Dwight, >Looking into things you realize that on 20 existing machines you have >NEVER use software distribution SO you just drop it from those >20 machines and use the "freed points" to apply towards TSM client & >TWS points for your new 12 machines.
Unfortunately, I believe that this is not correct. According to the discussions with Tivoli that we've had (as a reseller), the points are transferrable only within the confines of a Product Number. This is true even for products that one might think of as components of the same product. For example, you might have a stable of 10 Unix servers that you're backing up with TDP/Oracle (Product 5698-DPO). Being Tier-2 systems, the list price is 200 points each client, about $62,000 total. Your company announces an acquisition of a company, and in the course of hashing out the details of the transition, it is decided that the merged company will standardize on DB2 as a database platform. In addition, they have 100 Unix web servers that are being backed up with a product that nobody likes. TSM is selected as the standard backup method for the merged company. In our understanding, (someone from Tivoli correct me if I am wrong about this, please!) you may not transfer the 2000 fallow points from your existing 5698-DPO "bucket" to the 5698-TSM (Managed System - LAN) product that is required to backup your web servers. Total list price: 1500 points, about $46,500. Again, this is how it was explained to us; if someone from Tivoli can correct me, I'd be happy to hear otherwise. Quoting from the Tivoli Quick Quoter tool: "Tivoli Points are Product Specific". Ted Byrne
