Sales of second-hand Microsoft software licences have doubled month-on-month since the market was opened in November 2005, according to the Staffordshire start-up that spotted the opportunity in Microsoft's small print and Britain's insolvency laws.
Discount-licensing.com, the trading name of Disclic Ltd, offers cost savings of 20–50 per cent on licences for older versions of Microsoft titles. The licences are bought in bulk, for between 2–20,000 seats. Buyers may not get exactly the licence they would get from conventional channels because the licence will have been bought before, by a company now insolvent or downsizing.
Yes Telco, a Manchester-based Vodafone service provider, became one of the first UK businesses to take advantage of purchasing hundreds of older Microsoft Office XP licences rather than the latest version. It made a net saving in the region of £10,000. Some international purchasers have saved more than €50,000.
Approximately 15 per cent of enquiries received by Discount-Licensing.com have been from existing Microsoft resellers as well as other IT outsourcers, according to the company.
Story source:
theregister.co.uk.