IBM Cognos support renewal

Consolidating Your IBM Cognos Support Bills

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6/5/2018 

Are you receiving multiple IBM Cognos support bills throughout the year?  You might want to consider consolidating your IBM Cognos support bills by merging your agreements to a single Passport Advantage site.  Besides getting a single bill on your anniversary date, if you buy other products from IBM you may get the benefit of IBM’s Relationship Suggested Value Price (RSVP) Program. The Relationship Suggested Value Price (RSVP) Program rewards clients that spend more money with IBM.  Consider it like the frequent buyer discount program.  ​​Click here more information on the RSVP Program. ​​​

Why Do I Have Multiple Cognos Support Bills?
IBM Cognos support bills

Typically, this happens when you purchased your licenses at various times and did so under the Passport Advantage Express program.  You see, IBM has two ways to buy IBM Cognos licenses, either with their Passport Advantage Express program or the Passport Advantage program. The basic difference is the Passport Advantage Express program is transaction based and the Passport Advantage program is relationship based and allows for multiple sites to roll up to a single Passport Advantage account.  If you want to understand the differences, check out our blog. When you buy additional IBM Cognos licenses under the Passport Advantage Program, IBM will typically co-terminate your support renewal with your existing licenses after the first year. This results in one bill for all the licenses on the site.

How to Move IBM Cognos Licenses

You can move your IBM Cognos licenses and entitlements from one site to another site within your Enterprise or you can move them from a Passport Advantage Express site to a Passport Advantage site. 

  • If you have a Passport Advantage Express site or want a new Passport Advantage site you must first establish the Passport Advantage site. You should make sure you don’t already have a Passport Advantage Agreement with IBM before setting up a new one, so you maximize your savings. Check out this blog on the RSVP Program. Your Lodestar Solutions or IBM representative should be able answer any questions.  Contact us at renewals@lodestarsolutions.com  Here’s the link to the online system. 
  • Your Passport Advantage Primary Contact for the “source” site (this is the site currently possessing the licenses) must complete a Passport Advantage/Passport Advantage Express License Transfer Request Form. Lodestar Solutions or your IBM representative can provide you this form. Contact us at renewals@lodestarsolutions.com     
  • The Primary Contact for the Target Site must agree to the transfer.  For information on Primary contact, click here.  

So, now you know the process but you don’t have to go it alone!  Our support renewal experts are here to guide you. Just contact renewals@lodestarsolutions.com and we’ll get you started.

IBM Cognos Support Renewal – What the Heck Do I Own?

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IBM Cognos Support Renewal – What the Heck Do I Own?
October 13, 2019

Are you a new IBM client receiving your first IBM Cognos Support Renewal? Or maybe you’ve been a client for a long time, but you are starting to wonder, “Why do I have to continue to pay support on my licenses every year?”

Lodestar is here to help you better understand what your IBM Cognos Support Renewal payment is getting you. Yes, you can call IBM Cognos Support and log a case. You have access to service packs and patches. You can upgrade and receive all the new cool stuff IBM has included. (See IBM’s list of why to renew and details.) But there is more!

REAL BENEFIT OF SUPPORT

What you are really receiving from the IBM Cognos Support Renewal payment is an opportunity for you to look good in your company. Yes, that’s right… IBM Support is your backup plan. It’s the safety net because, let’s face it, whenever something happens with software, it’s IT’s fault! It is our goal to improve the image of IT and to help IT get the respect they deserve. It just takes one time of Microsoft sending you an automatic update that breaks something in Cognos and if you don’t have support, you look really bad. I don’t know about you, but I want a backup plan.

JUSTIFYING THE COST OF IBM COGNOS SUPPORT

We know that IBM Cognos Support Renewal quotes look huge! And that’s where Lodestar Solutions can help! Instead of dumping support, let us help you understand what you really own, how you can leverage it, and how it can serve the business. And, by renewing with Lodestar verses directly with IBM, we can usually save you money! Lodestar Solutions offers a helpful tool that we call our, “What the Heck Do I Own?” session. We dive into each clients licensing to see if they can benefit from any changes and to help with any current frustrations they have. Check out our blog on how we helped one client reduce their support costs by $30,000! 

