ARL Content Change : IBM Workload Scheduler and HCL Workload Automation Publisher Alignment

Product and publisher recognition guidance

Overview

To improve catalog accuracy and ensure consistent publisher recognition, upcoming content updates will align IBM Workload Scheduler and HCL Workload Automation products based on product branding and vendor ownership.

IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler (TWS) was subsequently renamed IBM Workload Scheduler (IWS). In parallel, HCL introduced and maintains its own HCL Workload Automation and HCL Workload Automation Agent offerings as part of the historical IBM-HCL product relationship.

Although these products share a common product lineage and may contain similar functionality and version numbering, they represent distinct publisher offerings and should be recognized separately for inventory, reporting, and licensing purposes.

What's Changing?

The following publisher and product alignment rules will be applied:

Where evidence clearly identifies IBM branding, it will be recognized as an IBM Workload Scheduler offering. Where evidence identifies HCL branding, it will be recognized as the corresponding HCL offering and will not be mapped to IBM products.

All existing application metadata, evidence linking, and product relationships will be retained where applicable.

Why Are We Making This Change?

During content review, it was observed that similar version numbers, including releases such as 10.1.x and 10.2.x, are referenced in both IBM and HCL product documentation.

This demonstrates that version information alone is insufficient to accurately determine the publisher. The same version number may exist under different vendor branding maintained by IBM and HCL.

To ensure accurate product recognition and licensing alignment, publisher assignment must be based on explicit product branding and vendor evidence rather than version number alone. This update provides greater consistency across product identification, reporting, and software asset management processes.

What Is Not Changing?

This update is a publisher and product alignment clarification only. The change will not impact:

·       Inventory collection

·       Software discovery processes

·       Licensing calculations

·       Evidence collection methods

·       Product identifiers

·       Existing installations or deployments

·       Recognized product versions

Systems currently recognizing IBM-branded or HCL-branded Workload Scheduler products will continue to recognize those products according to the updated publisher alignment rules.

References: Here is the links for more information:

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-workload-scheduler-version-1010-release-notes

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-workload-scheduler101x

https://help.hcl-software.com/workloadautomation/prod_page/prod-page.html

https://help.hcl-software.com/workloadautomation/v1022/welcome_distr.html

https://workloadautomation-community.com/uploads/1/0/2/7/102707030/hcl_software_workloadscheduler10.1_performancereport.pdf

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-cloud-and-hcl-partnership-explained

Handling Ambiguous Evidence

Important: Version number alone is not sufficient for publisher assignment.

For evidence that contains only a generic product name such as “Workload Scheduler” together with a version number, there is insufficient information to reliably determine the publisher.

In such cases, additional vendor-specific evidence should be reviewed before mapping the installation to an IBM or HCL product.

Version information alone should not be used as the basis for publisher assignment.

Customer Action

No action is required for most customers. Customers who use custom reports, dashboards, integrations, exports, workflows, or compliance processes that specifically reference IBM Workload Scheduler or HCL Workload Automation should review those references following the release to ensure alignment with the updated publisher recognition approach.

Release Timing & Queries

This change will be included in the 05th October 2026 ARL Release.

Please raise a support case with details if you have any questions or require clarification regarding product recognition or publisher assignment.

Thank you!