Bloxx recruits Dunne to lead channel campaign

Recruitment of people represented as wooden blocks

Web filtering company Bloxx has received a boost in its efforts to persuade the channel it is a viable alternative to some of its bigger rivals with the news today it has recruited former Websense UK sales director, Pat Dunne.

Dunne will develop and execute Bloxx’s UK and EMEA channel sales strategy, and spearhead a new reseller recruitment campaign.

The vendor recently added a second string to its bow in the form of its Media Filter appliance, targeting education-focused resellers, as well those servicing the healthcare market and media companies: “Anyone who has learning environment to support,” Bloxx CEO Eamonn Doyle told Channel Pro.

The Bloxx Media Filter enables students to get around the issue of accessing legitimate learning material found on school-blocked sites such as YouTube. It lets teachers identify curriculum-related YouTube video clips and submit them for approval. Once approved, students can search and view clips which are streamed directly from the YouTube site through the appliance directly to classroom PCs, without related video clips, advertising or user-submitted comments being displayed.

Bolton Metropolitan Council has bought the product, with 120 schools building an “enormous safe database,” says Doyle.

Currently 40 percent of the firm’s UK business goes through the channel, and Doyle says Bloxx is “rifle shooting” resellers in key verticals. Referring to the bigger players in the market, Doyle says: “There are a lot of people feeling unloved – our job is to show them something different.”

Christine Horton

Christine has been a tech journalist for over 20 years, 10 of which she spent exclusively covering the IT Channel. From 2006-2009 she worked as the editor of Channel Business, before moving on to ChannelPro where she was editor and, latterly, senior editor.

Since 2016, she has been a freelance writer, editor, and copywriter and continues to cover the channel in addition to broader IT themes. Additionally, she provides media training explaining what the channel is and why it’s important to businesses.