Unified archiving vendor GFT inboxx has set it sights on the UK market as it scouts the channel for partners.

After opening its London office at the beginning of this year, the Germany-based firm said it is aiming for a minimum of five resellers to join its two-tier reseller programme by the end of 2008.

Bernd Hoeck, marketing director for Europe of GFT inboxx, said: “Partners can address a whole range of archiving subjects through one vendor. The inboxx hyperchiv has different types of archiving, such as data, email, web content and video in one solution. This reduces complexity and the amount of maintenance needed by the end user.”

Inboxx hyperchiv is a ‘backbone’ for a unified archiving solution. It operates in the background, while the archiving infrastructure integrates into source applications and their corresponding client applications, such as Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes and Windows File Server.

Hoeck said the vendor is also in talks with a couple of UK distributors.

A recent survey commissioned by the vendor and conducted by Vanson Bourne revealed that efficiency is ranked as the top driver for e-mail management instead of compliance, among UK chief executives and IT directors.

The survey found that 51 per cent of businesses do not set retention times for e-mails, 40 per cent of these being in the financial sector.

35 per cent of chief executives and IT directors in the financial services sector did not see compliance as a key driver for their e-mail management and 95 per cent have been required to search for old e-mails. Some 61 per cent found this to be a time consuming and complicated process.