New Mobile Guardian sales boss eyes Bloxx VARs

Bloxx's former channel boss Marc Fairclough moves to Mobile Guardian as its new UK sales director

Bloxx's former channel director, Marc Fairclough, has said he is looking to encourage Bloxx partners to add Mobile Guardian to their portfolios as he takes up a new position at the mobile device management (MDM) vendor.

Last month web filtering vendor Bloxx was acquired by Akamai, and following this it was announced that its product set will be discontinued under its new owner. Subsequently Fairclough left Bloxx to join South African vendor Mobile Guardian as its UK sales director, and he said he is looking for Bloxx partners to consider adding Mobile Guardian to their line-ups.

"A lot of partners from Bloxx are interested in the product, and we have established relationships with those guys," he said. "They see a similarity with the work ethic, and that's what I'll be looking to bring over, that work ethos of being on-site with partners all the time and giving them the resources they need to integrate MDM into their solutions."

Fairclough said it wasn't a case of taking Bloxx partners, but he wanted to encourage them to fit Mobile Guardian alongside their complementary web-filtering solutions.

Mobile Guardian is focused on the education sector and delivers software that allows devices to be monitored and interacted with, as well as allowing sites to be blocked on the devices. Fairclough said it is designed to enable parents and teachers to monitor the performance and whereabouts of their children.

Currently the vendor is operating in the UK with four or five partners and some direct sales, but Fairclough said he is looking for a "full launch" in the UK in 2016.

He said he is looking to recruit two distributors and between 40 and 50 VARs in the next 12 months.

"Mobile Guardian will be better when it's incorporated with similar technology and we want partners who can identify that and take it to the public sector," he said.

As well as adding partners Fairclough said the vendor is looking to open a UK headquarters in Glasgow next year and recruit five or six people in the second quarter of 2016. And then possibly open a southern office at the end of next year.