① Services · Renewal advisory
Your vendor's renewal team runs this play every week. You run it once every three to five years. We close that gap: a buyer side renewal program across IBM, Broadcom (CA), BMC, Rocket Software, Software AG, Compuware (BMC), and Syncsort (Precisely) that starts before the vendor's quote does.
The renewal is won or lost before the first call.
Mainframe renewals are structurally tilted toward the vendor. They know your consumption history, your contract language, and your switching costs better than most buyers do, and they typically time the first proposal to land when your alternatives have run out of runway. Uplift demands of 30% or more are commonly observed when capacity has grown without a negotiated cap, and quotes routinely price against contracted peaks rather than what you actually consume.
Renewal advisory is the discipline of taking that tilt away. It means knowing your own estate better than the vendor does, reconciling every claimed number independently, and building the credible alternative before you need it. Renewals won in the final quarter were usually won 18 months earlier, which is why the 18 month runway is the single strongest predictor of outcome we see.
Full portfolio inventory: every product, every contract, MIPS or MSU per product, term expiry per agreement. Most estates surprise their owners here. Shelfware, duplicate entitlements, and products nobody has run in years routinely surface in the first pass, and each one is negotiating capital.
Actual consumption against contracted capacity, with SCRT and R4HA data validated independently. The gap between contractual MSU and consumed MSU is where renewal quotes hide their padding, and we do not accept vendor measurement on faith.
Alternative evaluation, metric transition options, timing strategy, and the credible walk away, built while there is still time to mean it. A documented alternative changes vendor behavior even when you never intend to switch, because the account team can no longer price against captivity.
The renewal locked with caps on future uplifts, consumption protections, and exit rights that preserve leverage for the next cycle. We read the final paper line by line, because the clauses that bite live in years two through five, not page one.
What changes with us in the room.
The conversation stops being about the vendor's list price and starts being about your data. Every uplift claim gets tested against your consumption record. Every bundle gets unbundled and priced. Every "standard term" gets compared with the terms we see across the market. Vendors negotiate differently when they know the buyer side of the table can check the math.
What you get
③ The record
Mainframe spend negotiated on the buyer side
Engagements delivered since 2019
Typical renewal reduction with a full runway
Ideally 18 months before expiry. That runway allows a full inventory, an independent consumption reconciliation, and a credible alternative evaluation before the vendor controls the clock. Outcomes commonly weaken as the runway shortens, but a compressed engagement still typically beats an unprepared one. We mobilize within 48 hours.
Across 500+ engagements, disciplined preparation typically produces a 20 to 35% reduction against the vendor's opening renewal position, alongside structural protections such as caps, consumption true downs, and exit rights.
Either way works. Some clients want us at the table; others prefer we brief their team before every session and remain invisible to the vendor. The leverage is the same because it comes from the preparation, not the seating chart.
IBM, Broadcom (CA), BMC, Rocket Software, Software AG, Compuware (BMC), and Syncsort (Precisely), plus the smaller ISVs that ride along in most mainframe estates. We are independent and not affiliated with any publisher.
No, but the playbook changes. With a short runway we focus on the levers that move fastest: reconciling consumption against contracted capacity, correcting the vendor's assumptions in the quote, and structuring a shorter term that buys time for a properly prepared negotiation next cycle.
Audit notice or renewal under 18 months out? We mobilize within 48 hours.
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