LODESTAR CAN OFFER ADVICE ON YOUR LICENSING AND MUCH MORE

 We are a team of educated consultants and business intelligence leaders that are equipped with many tools to help make you successful! Let us help you learn how you can increase your end user adoption by creating internal training videos for your users. (Camtasia is a great tool for this.) Do you want to wow business users that go rogue and dump everything in Excel? We can teach you how to give a Cognos Insight Workshop where they can drag and drop CSV files, create a quick dashboard and do “what if” analysis while leveraging Cognos. And yes… you probably own Cognos Insight after the massive IBM licensing changes!

Last but not least check out our BAAM 2.0 (Business Analytics Agile Methodology) - this is Lodestar Solutions’ proven Cognos implementation methodology that has been updated to make you successful even when time and resources are limited!

LET US HELP YOU JUSTIFY YOUR IBM COGNOS SUPPORT RENEWAL BILL!

  1. Email services@lodestarsolutions.com for a free customized, “What the Heck Do I Own – IBM Cognos” session to review your IBM Cognos Licenses.
  2. Email us at renewals@lodestarsolutions.com to receive a quote on your next support renewal bill.
  3. Attend our events and learn how to be more influential as well as how to demonstrate Cognos Insight. Attendees surveyed said that they increased their influence by 25% and gained valuable software demo skills. Click here to view our upcoming events. 

With all the licensing changes, you many benefit from being on an updated licensing model. We have saved clients an enormous amount of money by updating their licensing structure. For information email us at sales@lodestarsolutions.com.

Why The IBM Cognos Support Renewal Rate Increase?

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IBM Cognos Support Renewal billDid you get your IBM Cognos support renewal bill recently and fall off your chair?  Well pick yourself up off the floor because I can help.   You, my friend, are a victim of a not so efficient process … but not to worry.  With a few easy steps and understanding the situation, it can be resolved.

The issue arises primarily for older “Cognos” clients who purchased a large number of licenses initially and negotiated a heck of a deal.  Cognos, prior to IBM, typically charged clients 20% of their purchase price for year 2 of support.  So, if you negotiated steep discounts on the software purchase you would benefit from a lower support bill in future years.  Depending on the contract, the support cost did increase over the years but typically around 5-10%.

When IBM purchased Cognos they began, as I call it, IBMizing Cognos, which means they started to apply the rules they have for other IBM software brands to Cognos.

Some of the changes included standardizing definitions like “Authorized user”, “PVU” and when a  “Non-Production environment” license is required.  IBM standardization also includes charging support renewal rates of 20% of list price so all clients pay the same rate for the support services and software upgrades from IBM Cognos.   The change from 20% of purchase price to 20% of list price can be significant if you negotiated a large discount on the original purchase.  So, when you open your IBM Cognos support renewal bill you most likely will see that the bill is 20% of list price because that’s how the system generates the bill.  I had a client that had an 881% increase in their bill from last year.  You can imagine their shock.

Lodestar Solutions can help!  We can work with you and IBM Cognos support renewal to reduce the bill typically to about 15% increase over last year.  As part of this process, Lodestar Solutions will provide competitive IBM Support Renewal Rate, educate you on IBM Cognos Licensing and functionality and review your license mix to make sure you have the quantity and type of licenses.  Note that all support is still provided by IBM directly and is subject to your IBM Cognos Contract terms.

To save money on IBM Cognos Support Renewals with Lodestar Solutions, call us at 813-415-2910 or email hcole@lodestarsolutions.com.

OTHER BLOGS YOU MAY WANT TO REFERENCE.
Should I continue IBM Cognos Support
IBM Cognos Support Renewal from Lodestar
Where’s the Secret Decoder Ring for IBM Cognos Licensing?

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