Queensland-based Internet security vendor, NetBox Blue, has been brought on as an IBM Express Advantage partner.

NetBox CEO, John Fison, said it had been working for about three years to have its security and management solutions integrated with the vendor's platforms as it presented a good opportunity to generate more business.

"This makes it easy for IBM business partners or customers to buy the product and feel reassured they are getting a solution that has been tested," he said. "The other thing it does is offer people better pricing on the underlying hardware platform itself, so there is a real incentive for them to consider us as a business solution."

The partnership also gave NetBox an introduction to customers it had not previously reached out to.

"For us it is a channel to the market and gives us the might of IBM to help promote our solutions," he said. "We have probably got about 50-60 active business partners in Australia and we're hoping this will extend our opportunity to talk to many other partners working with IBM that we haven't yet met."

In other news, NetBox has recently opened a new office in Sydney and is currently searching for premises in Melbourne. Sales director, Steven Bragg, is heading up the Sydney office. The company has also hired NSW and Victorian territory managers as well as a pre-sales consultant, bringing staff numbers to 14.

"There is such a big market in Sydney and Melbourne and a lot of the big integrators have head offices there," Fison said. "We wanted to engage closely with them with local resources rather than flying in from Queensland to support them reactively and proactively."