Maximizing Your Company’s Software Assets; The Hidden Value of Microsoft Licenses

Microsoft licenses: hidden treasures on your shelf! 

“Licenses generate money in bankruptcy”. With this headline, the leading magazine Computable wrote an extensive article in September 2009 about the resale of software licenses in the event of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the purchase and sale of licenses has now become a normal practice, not just in the case of bankruptcy or business cessation alone.   

However, many companies still don’t know that they have these hidden treasures on their shelves. Q-Advise specializes in mediating in the purchase and sale of secondhand software licenses. We have many years of experience in having the ability to select a credible provider for the purchase and sale of secondhand licenses.   

We facilitate the entire purchase and sale process. Secondhand Microsoft licenses are also very financially attractive for smaller companies and organizations.   

The buying and selling of secondhand software, better known as licenses, is still unfamiliar to many but is rapidly gaining popularity. It often involves Microsoft software licenses (such as Office) but can apply to any software that requires licenses.   

Excess Microsoft licenses are “shelfware.”    

Q-Advise is one of the few reliable parties in the Dutch market that specializes in buying and selling software licenses. Companies can earn or save a lot of money on their licenses without realizing it. This is why there is talk of a hidden treasure on the shelves. Secondhand software is therefore not called “shelfware” abroad.   

Almost all companies in the Netherlands have more licenses than they use. This can be due to fewer PCs than licenses, more workstations than employees, or because many companies are moving to the cloud, making old licenses redundant. Q-Advise takes over these “excess” software packages and resells them or acts as an intermediary for companies that want to sell their licenses themselves.   

Facilitating the purchase of pre-owned / used software license  

Our team of experts play a crucial role in facilitating the purchase of pre-owned licenses from vendors by providing expertise and guidance throughout the process. We have a well-crafted, workable process that we tweak periodically based on client’s unique needs to land the best deals.    

We believe in understanding what clients’ needs are and that it is the start to provide solutions spot on. We carry out an assessment of your current license state as an organization to be able to know what your requirements are. It becomes costly when you either buy too many licenses than needed, or under-license users in your organization. We do a thorough assessment of your license status to help plan the purchase adequately. Our team in the process will then establish the compatibility of secondhand licenses with your existing software infrastructure when it is introduced.  

Coming to us to assist you either sell or buy secondhand licenses is not our starting point of scouting available licenses on the market. We already have identified, and well vetted secondhand licenses we know will meet your needs no matter what they are. This we have done not to waste your time as we know some organizations may approach us at the point of urgency or an audit scare. Due diligence checked, dusted and done with already! 

Verification, credibility and legitimacy of the secondhand license to ensure it meets compliance and regulations is already taken care of.  You are assured of secondhand licenses complying with the terms and conditions set by the original software vendor with no transfer issues. 

Our team of experts provide negotiation support to ensure you, our client gets a fair deal in terms of cost and addressing all relevant aspects of the licensing agreement adequately.  

In the initial stage of engaging you, we also work towards cost optimization. We help you explore various options in the secondhand license market arriving at securing cost-effective solutions for your organization.  

Request your Microsoft quote without obligation.   

Numerous lawsuits: Many companies have never sold their licenses, partly because software giants like Microsoft and Oracle have long claimed that reselling software licenses is not allowed or is illegal. Many potential buyers were also hesitant to work with parties that offered these licenses at a good discount.   

After numerous lawsuits and a harsh ruling by the European Court in 2012 there is now no need to stop the sale of excess and unnecessary licenses, and newer versions can be purchased without any problems. However, it is important that companies adhere to the rules. That is why Q-Advise acts as an expert intermediary that guides the purchase and sale of secondhand licenses.  

Most software manufacturers who are solely Interested in selling new software (such as Microsoft) have since abandoned their objections to the resale of licenses. Of course, companies like Microsoft and resellers are not happy with this situation. After all, they have an interest in selling new software. It is like a car dealer who prefers to sell a new car instead of a used one. However, unlike cars, secondhand software is just as usable as new software.  

Despite the fact that many companies choose to work in the cloud, the Benelux market for secondhand software licenses remains interesting. Smaller companies hardly make that transition, and out of security considerations, more and more medium-sized and even multinational companies are also abandoning cloud-based working. Examples of large-scale data breaches appear almost weekly in the news. This scares them off. Thanks to Q-Advise, they can buy safe and reliable software licenses at an attractive discount.