28. November 2025
Microsoft Licensing: The Strategic Lever
When the question is no longer if costs can be reduced, but where, Valentino Taskhiri, Account Manager at MRM Distribution, has a clear answer: “Microsoft!”
CIOs are not always convinced at first. Those tied to rising cloud costs and under pressure from expiring support cycles often see budgets spiraling. The licensing expert is well aware of this—and clearly outlines in his proposals which M365 plans truly meet customer requirements.
He combines these with reusable licenses: Office, Visio, Project, Windows, SQL or Exchange Server, along with their CALs, as cost-effective pre-owned software.
“These tailored hybrid scenarios are audit-proof, available in large quantities, and fully future-ready,” he explains. Above all, they are economically compelling.
His experience: “A Microsoft strategy optimized by us can reduce IT budgets by up to 40% compared to cloud-only approaches.”
Cost Lever No. 2: VMWare
Over a typical usage period of five years, reusable software pays off—and frees up financial resources for other digital projects. To ensure these are not purchased at excessive costs, the distributor offers affordable alternatives for key applications: VMware, Adobe, hyperautomation, and AI.
“The acquisition of VMware by Broadcom has caused significant challenges for many companies,” says Taskhiri. “Prices have skyrocketed—sometimes products were no longer delivered at all. You hear some surprising things!”
MRM has identified a reliable virtualization solution and true alternative in Sangfor HCI: easy to license, powerful, well-suited for mid-sized businesses—and significantly more cost-effective.
Cost Lever No 3: Automatisierung
With Quickwork, MRM Distribution relies on a modern hyperautomation platform that automates business processes end-to-end with AI support. Quickwork offers over 1,800 prebuilt connectors and a drag-and-drop interface, enables workflows to be transformed into APIs, and operates on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments.
This allows companies to handle recurring tasks more efficiently, reduce sources of error, and free up IT resources—a key lever for improving cost efficiency and operational performance.
Cost Lever Nr. 4: Pragatix Private AI
With the Pragatix platform, MRM delivers a highly secure private AI solution built on a company’s internal knowledge bases—enhanced by an AI firewall that prevents unauthorized shadow AI usage and data leakage.
This solution is available both as SaaS and fully on-premises, meets data protection and compliance requirements (e.g., under the EU AI Act), and enables the secure use of collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams. MRM customers benefit from Pragatix at licensing costs below those of comparable AI solutions.
Cost Lever No 5: Adobe-Alternativen
Not every company needs an expensive Creative Cloud subscription to work efficiently with PDF documents. That’s why MRM includes FlexiPDF from SoftMaker in its portfolio—a powerful, one-time purchase alternative for editing, commenting, and converting PDFs.
With a familiar, Office-like interface and clear licensing terms, FlexiPDF comes without subscription requirements or mandatory online access.
Still Able to Invest in 2026
To ensure companies can continue investing in 2026, the distributor positions itself as the ideal partner with its cost-efficient alternative solutions. The greatest leverage lies in Microsoft licensing. This is confirmed both by IT managers on the customer side and by system integrators working closely with MRM.
“With MRM, we can evaluate better licensing options—and plan our budgets more effectively,” says the IT license manager of a mid-sized manufacturing company.
Jaqueline Rupp from JACOB Elektronik, one of Germany’s largest B2B online shops for IT, is equally satisfied:
“At MRM, everyone knows what they’re doing—at every level. The offers are precise, the documentation is reliable, and the pricing is excellent.”
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