MailDistiller issues statement of intent
Posted: Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
IT’s Monday – Mail filtering firm issues statement of intent by Paul Golden
Enhancing its channel programme will be a key component in Mail Distiller’s drive to become one of the top five managed email filtering companies in the world over the next two years.
Earlier this month Mail Distiller appointed Ian Jeffers as chief executive officer and Jayne Campbell as sales director. Its newly installed CEO explained how the company would go about becoming a major global player in a market already estimated to be worth USD 300 million.
‘There are three components to the strategy – developing and growing our Ireland and UK partner channels (consolidating our positioning as the supplier of choice for managed email filtering in Ireland and the UK); securing channel partners in new geographical areas through value-added reseller collaboration; and continuing to evolve our service and licensing it to Internet service providers for branding and sale on their networks.’
Mail Distiller, which describes itself as the only email filtering specialist with data centres spanning the island of Ireland, says larger companies are increasingly taking advantage of the software as a service model to fight the spam battle.
While most of its business has traditionally been drawn from the professional services, logistics and financial services sectors, Jeffers says that the growth in its channel partner network has enabled the company to considerably broaden its end user base.
‘We work with our channel partners to tailor our solution to the markets they identify. Many of our larger partners only operate within one or two key verticals but we also have a large number of partners who provide solutions across the board. We are always on the look out for forward-thinking channel partners who can see the advantage of software as a service and the potential of building a recurring revenue model.’
Having established a strong presence in the Irish market and achieved customer wins in the UK, the next step is to reach further into overseas markets. ‘There is still a great opportunity to expand our business in the UK over the coming months and further afield, we are considering opportunities in the Middle East, Poland and the US,’ said Jeffers, who was positive on the prospects of opening offices overseas.
‘If the opportunity presents itself, we will be there. We are able to licence our service and operate it on networks other than our own, so it is also conceivable that we will develop strategic distribution partnerships with major providers who already have an established network within a specific country.’
Annual sales are running at around one million dollars and are rising by more than 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Headcount stands at 12 and that number is expected to increase over the next few months as the company recruits additional software development and sales and marketing staff.
‘While our sales will provide the medium term cash needs of the business, we plan to escalate our development programme to further enhance our email filtering solution and launch new additions to our product suite, such as instant message filtering, email archiving and web filtering,’ concluded Jeffers. ‘It is likely that the company will embark on a funding round to help speed up this development.’
