use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::Semaphore;

$excel = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
if (!$excel) {
print "Not found, locking\n";
	my $sem = Win32::Semaphore->new(1, 1, 'ASGdailyreport_StartExcel');
	$sem->wait();
print "locked, looking again\n";
	$excel = Win32::OLE->GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
	if (!$excel) {
print "still not found, starting\n";
		$excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application') or die "oops\n";
		# or
		# $excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application','Quit') or die "oops\n";
		# if you wish the Excel to quit once the last script using it exits
	}
	$sem->release();
print "unlocked\n";
}
if (!$excel) {
	die "Could not connect to or start MS Excel!\n";
}
print "have an excel $excel\n";