① Software AG (Adabas Natural) · cost optimization
Adabas and Natural now run as a standalone business under Silver Lake, carved out from the integration assets that went to IBM. A focused owner watches every renewal line. We find the cost that decades of accumulation buried, and take it out before the next renewal locks it in.
48 hour mobilization Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
Get expert help →Software AG (Adabas Natural) spent 2024 reshaping itself. The webMethods and StreamSets integration business moved to IBM, and the Adabas and Natural estate relaunched as a standalone business under Silver Lake ownership. For buyers running these systems, the practical effect is a vendor whose entire attention now sits on a smaller, mission critical product set, with the commercial discipline that private equity ownership typically brings.
That matters because Adabas and Natural estates are old, deep, and rarely revisited. Capacity metrics drift upward with the hardware. Support percentages compound every year. Module and user entitlements were sized for a workforce that has since shrunk. The result is a bill that grew on autopilot, and a vendor with a renewed interest in keeping it there. The optimization is not exotic; it is the disciplined recovery of cost that nobody has audited from the buyer side in years.
Where the cost hides
| Cost driver | Why it grows | The lever |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity charges (MIPS or MSU) | Tracks hardware upgrades, not workload need | Re baseline against consumed capacity; correct the metric |
| Support and maintenance | Compounds annually on the full contracted base | Cap escalation; tie support to deployed entitlements only |
| Module and user entitlements | Sized for a larger past workforce | Remove shelfware; right size to current named use |
| Bundled add ons | Carried forward unexamined across renewals | Unbundle and challenge each line at renewal |
Five steps
A focused, investor owned vendor negotiates from a position of information. We level that. Software AG's team faces a counterparty holding the full contract record, validated consumption data, and the market context from negotiating these same Adabas and Natural estates across hundreds of engagements. The capacity metric gets questioned. Shelfware gets named and removed. Support escalation gets capped instead of assumed. The renewal becomes a negotiation between equals rather than a renewal notice you sign.
The typical outcome across our work, $180M+ negotiated over 500+ engagements, is a 20 to 35 percent improvement on addressable spend, with the contract protections worth as much as the discount over the term.
The mechanics on existing contracts do not change overnight, but the posture does. A focused, investor owned business typically optimizes for predictable recurring revenue, which shows up as firmer renewals, tighter support terms, and closer attention to compliance.
Capacity charges tied to MIPS or MSU, support percentages that compound annually, and modules or user entitlements sized for a larger past workforce. The gap between contracted and consumed is frequently the largest recoverable line.
Usually yes. Reconciling entitlements, correcting the capacity metric, removing shelfware, and capping support recover spend long before any replatforming. The option to modernize is the lever; executing it is a separate, later choice. See Adabas replication licensing.
Legacy contracts often carry broad audit rights. The defense is to reconcile deployed against entitled on your side first, which removes the surprises a vendor audit is designed to find. See Software AG audit defense.
12 to 18 months before renewal, or immediately on an audit notice or contract migration letter. Easy levers commonly vanish once the vendor controls the clock.
The Adabas and Natural audit response, baselined before the vendor counts.
What a fair capacity charge looks like before you negotiate one.
Why the standalone carve out reshapes the renewal conversation.