframe spend, disciplined portfolio work on a proper runway typically produces renewal reductions of 20 to 35% against the initial quote, with the deepest cuts coming from retired families rather than rate concessions.
Mainframe spend negotiated
Engagements delivered
Typical renewal reduction
Mobilization on audit notice or renewal
Since the CA acquisition, renewal uplifts of 30 to 80% are commonly observed, particularly where capacity has grown without negotiated caps, where sub-capacity reporting has lapsed, or where bundled portfolio agreements obscure which products you actually use. The uplift is a position, not a price. See handling a renewal uplift demand of 50 percent or more.
In our engagements, the biggest reductions typically come from retiring unused product families and shelfware before renewal, not from shaving the headline MIPS or MSU rate. Bundling hides which products still earn their cost; the inventory work exposes it.
It can be, but the outcome is set by the consumption baseline and the reconciliation terms, not the model itself. A baseline derived from a peak period, or growth assumptions you did not validate, typically erases the savings the model promises. See negotiating the MCL consumption baseline.
Yes, and you typically should. Sub-capacity reporting discipline, entitlement reconciliation, and usage documentation all build the evidence base the renewal negotiation later runs on. We mobilize within 48 hours.
Related desks: Broadcom (CA) license negotiation, Broadcom (CA) audit defense, and the firm wide cost optimization service.