Case study: licensing 80 Adobe machines in 14 days

Background and initial situation

In late March 2026, a digital media and content production company in Ho Chi Minh City — referred to here as Company T — received an informal notification that the business district where their office was located would be included in an inter-agency software copyright inspection under the spirit of Official Dispatch 38/CĐ-TTg. Estimated timing: four weeks away.

They called Dzo on a Monday morning with a direct question: "We have 80 machines running cracked Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere. Can we get fully licensed in the time we have left?"

*Privacy note: the company name and certain identifying details have been changed at the client's request. Timeline data, machine counts, and the structure of the problem are preserved as-is.*

• 3 Adobe Creative Cloud Individual plan accounts shared across 80 machines through password sharing and unauthorised activations.
• Approximately 20 machines running fully cracked Adobe CC with no account at all.
• No valid purchase documentation or VAT invoice (hoá đơn đỏ) for any Adobe software.
• Actual Adobe applications installed: an average of 4–5 apps per machine, totalling approximately 350–400 unauthorised installations.
• Estimated fine exposure under Decree 341/2025: 200–500 million VND at minimum for this scale of violation, excluding the risk of public name disclosure.

Solution selected: Adobe VIP for enterprises

Dzo advised Company T to migrate to Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams under the Value Incentive Plan (VIP) — the enterprise licence programme for organisations with 10 or more seats. Price: contact for a quote.

• A single admin account manages all seats — no more password sharing, with full visibility over which applications each user accesses.
• Each seat allows activation on 2 devices (desktop plus a backup laptop) — matching the real-world workflow of creative professionals.
• Valid electronic VAT invoices (hoá đơn đỏ) can be issued through an authorised reseller in Vietnam such as Dzo — compliant for expense booking.
• VIP annual pricing is typically lower in aggregate than individual plans at volumes of 50 or more seats.

14-day deployment — actual timeline

Days 1–2: Rapid audit and planning — Dzo dispatched a specialist for an on-site audit: cataloguing all machines, Adobe applications installed, versions, and active accounts. Outcome: 78 machines had licence issues (2 IT admin machines already held valid plans). A priority application list was drawn up by department.

Days 3–5: Paperwork and contract execution — Dzo handled all VIP procurement procedures: licence agreements, contracts, and seat allocation by department. Company T needed to provide their tax registration number, legal representative details, and a staff email list for licence assignment. No action was required from Company T's IT staff during this phase.

Days 6–10: Deployment and installation — Dzo's technical team worked alongside Company T's IT staff to remove all cracked versions and install Adobe Creative Cloud under the new VIP accounts, in priority order (design team first due to active project deadlines). Machines requiring workspace migration (libraries, presets, legacy settings) were handled individually.

Days 11–12: Verification and sign-off — A full scan was run to confirm that no unauthorised Adobe versions remained on any machine. Company T's IT staff were handed admin access to the Adobe Admin Console.

Days 13–14: Compliance dossier completion — Dzo delivered a complete compliance package: VIP contract, electronic VAT invoice, pre/post inventory reports, and a template internal software use policy for the company to sign and issue.

Results and figures

After 14 days, Company T was fully compliant on Adobe. "What surprised us most was how little disruption the whole process caused. We had assumed that getting fully licensed would take weeks and derail the team's work. The reality was entirely different." — Chief Operating Officer, Company T

• 78 Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams seats validly activated across 80 devices (2 IT admin machines retained their existing valid plans).
• All cracked versions and unauthorised shared accounts removed, with written confirmation on file.
• A complete compliance dossier ready to present if inspectors arrive.
• Operational downtime: minimal — most designers were offline for under 2 hours during migration.

Lessons learned

Looking back at this case study, there are three important lessons that businesses in the creative industry need to keep in mind.

• Remediation is more feasible than you think: with the support of an experienced reseller, 80 machines can be fully licensed in 2 weeks without significant disruption to day-to-day operations.
• Actual costs are typically far lower than potential fines: the annual VIP licence cost for 78 seats remains considerably lower than the estimated 200–500 million VND fine exposure under Decree 341/2025 if the violation had been discovered — and that figure excludes reputational damage.
• Act before a formal notice arrives: Company T was fortunate to receive early intelligence. Enterprises without advance warning will not have 14 days to prepare. Proactive, voluntary remediation is always preferable to crisis response.

Conclusion

Company T's case demonstrates that software compliance — however daunting and costly it may appear — is entirely achievable quickly and in a controlled manner with the right partner. No enterprise needs to wait until inspectors arrive before taking action.

If your business is in a similar situation — whether with Adobe, Microsoft, Autodesk, or any other software — contact Dzo to get a tailored remediation roadmap before it is too late.