Date:
11 Jul 2023
Author:
PREO AG
Used software
How companies benefit financially and are audit-proof
Corona pandemic, energy crisis, inflation, shortage of skilled workers - the current economic conditions are extremely challenging and no longer manageable for some companies. On a year-on-year comparison of January 2022 and 2023, the number of insolvencies reported to German district courts rose by around 20 percent. The district courts put the probable claims of creditors from the corporate insolvencies reported in Germany in January 2023 at just under 2.3 billion euros.
This development continued in the first quarter of 2023, so that almost all economic experts also assume significantly higher figures for 2023 as a whole as compared to previous years. However, it must be taken into account that special regulations in insolvency law applied in the Corona years 2020 and 2021. Germany is not an isolated case within the EU; a similar picture is currently emerging in other economically strong countries such as France, Italy, Spain and the Benelux countries.
Buying insolvency goods - PREO checks the software licence stock in advance
In the course of insolvency proceedings, it is important to document and secure the existing insolvency estate in order to be able to settle as many outstanding claims as possible. The common practice is to sell existing insolvency goods. In addition to existing physical assets, such as real estate, machines, goods or commodities, more and more insolvency administrators are discovering the value of existing and thus used software assets. However, there are still concerns about the legal situation, although this has been clarified by the highest courts at national and EU level for a good decade. For more than 15 years, we have been experts in the purchase of used software licences from corporate insolvencies, especially large volume licences of standard software, such as application software, operating systems or servers from Microsoft and other major software providers. Our licence experts offer insolvency managers a customised offer including an analysis of the licence portfolio and a legally secure licence transfer.
Buying used software as insolvency goods in a legally secure way
All used software licences offered originate 100 percent from transparent sources and come exclusively from the EU. Our partners are companies that no longer need their licences for a variety of reasons, for example after migration projects, restructuring measures, implementation of cloud products or even insolvencies. However varied the reasons may be, our licence experts and our legal department specialising in licensing law always check all documents of the initial purchase as well as the written confirmation of deletion of the software on the computers of the previous owners. It is not for nothing that security and compliance in licence transfers are a top priority at PREO:
- We only offer used software in the form of volume licences that were previously owned by another company and can be transferred to your company through us in a cost-effective and legally secure manner.
- Our offer includes current and older programme versions of standard software. The manufacturers are market-leading companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle or Citrix.
- You will not only receive general assurances from us regarding the legality of the transaction, but also all the necessary documents that document the change of ownership in an audit-proof and transparent manner.
- We also support your software project with advice on optimising your licence inventory and implementation planning in your company.
Sale of used software licences - insolvency goods generate proceeds in the mid-six-figure range
The acquisition of used software licences in the context of current insolvency proceedings is part of the everyday business of PREO's licence experts and ensures a corresponding increase in mass for those responsible for insolvency.
For example, in the course of the insolvency of BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG, the insolvency administrator generated a six-figure sum by selling existing software licences to PREO. The realisable products were largely Microsoft licences from an Enterprise Agreement for around 4,500 workstations, server licences, CALs and Citrix licences. In this customer case, you will learn why the responsible insolvency administrators of PLUTA Rechtsanwalts GmbH decided to work with PREO, in addition to the financial aspects, primarily for security reasons.
Profit from used software as insolvency goods with PREO
We are one of the pioneers in the European trade with used software licences and market leader in Germany. We offer companies, organisations and public administrations a large selection of used volume licences at any time, which have been purchased as insolvency goods and extensively tested, so that all customers benefit from audit-proof documentation of the rights chain. But it is not only in terms of legal security of used software licences that you have all the advantages on your side with PREO:
- High savings in ongoing licence costs of up to 70 percent compared to the respective new version.
- Active contribution to reducing the CO2 footprint in the IT sector by entering into a resource-saving circular economy including the extension of software and hardware cycles - keyword Green IT.
- 100 percent legally and audit-proof licence acquisition with maximum transparency in all processing steps, including complete documentation in the PREO licence portal "Easy Compliance".
- Many years of expertise in the integration of used software licences in classic network structures or hybrid licence models.
- Detailed market knowledge and extensive experience through the audit-proof transfer of over one million used software licences.
- Existing capacities for software licence management in large IT infrastructure projects with thousands of workstations and transnational locations.
