Lothian buses have been providing key transport services for almost 100 years across the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Mid Lothian and West Lothian. They now have over 70 services and more than 700 buses which run day and night throughout the year. Lothian run a modern and environmentally friendly fleet which now includes the city’s first zero-emission electric buses.
Lothian Buses is an award winning transport operator that continues to invest in technology and people to make sure their services continue to meet customer needs now and in the future. They are the UK’s largest municipal bus company and one of the region’s largest employers with over 2,500 staff.
Taking a proactive approach to license visibility
Through continued expansion and acquisition Lothian’s IT systems have been continually scaled to fit the business needs and requirements. This created a position where there were concerns that software licensing in some areas was possibly both under and over utilised, with poor visibility of the overall licensing environment. There was a historic Microsoft licensing solution in place which needed to be reviewed to see if it was still cost effective and fit for the future.
Garry Stein head of IT at Lothian: “The friendly and highly knowledgeable teams at Quexcel and Synergi have meant we could recognise savings, address compliance issues and put the organisation in a better position for the future. The regular compliance checks we perform, and action plans help support ongoing compliance and it means we can all sleep better at night knowing we have the right team to support our ever changing licensing needs”
Streamlining licensing compliance
Synergi introduced its strategic licensing services partner Quexcel who met with Lothian and Synergi to discuss the current position. They introduced their managed software asset management service, which is designed to streamline and automate software licence management with a team of experts to provide clear practical advice and maintain compliance. Quexcel analyses usage metrics, details staff license usage and flags any unused licences which can often be cancelled or reassigned helping customers see real cost savings and efficiency.
Once deployed across the Lothian estate the software asset management solution retrieved key licensing information of the current licenses deployed and – more importantly – what was being actively utilised. Further discussions then took place with Quexcel, Synergi and the Lothian IT team to remove software that was no longer required and identify the correct licenses required by Lothian.
Peter van Uden, company owner Quexcel: “The power of licensing knowledge is key to helping customers like Lothian not only get compliant but also provide opportunities to save money. The three-way collaboration with Synergi, Lothian and Quexcel is a true partnership that offers added value. That is what makes me get out of bed in the morning.”
Synergi then worked alongside the Lothian IT team to design a licensing solution suitable for the next 5 years and validated this design via Quexcel.
The licencing savings to Lothian over the next 5 years will be over £300k allowing this saving to be invested in alternative strategic IT projects.
Ongoing Support
Through quarterly reviews using the Quexcel Managed SAM service, Synergi and the Lothian team continually review the ongoing live license position within Lothian. The Quexcel and Synergi team providing the expert advice and guidance on environmental changes, changes in licensing requirements and the latest licensing terms.
Paul Burns, CTO from Synergi: “The support shown from Peter and the talented team at Quexcel alongside the diligence from Garry and the Lothian IT team has proved that this complex area can be tackled, reducing business risk and providing significant value back”