'Sticky' Blue Cube on expansion drive
Security VAR reveals customer retention rate over last five years has hit 92 per cent
Security VAR Blue Cube claims its "stickiness" with customers has been a key factor in its growth after moving to larger offices.
Gary Haycock-West, managing director at the firm – which is aiming to grow headcount by another 25 per cent after moving to a larger HQ in East Grinstead – revealed its customer renewal rate stands at more than 90 per cent.
"We have seen a good level of renewing and renewal business, such as maintenance renewals. We hit 92 per cent renewing, renewals as an average over the last five years," he said.
"The erosion has largely come by some of those products being quite old, and naturally have passed through their time, no longer exist or are not needed. So rarely does the renewal go off to a competitor. Once you can get that stickiness it's quite good. This represents a fairly dependable income for the business and I am proud of the team and what they have done to achieve that in terms of what they say and do when a customer phones up."
Sophos and RSA partner Blue Cube currently has 25 staff.
"We are a 15-year-old security reseller, our marketing line is pretty much IT security solutions, which is what we do," Haycock-West said. "We have always been able to have agility in the marketplace where we work with a number of the major vendors but have a blend of bleeding-edge, leading-edge and fulfilment technologies."
Haycock-West said Blue Cube has also benefited from various competitors being snapped up by larger rivals, with Security Partnerships, NTS and Sysec among those to have succumbed to consolidation in recent years.
"Some of our more direct competitors that you may see a bit more of have been swallowed up by different organisations, and I often have a little smile on my face as it has taken them out of the equation for us," he said.
"I can't say who our main rivals are, but there have been some acquisitions over the past 12 months that have perhaps got them out of the way."