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ft:publication_title :

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# IBM user-based licenses

# IBM user-based licenses {#ariaid-title1}

Release version: Australia  
Updated March 12, 2026  
![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 6 minutes to read
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## Summary of IBM user-based licenses

The Software Asset Management (SAM) publisher pack for IBM enables ServiceNow customers to track, manage, and optimize compliance for IBM user-based licenses.
These licenses include authorized user licenses and various user value unit (UVU)-based licenses---specifically authorized UVU (AUVU), employee UVU (EUVU), and external UVU (XUVU).
This pack adds IBM-specific license metrics and facilitates reconciliation through client access records, allowing you to specify and monitor users granted access to IBM software products.
Show full answer Show less  

## Key Features

* **Client Access Records:** Specify total users or individual users accessing particular IBM software versions. SAM compares this against software entitlements to verify compliance.
* **Authorized User Licensing:** License each unique user regardless of the number of installations across configuration items (CIs). Users can access unlimited installations on licensed CIs.
* **Authorized User Value Unit (AUVU) Licensing:** Licenses the total unique users with tiered factors applied based on user counts. For example, tiers apply different factors to user ranges (1-20 users factor 1.0, 21-50 users factor 0.83, 51+ users factor 0.80). Rights required are calculated by multiplying users per tier by the factor and summing the results.
* **Employee User Value Unit (EUVU) Licensing:** Licenses total users within your organization (employees and contractors) with multi-tier factors decreasing as user counts increase (e.g., 1,000--2,500 users factor 1.0 down to 1,000,001+ users factor 0.32). Rights are calculated similarly by tier multiplication and summation.
* **External User Value Unit (XUVU) Licensing:** Licenses users outside your organization (partners, suppliers, contractors) with tiered factors ranging from 1.0 down to 0.05 for very large user counts. Rights are calculated using the same step-function method.

## Practical Application and Compliance

To determine licensing rights required for AUVU, EUVU, or XUVU licenses, divide total users into defined tiers, multiply by the corresponding factor, and sum the results. If your entitlements do not cover all users, no users are licensed and the product will be marked as Not Compliant in SAM.

Examples provided illustrate calculations for granting access to 150 users (AUVU), 11,000 employees (EUVU), and 15,000 external users (XUVU), demonstrating how tiered factors reduce total rights required as user counts increase.

## Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

* Accurately track and manage IBM user-based licenses with IBM-specific licensing metrics integrated into SAM.
* Optimize license usage and compliance by reconciling user access data against software entitlements.
* Apply tiered licensing models to effectively calculate and forecast license requirements for different user categories.  
You can use the Software Asset Management publisher pack for IBM to
track and manage your IBM user-based licenses, including authorized user licenses
and user value unit (UVU)-based licenses.

Supported UVU-based licenses include authorized UVU, employee UVU, and external UVU. The
publisher pack adds license metrics that are specific to IBM so that you can
calculate licensing for these license types.

IBM user-based licensing enables you to license the users who require access to
your IBM software products. You can track and optimize the compliance of your IBM user-based licenses by reconciling the associated IBM software
products through client access records. With a client access record, you can specify the total
number of users who are granted access to a particular version of an IBM software
product. For more granular control, you can also identify the specific users who are granted
access to that product. The Software Asset Management application can then compare this
information against the software rights and allocations that are defined in the corresponding
software entitlements to determine if the associated user-based licenses are compliant.

For more information on client access records in the Software Asset Workspace, see [Create a software client access record in workspace](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/MC0vsnc2V0WBXf2gpnT9FA "Add a client access record to track and manage the users or devices that are accessing a particular version of your server software using a client access license (CAL)."). For more information on client access
records in the Software Asset Management classic application, see [Add a software client access record in Software Asset Management Core UI](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/K_8qxp1yEEus28P3kvfe3A "Add a client access record to track and manage the users or devices that are accessing a particular version of your server software using a client access license (CAL).").

## Authorized user licensing {#ibm-user-based-licensing__section_arb_kq1_ftb}

Authorized user licensing enables you to license each unique user who requires access to an
IBM software product.

With this licensing type, you can install a given IBM software product on an
unlimited number of configuration items (CIs), such as servers and computers. Each user can then
access an unlimited number of installations for that software product on any of the CIs that the
software product is installed on.

## Authorized user value unit (AUVU) licensing {#ibm-user-based-licensing__section_yqs_lq1_ftb}

Authorized user value unit (AUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of unique
users who require access to an IBM software product.

With this licensing type, you can install a given IBM software product on an
unlimited number of configuration items (CIs), such as servers and computers. Each user can then
access an unlimited number of installations for that software product on any of the CIs that the
software product is installed on.  
With AUVU licensing, the number of users who require access to an IBM software product corresponds directly with an AUVU tier number and factor value.{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_owy_slv_4pb__entry__3}

| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|-|-|-|
| 1 to 20 | 1 | 1.00 |
| 21 to 50 | 2 | 0.83 |
| 51 or more | 3 | 0.80 |
[Table 1. AUVU tiers and factors]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_owy_slv_4pb}

