As one of the UK's top logistics providers, Bibby Distribution operates from over 60 locations in the UK and employs around 2,500 people, providing outsourced distribution services to household names such as the Toyota Parts Centre and Golden Wonder.

With so many staff, the company's IT department needs to keep close track of the applications and operating systems running on over 1,000 desktop PCs, which makes effective software asset management (SAM) a priority from both a legal and financial standpoint.

"We have a strong governance culture – the demands are that we are legal and we stay legal," said Bibby IT director, Robert E. Lee. "But nothing says we have to pay more [for software licensing] than we actually need to, either because we do not need as much software as we thought, or because we can defer support [costs] on software that we are not using."

In a bid to reduce its expenditure on unnecessary software licensing, Bibby appointed SAM and IT audit consultancy Liken to conduct a pilot software efficiency audit using the Abexus Enterprise Meter data gathering tool earlier this year. The results of that pilot proved better than expected and the software has now been rolled out across Bibby's organisation.

Using a third party organisation for SAM represents a new strategy for Bibby, which previously endeavoured to tackle the issue in-house.

"Software licensing is an absolute minefield and you have to review [licenses] with care," said Lee. "The general view is that some software vendors make it deliberately difficult and opaque so we preferred to use a specialist company to do it for us. I do not claim to be a solicitor but find it useful to rely on Liken to meet legal and economic objectives."

Bibby uses a wide range of applications, from standard software suites and back office products to specialised freight forwarding and transport warehousing applications. Abexus helps Bibby see exactly where that software is and more importantly how often it is being used. That means underused applications, like Microsoft Office Professional for example, can be removed and the license allocated elsewhere.

"MS Office can be used for an intensive period by somebody, but then not used again for six months, so the question is do these users actually need it," said Lee. "If not, we can uninstall it and put it on another desktop."

Lee admits that some users are reluctant to give away any software, whether they use it or not, but says it is simply a matter of selling the concept properly.

"Very few people actually object if you explain to them that if they have a problem or find that [taking away an application] restricts them, they can come back to us and we will re-assess the situation," said Lee.

Lee would not divulge how much Bibby is paying for the contract with Liken and Abexus, "It does involve a bit of extra workload for one of our infrastructure team, but still pays for itself because we can heavily deskill that work," he said. "We do not have to have an out-and-out technical specialist – the software does it for you and we always have a Liken expert on tap."

So is Bibby Distribution more confident that it is 100 per cent compliant with its current software licensing requirements following a full implementation of the Liken/Abexus combination?

"I would be very upset if any software supplier became indignant, as I hope we are tantalisingly close to being perfect now. But I suppose nobody ever is," said Lee.

Given the difficulties involved in achieving that perfection, Lee has unequivocal advice for any company that is approached by software vendors which have a right to insist that it is compliant with the terms and conditions of any one software product.

"You declare, then go and buy a license – it isn't rocket science," said Lee. "Most software providers will not have a problem and are more than happy to oblige if you are honest and say 'We checked and found we are a few licenses short, but we'd like to buy some more.'"