What was needed for remote work in 2020 had become redundant three years later –
and generated a five-figure return.
Customer
AOK Niedersachsen – Die Gesundheitskasse
Industry
Statutory health insurance / public sector
Size
Around 3 million insured members, headquarters in Hanover, more than 100 local branches
Initial situation
2,000 Office 2019 Professional Plus licences purchased for home-working in 2020 became obsolete in 2023
Task
Legally sell the unused licences, including proof of the complete chain of ownership
Solution
Purchase by MRM Distribution, including guided document and licence key verification
Price per licence
€12 per licence – the best offer among several competing bids
Result
Five-figure return, paid shortly after submission of the complete documentation
Date
Decision to sell taken in summer 2023
Special feature
Comparative quotations obtained in accordance with public sector procurement requirements
Receive the complete AOK Niedersachsen project history as a PDF
Initial situation: How 2,000 home-working licences became surplus assets for AOK Niedersachsen
In 2020, AOK Niedersachsen had to move a large proportion of its workforce to home working at very short notice. Three years later, the licences purchased for that purpose were no longer required.
2020
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, AOK Niedersachsen had to quickly equip a large share of its workforce for remote working, including the use of private laptops.
2020
A new licensing programme had not been planned within the health insurer’s budget. Therefore, AOK’s IT department purchased pre-owned Office 2019 Professional Plus licences for 2,000 laptops.
2023
Employees returned to the office, while private devices had long since been replaced by company-owned hardware. The 2,000 licences became redundant.
Summer 2023
The IT department approached the procurement team at AOK Lower Saxony. The decision was made to sell the licences.
The challenge: Incorrect licence keys and the documentation requirements of a public-sector organisation
The decision to sell had been made. What remained unclear was whether the chain of ownership for all 2,000 licences could be fully documented, and who within the organisation would manage the process.
AOK Niedersachsen had no previous experience with licence resale. The employee responsible for the project, who was completing a dual-study programme at the time, had no prior experience with software licensing or software resale procedures.
The 2,000 special licences were not stored in Microsoft’s VLSC because they had not been purchased directly from Microsoft.
The licence documentation consisted of a folder containing invoices and contracts, along with an Excel spreadsheet of licence keys. There was no certainty that these records covered the entire licence inventory.
The licence keys in the Excel spreadsheet proved to be incorrect. The keys retrieved from the VLSC were valid but did not correspond to the 2,000 Office packages intended for sale.
The keys actually associated with the 2,000 Office packages had been blocked by the original seller.
As a public-sector organisation, AOK was required to obtain comparative quotations in accordance with public procurement regulations.
The solution: Selling 2,000 AOK licences to MRM Distribution in seven steps
The result:
A five-figure return from 2,000 Office licences at AOK Niedersachsen Licences sold
Licences sold
2,000 × Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Plus
Price per licence
€12
Total proceeds
Five-figure amount
Payment
Paid shortly after submission of the complete documentation
How much value is hidden in your software licences?
MRM Distribution will assess your licence portfolio free of charge and without obligation.
Tobias Krich, Licensing Coordinator at AOK Niedersachsen, says
„I did not expect this level of support. After all, we were the ones selling something. My contact person at MRM guided me through the entire process and was always understanding whenever there were delays on our side. It was an excellent collaboration.”
Tobias Krich, Licensing Coordinator, AOK Niedersachsen
Which organisations can benefit from a similar approach?
The situation faced by AOK Niedersachsen is common across many organisations.
Selling used software licences can be worthwhile in the following cases:
Organisations that still hold unused software licences from previous procurement projects
Public-sector organisations that are required to obtain comparative quotations before selling assets
Companies whose licences were not purchased directly from Microsoft
Organisations without an established Software Asset Management programme or a complete overview of their licence portfolio
Have your unused Microsoft licences assessed
MRM Distribution reviews your licence inventory, determines the achievable resale value, and supports the entire chain-of-ownership verification process, from documentation requirements through to the declaration of destruction.
Get in touch and receive a no-obligation assessment of your licence inventory.
Learn more about software licence resale.