You can determine the number of rights that are required for an AUVU license by using a step
function based on these AUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on
the [AUVU tiers and factors table](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/mWJ9vtThNHr3PJ1A3KyYEw#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_owy_slv_4pb). Then,
multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add
the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the
AUVU license.  
Important:  
If you do not have enough rights to license all users, none of the users are licensed and the product is marked as Not Compliant.  
For example, a company wants to grant 150 employees and contractors access to an IBM software product so that they can collaborate on an upcoming project. The total number of rights that are required for the corresponding AUVU license is 125, based on the following calculations:{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_zbt_s4z_2qb__entry__4}

| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|-|-|-|-|
| 1 (1 to 20 users) | 20 | 1.00 | 20 x 1.00 = 20 |
| 2 (21 to 50 users) | 30 | 0.83 | 30 x 0.83 = 24.9 |
| 3 (51 or more users) | 100 | 0.80 | 100 x 0.8 = 80 |
| --- | 150 total | --- | 20 + 24.9 + 80 = 124.9 total (rounded up to 125 total) |
[ ]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_zbt_s4z_2qb}

## Employee user value unit (EUVU) licensing {#ibm-user-based-licensing__section_qtv_nq1_ftb}

Employee user value unit (EUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of users
within your organization who require access to an IBM software product. These
users can include both employees and contractors.  
With EUVU licensing, the number of users who require access to an IBM software product corresponds directly with an EUVU tier number and factor value.{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_gsg_z53_ftb__entry__3}

| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|-|-|-|
| 1000 to 2,500 | 1 | 1.000 |
| 2,501 to 5,000 | 2 | 0.800 |
| 5,001 to 10,000 | 3 | 0.700 |
| 10,001 to 30,000 | 4 | 0.650 |
| 30,001 to 50,000 | 5 | 0.550 |
| 50,001 to 100,000 | 6 | 0.500 |
| 100,001 to 300,000 | 7 | 0.465 |
| 300,001 to 500,000 | 8 | 0.400 |
| 500,001 to 1,000,000 | 9 | 0.360 |
| 1,000,001 to 100,000,000 | 10 | 0.320 |
[Table 2. EUVU tiers and factors]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_gsg_z53_ftb}

You can determine the number of rights that are required for an EUVU license by using a step
function based on these EUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on
the [EUVU tiers and factors table](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/mWJ9vtThNHr3PJ1A3KyYEw#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_gsg_z53_ftb). Then,
multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add
the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the
EUVU license.  
Important:  
If you do not have enough rights to license all users, none of the users are licensed and the product is marked as Not Compliant.  
For example, a company wants to grant 11,000 employees access to an IBM software product. The total number of rights that are required for the corresponding EUVU license is 8,650, based on the following calculations:{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_hsg_z53_ftb__entry__4}

| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|-|-|-|-|
| 1 (1,000 to 2,500 users) | 2,500 | 1.000 | 2,500 x 1.000 = 2,500 |
| 2 (2,501 to 5,000 users) | 2,500 | 0.800 | 2,500 x 0.800 = 2,000 |
| 3 (5,001 to 10,000 users) | 5,000 | 0.700 | 5,000 x 0.700 = 3,500 |
| 4 (10,001 to 30,000 users) | 1,000 | 0.650 | 1,000 x 0.650 = 650 |
| --- | 11,000 total | --- | 2,500 + 2,000 + 3,500 + 650 = 8,650 total |
[ ]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_hsg_z53_ftb}

## External user value unit (XUVU) licensing {#ibm-user-based-licensing__section_lwr_mq1_ftb}

External user value unit (XUVU) licensing enables you to license the total number of users
outside your organization who require access to an IBM software product. These
users can include third-party partners, suppliers, and contractors.  
With XUVU licensing, the number of users who require access to an IBM software product corresponds directly with an XUVU tier number and factor value.{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_ily_vw3_ftb__entry__3}

| Number of Users | Tier | Factor |
|-|-|-|
| 1000 to 10,000 | 1 | 1.00000 |
| 10,001 to 50,000 | 2 | 0.87500 |
| 50,001 to 100,000 | 3 | 0.60000 |
| 100,001 to 500,000 | 4 | 0.43750 |
| 500,001 to 1,000,000 | 5 | 0.30000 |
| 1,000,001 to 25,000,000 | 6 | 0.24375 |
| 25,000,001 to 50,000,000 | 7 | 0.15000 |
| 50,000,001 to 250,000,000 | 8 | 0.13750 |
| 250,000,001 to 500,000,000 | 9 | 0.05000 |
| 500,000,001 to 100,000,000,000 | 10 | 0.05000 |
[Table 3. XUVU tiers and factors]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_ily_vw3_ftb}

You can determine the number of rights that are required for an XUVU license by using a step
function based on these XUVU tiers. First, divide the total number of users into tiers based on
the [XUVU tiers and factors table](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/mWJ9vtThNHr3PJ1A3KyYEw#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_ily_vw3_ftb). Then,
multiply the number of users within each tier by the corresponding factor values. Finally, add
the resulting numbers together to determine the total number of rights that are required for the
XUVU license.  
Important:  
If you do not have enough rights to license all users, none of the users are licensed and the product is marked as Not Compliant.  
For example, a company wants to grant 15,000 third-party partners access to an IBM software product. The total number of rights that are required for the corresponding XUVU license is 14,375, based on the following calculations:{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_jly_vw3_ftb__entry__4}

| Tier | Number of Users within the Tier | Factor | Number of Rights Required |
|-|-|-|-|
| 1 (1,000 to 10,000 users) | 10,000 | 1.00000 | 10,000 x 1.00000 = 10,000 |
| 2 (10,001 to 50,000 users) | 5,000 | 0.87500 | 5,000 x 0.87500 = 4,375 |
| --- | 15,000 total | --- | 10,000 + 4,357 = 14,375 total |
[ ]

{#ibm-user-based-licensing__table_jly_vw3_ftb}