CensorNet guns for UK growth with move to two-tier channel

Security vendor appoints Infinigate as part of strategy to grow channel business

CensorNet is on a mission to accelerate its UK business and has switched to a two-tier channel model by appointing Infinigate as its UK distributor, according to sales director Matt Cross.

The vendor and distributor have already cultivated a successful relationship in other European regions, including DACH and Benelux.

CensorNet offers email, web and cloud application security, multi-factor authentication and a unified security service.

It counts Symantec and Proofpoint among its competitors, and is currently working with 120 UK partners - a number it is seeking to boost.

"We know as a vendor we can't do it all on our own; we know the value of having good reseller partners and distribution are critical to that because they give us that scale, in terms of partner recruitment and can give technical and marketing support both for us and those channel partners," he said.

The Basingstoke-based security vendor had looked at other distributors, Cross said, but plumped for Infinigate as its UK distie, based both on the pre-existing relationship between the two companies in Europe and because it filled a hole in the distributor's portfolio.

"We were already working with them and that relationship was a good one, but we did look at the market and what Infinigate in the UK could specifically offer us," stated Cross.

"They've got a track record of creating markets and taking relatively new vendors and growing their market share in the UK so that was a good fit for us, and looking at their existing portfolio there was a gap for us around what we were doing with cloud security. We didn't want to sign with a distributor partner where we were one of five or six vendors in a particular space."

Cross said that the company is seeing success in the SMB market, and that is where it is focusing its efforts right now, though it does have a number of enterprise customers as well.

"We've been very successful with recent wins in the mid-enterprise space," he said.

"We do have a good customer base in the education sector and are still adding to that with new customers.

"The product has a broad appeal but certainly that midmarket space is a real sweet spot for us at the moment."

The vendor reported turnover of £7.5m in its financial year ending 31 December 2017, and has offices in the US and Denmark, but the UK business is the largest contributor to revenue, according to Cross.

"The Nordics and Benelux are strong for us and there is a focus to grow those markets as well but the UK leads the way at the moment in terms of revenue contribution," he stated.

CensorNet appointed VAD Blue Solutions as its distributor in 2015, also then billing it as a move to a two-tier channel, however Cross was not in a position to comment on that as it preceded his appointment by two years.