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An IBM Planning Analytics renewal can easily become an administrative exercise.
A quote arrives, someone checks it against last year's number, procurement processes the renewal and the environment continues for another year.
That may be perfectly reasonable. But it is worth knowing what you are renewing first.
Planning Analytics environments tend to be long-lived. Users change, models grow, support arrangements evolve and IBM's licensing and product direction move on. A licence position that made sense several years ago may not be the one you would choose today.
The months before renewal are a useful opportunity to check the entitlement, the licence mix, the support model and where the platform is heading.
Before looking at the renewal quote, establish the agency's current IBM entitlement.
For software acquired through IBM Passport Advantage, the key records include the agency's Proofs of Entitlement and the applicable IBM agreements and Licence Information documents.
These tell you what has actually been licensed and on what basis.
That distinction matters because not every Planning Analytics customer has the same arrangement.
Planning Analytics Local can use user-based licensing, capacity-based licensing using Processor Value Units (PVUs), or a combination depending on the entitlements held.
For user-based licensing, organisations may hold different classes of entitlement such as Modeler, User and Explorer. Those are not interchangeable: they provide for different types of use within the Planning Analytics environment.
The starting point should therefore be the entitlement itself, not simply the users you can see in the system.
A Planning Analytics environment may have been licensed for an organisation quite different from the one using it today.
Teams restructure. Finance functions change. Administrators leave. New models are introduced. Some users move from contributing to reports to only consuming them, while others take on modelling responsibilities.
Before renewal, reconcile the current environment against the entitlements held.
Questions worth asking include:
Do not rely solely on the user list in TM1 to answer the licensing question.
IBM itself notes that the }Clients dimension can show users in a Planning Analytics database, but it does not determine whether each person has the correct licence entitlement. That reconciliation still needs to be performed against the licences held and the way people use the system.
For a mature environment, this is worth doing before the renewal is committed rather than after it.
Another useful distinction is between the right to use the software and IBM Software Subscription and Support.
For a traditional IBM non-expiring licence, the customer acquires an ongoing right to use the licensed software, subject to the relevant IBM agreement. Software Subscription and Support is then renewed separately.
While Software Subscription and Support is active, it provides access to IBM support and to new versions, releases and updates covered by the entitlement.
If Software Subscription and Support on a non-expiring licence is not renewed, the underlying licence does not simply disappear. The organisation can generally continue using the software it is entitled to use, but it loses the benefits provided by active Subscription and Support.
A term licence is different.
The right to use the software exists for the specified term. If the term expires and is not renewed, the right to continue using the software also ends.
That difference is significant.
Before describing something internally as "our Planning Analytics licence renewal", establish whether the agency is renewing Subscription and Support against an existing non-expiring entitlement, renewing a term-based licence, or dealing with another IBM commercial arrangement.
The applicable Proof of Entitlement and IBM terms should always be checked for the specific environment.
Planning Analytics customers can sometimes treat the software licence, IBM support and specialist application support as though they are one service.
They are not.
There is a distinction between:
This distinction has become more important following IBM's withdrawal of its Primary Support Provider (PSP) program.
Under the former PSP model, participating IBM Business Partners could resell IBM software and provide first-level product support, escalating issues to IBM where required.
IBM withdrew the PSP program in 2026, with migration to the Passport Advantage support model commencing on 2 February 2026.
For customers that previously received support through a PSP partner, this is a good opportunity to look at the support arrangement afresh rather than assuming the old model continues under a different name.
With current Software Subscription and Support, customers have access to IBM's support resources through the Passport Advantage support model. Specialist Planning Analytics application support can then be provided separately by an experienced Planning Analytics partner.
The questions to ask are straightforward:
Who provides IBM product support? Who supports our Planning Analytics models and applications? Who manages the licence renewal? And what happens when an issue crosses those boundaries?
Those answers matter more than trying to recreate the old PSP arrangement.
Often, yes — but it should not be reduced to a blanket statement that any IBM partner can take over any renewal.
