Buying software licences second-hand? - companies can benefit in several ways at once

The budget pressure caused by high energy prices and slowly falling inflation rates has  reached the IT sector. The current price increases are causing discontent among many managers: Microsoft, for example, has increased its prices for all cloud products and contracts by eleven per cent in the Eurozone since 1 April. The announcement that prices will additionally be adjusted twice a year to exchange rate fluctuations is increasingly making companies think about alternatives.   

Already today, companies, organisations and public administrations rely on a mix of cloud and on-premise licences (hybrid models) or continue to trust in complete on-premise solutions and thus use the opportunity to benefit from the advantages of used software licences several times over. With a price advantage of up to 70 per cent, used software licences offer a clever alternative to buying a new licence version, especially for standard software such as Windows operating systems, Windows servers or applications such as MS Office.

There are many providers from whom you can buy used software licences. nly a few meet the high PREO standards in terms of security, transparency and compliance, which we, as a pioneer in the European trade with used software licences, set ourselves more than 15 years ago. With PREO you benefit from  

1. high savings on running licence costs. Depending on the version, savings of up to 70 percent are possible compared to the new version. ompared to rented cloud software, the financial advantages can continue to grow over the years.
   
2. personal advice on all questions concerning licence transactions and the integration of used software licences in classic network structures or hybrid solutions.
   
3. 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".
   
4. Existing capacities for software licence management in large IT infrastructure projects with thousands of workstations and transnational locations.
   
5. Detailed market knowledge and extensive experience through the audit-proof transfer of well over one million used software licences.

Our used software originates 100 percent from transparent sources. All licences come exclusively from the EU. Our partners are companies that no longer need their licences for a variety of reasons.

Used software licences from PREO mostly originate from:

• Insolvencies
• Reduction of departments or restructuring
• Over-licensing
• Migration projects
• Change to new versions or open source software
• Changeover to cloud offers and rental models

In any case, we check all records of the initial purchase and obtain written confirmation of the deletion of the software on the seller's computer.

If you buy your used software licences from PREO, you are contractually equal to the first licence holder. You will therefore also receive all manufacturer updates of earlier programme versions without any problems, provided the official end of manufacturer support has not yet been reached. Important for you: As a PREO customer, you enjoy all the advantages of a legally secure licence transfer and therefore also receive the subsequent software updates and improvements.

In order to benefit from the financial advantages of used software licences, the audit-proof design of the entire process is the decisive prerequisite. That is why security and compliance in licence transfer are our top priorities:

• You receive used software from us 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 receive from PREO not only general assurances of the legality of the transaction, but also all the necessary documents that document the change of ownership in an audit-proof and transparent manner.
  
• PREO also supports software projects with advice on licence optimisation and implementation planning in your company.
  
  

The Enterprise Strategy Group has investigated for Dell Technologies how far it pays off for companies to move workloads to the public cloud. The results of the study, published in February 2020, show that 54% of the more than 1,200 IT managers from Western Europe surveyed said that such solutions cost more than on-premises operation. 58% said that their public cloud solutions cost more than they had expected.

The direct advantage of used software licences lies in the high price advantages and the associated savings, without your employees missing functions at the respective workstation that are necessary for the completion of their tasks. Further strategic advantages arise from the optimised cost structure:

• You permanently relieve your IT budget: The high cost savings enable investments in other areas that are currently more urgent for your company or can contribute to value creation.
  
• You avoid over-engineering: The company-wide rollout of overloaded software with surplus functions is unnecessary if, for example, previous versions are already more than sufficient for the existing software requirements.
  
• They record fewer support events: As a rule, older software is more mature. Usually it has already been updated several times, runs more stable and the application possibilities are known. This relieves your user support and contributes to optimising the productivity of your employees.
  
  

As a CTO, IT buyer or SA manager, you depend on a reliable and credible partner who offers you legally and thus audit-proof transfer processes when purchasing used software licences. Transactions carried out by us are legally compliant within the framework of EU requirements and the subsequent BGH rulings from 2013 and 2014. With us, you will pass all possible audits because there are no gaps in your documentation and all previous owners are fully and transparently documented. In addition to the legally compliant purchase of your software licences, you benefit from the personal advice of our licensing experts, so that you can actually achieve the high savings that can be achieved in your practice today through intelligent licensing strategies.

Are you interested in buying used software licences for your company, but are not quite convinced yet? Then take a look at our reference projects, which we have already successfully realised for numerous customers.