Written by Heather L. Cole, August 18th 2022
The mergers and acquisition world has been busy recently. If your company divested part of the organization, who should keep the IBM Cognos? The original entity or the sold entity?
When part of the entity is sold there are many moving parts. But it’s important to think through how the licensing components of your IBM Cognos or IBM Planning Analytics software are handled.
True Story:
Lodestar Solutions had a client that spun off a significant portion of their business. Both the original company and the spin off wanted to keep the IBM Cognos licensing. It was determined that the original company would keep the Cognos licensing and the new entity would have to buy new licenses. But the when the new company went to purchase their Cognos licensing, the partner, not Lodestar, and IBM failed to create a new enterprise number. They just created a new site under the original company. So, the new company didn’t technically own their licenses. The issue was not discovered until the support tickets for the two entities were getting comingled. Needless to say, this was not a good situation. And you don’t want to go through this!
Today, I’ll share things you need to consider and do when you are spinning off part of your organization.
Deciding Who Gets the Cognos Licensing
The first decision is who should get the IBM Cognos BM Planning Analytics licensing. Now you might be thinking, of course the original company should keep them and the spin off should purchase their own. But that’s not always the best solution, at least not for the original company.
Do you need all the licenses after the divestiture? The original company may not need all the IBM licensing after they spin off part of the company. In this case they may allocate a portion of the licenses to the spin off, so they do not get stuck with the support bill on licensing they won’t need.
Are you in the optimal IBM Cognos or Planning Analytics licensing type? IBM has a number of types of licensing such as Express for smaller deployments under 100 users, authorized users and processor value unit licenses, for large deployments. They also have SaaS versions of Cognos and Planning Analytics. If your user count will significantly reduce after selling off part of your organization, you may be better off including the Cognos licensing in the sale and buying new licenses that put you in the optimal licensing mix.
Is Your IBM Support Bill at List Price? Another thing to consider is the current cost of your IBM Cognos support subscription bill. If you are paying list price for your support, which means you typically have owned Cognos or IBM Planning Analytics for a number of years. You may find that by including the licensing in the sales of part of the company, it would allow you to buy new licensing at a discount, and therefore lower your support renewal costs.
True Story:
I had a client that was divesting part of their company to an overseas entity, and they gave them all of their Cognos licensing because they were able to buy new licenses at a discount and change the type of licensing saving them 100K a year in support.
Get Help!
You are not expected to be an expert in IBM licensing. So, if you are planning to or recently sold off part of your company, Lodestar Solutions can help you evaluate your unique situation to determine what’s best for you. Just email us at Sales@lodestarsolutions.com and we can discuss your situation.
Confirm the Licensing is in the Right Name
Now that you have decided if you are going to keep all the IBM Cognos or Planning Analytics licensing, or sell it as part of the transaction to divest part of your organization, we need to focus on the process with IBM.
If you decide to give all or part of your IBM Cognos licensing to the new company, you will need to sign some documents with IBM stating you are transferring your interest to the new company. Lodestar Solutions can help facilitate this process.
First the new company must get a new Enterprise account set up with IBM, if they don’t have one already. You do not want them to just create a new site under your enterprise number. They will also need to create a new site number under their new IBM enterprise number for the licenses.
Once that is done, IBM can create the transfer documents that should specify the from account, the too account as well as the quantities and part numbers to be transferred.
If you go it alone, double check the quantity and part numbers on the documents are correct. You also want to make sure that all the site numbers are correct. Attention to detail is very important in this process.
If you decide to give all the licenses away, you will want to work with someone to identify your optimal licensing configuration and determine if there are any special promotions available. The important thing is to not let your licensing lapse. So, make sure you buy new licensing before giving yours away.
Check the IBM Contact Names on File
When companies spin off parts, it’s not uncommon for the players associated with Cognos or Planning Analytics to change. If this is your situation, or if you have had attrition of team members, it is important to update the contact names within IBM. If you don’t update them, you might not get support renewal quotes, notices of versions or licensing changes, and worse you might not be able to log a support case.
Look for an upcoming blog on changing contact names, but if you need help contact renewals@lodestarsolutions.com and our team will walk you though the process. Or check out IBM’s information.
At Support Renewal Time
When you receive your first support renewal quote after the divestiture, you want to double, no triple check that they have not accidentally left the licenses you sold with the divestiture on your site. I have seen it happen. IBM moves the licensing to the new site but does not remove them from the original company site. You don’t want to be paying for support on something you don’t own!
Lodestar Solutions is happy to help you review your support bill and provide a competitive quote for your renewal. For help with renewals email renewals@lodestarsolutions.com.
Call to Action:
It’s important to review your licensing after a divestiture because you don’t want to be paying too much for support, and you don’t want to accidentally lose your licensing because someone moved the wrong site. So, don’t go it alone! Lodestar Solutions is here to help. Call us at 813-415-2910 or email personally at hcole@lodestarsolutions.com.
If you happen to be acquiring a company that also has Cognos or Planning Analytics see our blog, Tips for Acquiring a Cognos Client.
I hope you found this blog on “Who Should keep the IBM Cognos When Part of the Company is Sold?” beneficial. If you have questions please include them in the chat so everyone can learn.