Discount-licensing.com, the trading name of Disclic
Ltd, offers cost savings of 20–50% 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% of enquiries received by
Discount-Licensing.com have been from existing Microsoft resellers
as well as other IT outsourcers, according to the company.
OUT-LAW asked Microsoft about the business model when it
launched last November. Brent Callinicos, Corporate Vice President
Worldwide Licensing and Pricing, responded:
"Microsoft’s license agreements and product
use rights provide guidance on how customers may use our software,
including the ability to transfer licenses. There are
circumstances under which a customer may need to transfer licenses
from an entire Open License agreement to a third party. The
provisions for such a transfer are detailed in our Open License
agreement. The provision was included to help a company with
divestiture. The secondhand resale of a license agreement is not
the intended purpose of these provisions."
