Livingstone, the leading independent provider of software asset management (SAM) services, is providing its services to Markit, the financial information services company. The program includes a comprehensive audit protection service, process assessment and gap analysis support across Markit’s existing activities.

Livingstone’s services will support Markit's ongoing risk reduction and compliance initiatives. Livingstone’s licensing specialists will work closely with internal teams on both procurement-related activity, such as software renewals, true-ups, audits, and on IT-related activities including software deployments, server configurations and technical architecture. The support and recommendations that Livingstone provides will be based on the effective licence positions (ELP) that it will create and manage on all the software vendors in scope. The ELP is a balance of licences held by Markit and will help identify areas where they are either under or over licenced; driving cost reduction and risk mitigation.

Roy Flint, managing director of group technology services at Markit, said: "The effective management, control, protection and optimisation of our software assets are key areas of focus. By working with Livingstone to reduce associated risks and enhance compliance, we look forward to improving governance and control of our software estate.”

Daniel Simpson, CEO at Livingstone, said: "Markit is a global firm operating across multiple territories supported by a complex technology infrastructure, and is a perfect example of where we can add significant value to a firm's SAM function. We guarantee to deliver quantifiable results in terms of cost savings, improved software licence optimization and productivity gains. Our unique managed service capabilities, underpinned by a team of some of the most experienced SAM specialists in the field, are ideally positioned to assist Markit to quickly achieve its software asset management goals. We are looking forward to getting started."