Bloxx Betts on product expansion

Doyle: the word recession is not an acceptable word in this company

Web filtering challenger Bloxx has claimed an upcoming expansion of its product portfolio will open more doors for its UK resellers.

The fast-growing pretender to Websense’s crown this week launched its second product at the BETT show, the education-focused Bloxx Media Filter. In March it will debut its first email security gateway before extending its web-filtering line-up in April to include technology for mobile users.

Eamonn Doyle, managing director of Bloxx, said the vendor is aiming to grow three-fold over the next three years. It has made the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 (UK) list of fast-growing tech firms for the past three years.

“The word recession is not an acceptable word in this company,” he said. “We have got to accelerate our growth rate and that will come partly through the wider product range, but we are also expecting significant growth in the US and European languages.”

Doyle said the Media Filter – which complements Bloxx’s traditional TruView web-filtering technology by allowing teachers to authorise specific clips on YouTube – would provide a boost to education-focused resellers.

“Resellers now have a product they can sell into happy users of Websense and other competing filtering products,” he said. “That door was closed to them in the past.”

Websense boasts about 70 per cent of the web filtering market but Doyle argued the giant is beginning to lose its dominant grip.

“Websense is in the invidious position of having to retain a high percentage of the market, and there are a number of companies like Bloxx that are keen to get
a piece of the action,” he said. “We see ourselves fitting in the mid-price range but offering better-than-mid-price technology.”

Jonathan Lassman, managing director of Bloxx reseller NTS, said: “Bloxx does what it says on the tin at a low price point and that is what keeps people coming back.”