Hexis Launches New Product Line, Readies Partner Store

Less than a year after its founding, Hexis Cyber Solutions already has two product lines and 35 channel partners.

The Hanover, Md.-based vendor is set next month to unveil its partner store, which will offer a marketing platform and product scalability.

That comes on the heels of the Aug. 4 launch of its second product line NetBeat, which includes both network access control and remote site monitoring offerings, said Gary Woods, NetBeat's business development director.

[Related: Hexis Turns To Channel To Sell Its Breach Detection Platform]

Hexis emerged in October 2013 as a spinoff from KEYW Holding. The company employs 110 and most of its executives have years of management experience, said Katherine Russ-Hotfelter, director of channel marketing.

Hexis intends to execute all sales through the channel, Russ-Hotfelter said, and rolled out its channel partner program in March. The program, she said, has grown from 15 partners in May to 35 today, with the goal of 50 partners by the end of 2014.

NetBeat sales will be carried out exclusively through D&H Distributing of Harrisburg, Pa., Woods said.

Hexis sees a good opening for network access control (NAC) offerings since it's a $600 million market with 23 percent annual growth, Woods said. The competitive landscape is also favorable, he said, with lots of fragmentation beyond the market leader Cisco.

NetBeat NAC is focused on blocking untrusted devices from gaining access to company networks, Woods said, and is capable of scaling from 25 to 2,000 users. It's currently the only plug-and-play NAC device available on the market, he said, meaning it doesn't have to interact with other switches in the network.

Targeted verticals for NetBeat NAC include regional financial centers and medical centers, Woods said.

Harry Srolovitz, owner of Praxis Data Systems in Gibbsboro, N.J., offers NetBeat NAC to his customers, and said it's well-suited for community banks with anywhere between one and 15 locations.

"It's very scalable, very affordable, very easy to install and manage," Srolovitz said.

NetBeat costs Praxis's customers $8,000 for the primary location and $5,000 to $6,000 for each additional site, making it much less than a competing product like Cisco ISE, which can cost several hundred thousand dollars to get off the ground, Srolovitz said.

Although Cisco ISE offers more features than NetBeat, Srolovitz said 99 percent of his clients don't need the additional functionality ISE provides.

NetBeat also offer margin opportunities of up to 40 percent, Srolovitz said.

"40 points on any product is pretty amazing," he said.

NEXT: Partner Store To Offer Marketing, Co-Branding And More

For companies with several remote locations, NetBeat MON can provide network monitoring and diagnostics, Woods said. The MON can provide basic cyber hygiene services such as intrusion detection -- which tracks who's coming in and out of the network -- and flow monitoring, which keeps tabs on which users are eating up the most bandwidth.

NetBeat MON is intended to serve the network diagnostics sector, which Woods said is currently a $1 billion market and growing by 20 percent annually. It costs under $12,000 each year, he said, considerably less than competing products that start at $20,000 annually.

"The channel wants an easy-to-use and install product," Russ-Hotfelter said.

NetBeat products have a short sell cycle and are aimed at an SMB audience, she said.

The Hexis partner store that's set to come out in September will offer engagement calls and internal marketing sessions to companies who don't have their own marketing departments, Russ-Hotfelter said. D&H was brought on in July to provide training to the sales teams, she said.

Market development funds will be made available to partners with their own marketing department, she said. Those funds can be spent on promotional tools such as pens and T-shirts.

But the partner store is about more than marketing. It let's partners work with vendors and co-brand products, Russ-Hotfelter said, and allow solution providers to get smaller quantities of Hexis offerings at a discounted price.

Even though the partner store hasn't yet been formally rolled out, Srolovitz said he's noticed improvement in recent months.

The turnaround time on questions or requests by Srolovitz has been shortened, he said. Moreover, Hexis has implemented a lead program, which has resulted in several fruitful customer referrals for Praxis.

"This opens up a whole new market I think many small resellers aren't aware even exists," Srolovitz said.

PUBLISHED AUG. 25, 2014