The ITAM Executive: A Podcast for IT Asset Management Professionals · Anglepoint

Nationwide Building Society's IBM IASP Journey | Bringing ITAM & Procurement Together

·27 min·1 clip

The teams say IASP became “the glue” that brought SAM and procurement together around one dataset.

1. The ITAM Executive episode focuses on Nationwide Building Society’s journey with IBM’s Authorized Service Provider Program, or IASP. 2. Sarah Marriott from Anglepoint hosts Marie Davies, senior asset manager at Nationwide Building Society, and Roz Davies, senior procurement manager at Nationwide, both of whom work directly with IBM management. 3. The episode asks whether IASP can replace IBM audit pressure with shared data, tighter procurement alignment, and a more predictable compliance process. 4. Marie says Nationwide is a mutual owned by members, not shareholders, which makes cost control and member protection central to its decisions. 5. She also says Nationwide has a complex IT estate with many vendors, lots of IBM, and continuing changes such as cloud adoption and legacy mainframes. 6. Roz adds that the back-end tech stack is more complicated than the product portfolio suggests, which makes vendor management harder than it looks from the outside. 7. Sarah explains IASP as IBM’s Authorized Service Provider Program, an audit waiver arrangement tied to quarterly compliance reporting and license-position sharing. 8. She also notes that IASP can include subcapacity reporting, optimization support, and no audit fees or back maintenance on over-deployments found. 9. Before IASP, Marie says the SAM team had to track IBM licenses, ILMT coverage, and compliance across a small team while handling many other vendors. 10. She says an IBM audit can take up to six months and create unbudgeted spend, resource strain, and pressure on senior management. 11. Roz says procurement also lacked an accurate ELP for renewals and could not fully use contractual levers such as cross-brand allotments. 12. She describes the old IBM relationship as guarded and adversarial because audit timing and commercial pressure affected negotiations. 13. Marie says the first six years at Nationwide included two audits, which made IBM feel like a hammer above their head. 14. After joining IASP, Marie says the program became “the glue” that brought SAM and procurement together around the same dataset. 15. She says the shared information now supports both contract decisions and compliance decisions, which was harder to do before the program. 16. Roz says the main driver was better visibility, a rolling ELP, and access to IBM’s commercial flexibilities without losing the audit waiver. 17. Marie says the biggest concern at the start was that IASP might feel like a constant audit with quarterly reports and little room to breathe. 18. Roz says that fear eased because the partner works for Nationwide, remediation happens before anything is shared with IBM, and the company can choose among four authorized service providers. 19. The tone is practical and reflective, with Sarah Marriott steering a structured vendor-journey interview and both guests speaking candidly about process and change. 20. People responsible for IBM licensing, procurement alignment, or audit reduction will get the most from this discussion, while listeners wanting a general IT strategy chat may skip it.

As heard by us

A practical case for shared IBM compliance work between ITAM and procurement.

The episode follows Nationwide Building Society's IBM IASP work through the practical side of ITAM and procurement. The two teams share knowledge, contracts, and the information needed to answer awkward questions, while procurement also steps in when the details get tangled.

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Hear how IBM compliance pressure became a closer procurement partnership.

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