Date:
16 Feb 2023
Author:
PREO AG
Licence Management
How Companies Remain Flexible and Create Financial Opportunities with Used Software
According to a Gartner study* of 1,120 executives from companies and the public sector with a focus on Europe and North America regarding the selection and procurement of information technologies, more than half regret their decisions after a short period of time. Notably, dissatisfaction begins even before the technical implementation starts.
The main reasons are mainly an excessively extended project duration with lengthy coordination processes and a large number of people involved with too little IT-specific knowledge, which is particularly noticeable in public administration. Inadequate provider information on offers, products, and services also leads to insufficiently prepared decisions that ultimately miss the actual need. In addition, in more than half of the companies surveyed, non-technical departments now make significant decisions in IT projects, which is likely to increase the chances of negative consequences both for the implementation-responsible technical department and the users.
Software License Management - Quality of Advice and Transparency are Key Factors with Used Software
At PREO, we have always been committed to providing comprehensive and tailored personal advice and complete transparency of the rights chain. Procuring software and managing software licences, particularly in the context of used software licenses, presents project teams with diverse legal, technical, and financial challenges. As one of the pioneers in the trade and management of used software licences, based on our extensive experience from numerous national and international projects over almost two decades, we know what companies need to consider in order to avoid making mistakes from the start in procurement and implementation.
Software License Management - Raise Efficiency Potential with Accurate Needs Assessment
Which adaptations in your software license management result in more efficiency should be decided after an accurate needs analysis, including your medium-term corporate goals. The focus should not only be on the current situation, but also on the planned development in the next three to five years. Our experiences from the past confirm that in order to successfully make decisions, the following questions should be answered concretely:
- What applications are currently needed in what work areas and at which locations? What requirements result from the planned business development for the time frames of the next twelve months and three to five years?
- Is it necessary to use the current and therefore most expensive software in all areas, where are there opportunities for cheaper licensing options?
- In which and how many areas is it more efficient to use cheaper predecessor versions, and how will licensing be handled after the official support of each version ends?
- What consequences result from switching in terms of compatibility with the respective operating system and server releases?
- What internal resources must be made available or adjusted according to the software license model, and what costs are associated with it, if any?
In conclusion, it can be stated that only with an accurate analysis of the license stock and the planned medium-term corporate development, the available efficiency potentials can be opened and realized when switching to used software licenses or their integration into a hybrid license model.
Strengthening Competencies, Accelerating Decision-Making Processes
It is surprising, as confirmed by the Gartner study in recent years, that decisions about technology purchases are no longer made by the IT department in more than half of companies. Despite the increased complexity of applications due to the many cloud services and solutions and the associated interface requirements to existing infrastructure.
However, without the necessary IT-specific expertise, decisions on software license management with high budget expenditure can quickly lead to loss-making misallocations and have a lasting impact on cooperation and the working atmosphere. Therefore, it is recommended to strengthen internal competencies in the field, to either prepare decisions fully and aligned with the company's needs for the decision-making level or alternatively to make decisions directly and thus with less coordination intensity, independently and responsibly.
Software licence management with the right mix for flexibility
Agility and flexibility are two important factors of an efficient software licence management. The priority is to avoid large and one-sided dependencies. Instead, it is necessary to acquire and implement tailor-made and demand-oriented software solutions that restrict the scope for ongoing licence management no more than necessary.
Under this aspect, hybrid cloud models, which combine proven on-premise with cloud products, are becoming increasingly important. This limits the latest and usually most expensive licences to what is necessary and supplements them flexibly. The key benefits: on-premise licences can be purchased used with price benefits of up to 70 percent and sold again if they are no longer needed. This way, over- or under-licensing is avoided and financial leeway is created through clever software licence management. The following customer case explains, using the example of an internationally active special machinery manufacturing company, how this can be successfully implemented in practice.
Moving efficiently into the cloud with clever software licence management
In addition to the financial savings potential, those responsible at the LMT group of companies, which operates internationally in the fields of special machine construction and precision tools, were particularly convinced by the aspects of security and compliance, which are PREO's top priorities when trading in used software. In this interview, IT manager Tim Fäsecke explains why used software emerged as the ideal interim solution on the way to a complete cloud architecture, which internal prejudices he had to dispel at the beginning and how a high six-figure sum was saved in the course of the project.
Successfully integrate used software into licence management with PREO
You are planning to purchase standard software, especially from Microsoft, by incorporating used software in the future, but have not yet finalised your considerations? Then take advantage of the free and non-binding initial consultation by the PREO licence experts and benefit from:
- Personal advice on all aspects of efficient software licence management through the strategic integration of used software licences.
- Legal and audit-secure license acquisition with the highest transparency in all processing steps, including complete documentation in the PREO licence portal "Easy Compliance." As widely used standard software can result in high fines for violations in software licence management.
- Significant savings on ongoing licence costs compared to the respective new version, up to 70 percent, and in some cases even beyond.
- Existing capacities for software licence management in large IT infrastructure projects with thousands of workstations and different locations.
- Detailed market knowledge and extensive experience through the audit-secure transfer of over one million used software licences.
Feel free to also take a look at our reference projects that we have successfully completed for numerous well-known companies in recent years.