IBM Passport Advantage allows customers to manage renewal information and, depending on the arrangement and offering, renew through IBM or an authorised IBM Business Partner.
The relevant partner still needs to be appropriately authorised for the transaction, and the agency's particular IBM agreement, entitlement and commercial arrangements need to be taken into account.
The important point for a government buyer is that the incumbent supplier relationship and the underlying IBM software entitlement are not necessarily the same thing.
If an agency wants to test the market for its IBM renewal or related Planning Analytics services, it should first establish what can be separated and what cannot.
That avoids both extremes: assuming the incumbent is the only possible supplier, or assuming a change of supplier is always trivial.
This also needs to be checked rather than assumed.
There are usually several different types of intellectual property involved in a Planning Analytics environment.
IBM software is licensed under IBM's terms.
Agency-specific implementation work may include TM1 models, rules, TurboIntegrator processes, reports, Planning Analytics Workspace content, integrations and documentation.
Supplier intellectual property may include proprietary software, frameworks, accelerators, utilities or other pre-existing material incorporated into the solution.
Who owns or can continue using each of these depends on the relevant contracts and licence terms.
A supplier having proprietary intellectual property is not inherently a problem. It may provide real value.
The issue is whether the agency understands the dependency.
Before changing support providers or allowing a contract to expire, establish:
That is a much better test of supplier dependency than simply asking who originally built the system.
The valuable investment in a mature Planning Analytics environment is usually much broader than the IBM software itself. It includes the data model, business rules, planning processes, integrations, reports, documentation and the organisational knowledge built around them.
Those assets should be understood and protected regardless of who provides the next support contract.
Not automatically.
For Commonwealth entities, achieving value for money is the core requirement of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
Competition is an important part of achieving value for money, but the appropriate procurement method depends on the value, scale, scope and risk of the procurement, the arrangement being used and the agency's own procurement requirements.
Where an existing standing offer contains multiple potential suppliers, the Commonwealth Procurement Rules say officials should approach multiple potential suppliers to maximise competition.
That is different from saying every software renewal must receive a particular number of competing quotes.
For a Planning Analytics renewal, the practical question is whether the agency has undertaken reasonable enquiries and can demonstrate that the proposed procurement represents value for money.
Sometimes market testing will be appropriate. In other circumstances an existing arrangement may provide a sound procurement path.
Either way, renewing simply because "we bought it from them last year" is not much of a value-for-money assessment.
Individual entities may also have internal procurement policies that impose requirements beyond the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
Licensing decisions also need some technical context.
An agency on an older Planning Analytics environment may be considering several things at once: its immediate software support position, an upgrade to Planning Analytics Local 2.1, the retirement of legacy components, and its longer-term approach to the newer TM1 12 architecture.
There is no advantage in optimising a licence arrangement for an environment you already expect to change.
Equally, a future platform direction should not force an agency into an unnecessary architectural change simply because a renewal date is approaching.
Before renewing, ask:
Does what we are buying still make sense for the Planning Analytics environment we expect to operate over the next few years?
That may lead to no change at all.
Or it may identify a reason to alter the licence mix, support arrangement, contract term or timing of a future platform change.
The important thing is that the decisions are made together.
The best time to review Planning Analytics licensing is not the week the purchase order is due.
IBM Passport Advantage provides visibility of entitlements and upcoming renewals, and IBM begins its renewal administration well ahead of the anniversary date.
For a significant government environment, starting the internal review around four to six months before renewal provides enough time to understand the position without turning it into an urgent procurement exercise.
By the time the final renewal is being processed, the agency should ideally know:
If those questions have been answered, the renewal itself should be relatively straightforward.
If they have not, the renewal date is a useful prompt to answer them.
An IBM Planning Analytics renewal does not need to become a major licensing project every year. But for a platform that may have been operating for a decade or more, periodically checking that what the agency owns, uses, pays for and supports still lines up is simply good governance.