Grant Brierly, who ran the EMEA business for Express Metrix for a decade, has started a new venture which promises to be the ‘Corporate eBay’ for software licensing.
The “Corporate Licensing Exchange” (I-CLX) trading platform for buying and selling surplus licenses follows the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on the dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft GmbH in 2012.
“i-CLX.co.uk is a members only trading platform where large organisations can browse a catalogue of software licenses which are surplus to requirements but may be very valuable to another organisation. All trades are confidential with the back office team at i-CLX handling the validation of the licenses before the buyers’ money is released to the sellers’ account. All software traded on the platform is therefore completely legitimate. The web site currently offers a catalogue of members products available to buy/sell.”
As I see it, the key challenge here will be persuading corporate buyers that this is legitimate practice, the FAQ on the site goes a long way to address the common objections but the ultimate proof will be a good volume of completed transactions. Organizations will also require a sufficient level of SAM maturity to identify surplus in the first place. This has the potential to open up new compelling drivers for SAM if Grant and his team are able to execute and build momentum.
The platform is currently open to trades as follows:
- Any perpetual software license except OEM i.e. Windows OS
- Originated anywhere in the EU
Further Reading
- “Oracle had tried to sue UsedSoft for reselling surplus Oracle licenses” (Click here for full ECJ ruling via I-CLX).
- News: EU rules against Oracle on second-hand software licensing
- Quick guide to second hand software – Part 1
- Quick guide to second hand software – Part 2
- Quick guide to second hand software – Part 3
Introduction for Partners
i-CLX are holding an evening launch event for partners on Wednesday 9th October in London. I believe they are also sponsoring a future BCS SAM Networking session. I’ll post further details here when I know more. In the meantime learn more about i-CLX here: https://www.i-clx.co.uk
The development of a secondary market can only be a good thing especially when it is coupled with secondary application support market from companies like Remini Street.
With the move to pay as-you-go (e.g. E3) there is going to be more perpetual license becoming available that might be candidates for resale.
Register for the partner event on the 9th October here: https://www.i-clx.co.uk/partner-event-registration.html
Perfect initiative. In the Netherlands the marketplace for second hand software licenses was already launched Q1 2013 by BestBuyLicenses.com
Cannot be enough of these initiatives to counter software vendor sales cycles.