What costs can be expected if an IBM audit yields that a company is incompliant?

With the revision of the International Passport Advantage Agreement in August 2014, IBM has tightened up the regulations that govern such case. The current regulations state that the customer

• has to resolve a verified incompliance through purchasing the respective amount of licenses
• as well as purchasing the respective IBM Subscription and Support or Selected Support

IBM may rate the customer’s records as inadequate to “determine IBM Subscription and Support or Selected Support charges”. Therefore, if your records cannot be used in an audit to determine if you were incompliant or not, you will be required to pay two years extra of IBM Subscription and Support or Selected Support.

The respective section in the International Passport Advantage Agreement from July 2011 was much more customer-friendly formulated and did not contain the the phrase stating that customer records may be rated as “inadequate”.

Sources:

IBM_International Passport Advantage Agreement, Stand August 2014, S. 4

IBM_International Passport Advantage Agreement, Stand Juli 2011, S. 11