A SECURITY invention designed by two IT experts could save Bolton businesses millions in the war against unwanted emails, or spam.

And they are looking for firms to test it out.

Chris Halloran, founder of Westhoughton-based Dansam Computer Services, says that spending just 10 minutes a day deleting unwanted emails can lead to lost revenue and production costs amounting to £2,500 per employee over the year.

Demand from clients has inspired Chris and business partner Mike Handley to develop a spam solution that can quarantine unwanted emails and protect systems from viruses.

And following a pilot, they have now launched Dansam Spam, a solution that allows emails to be quarantined before hitting the server, rather than being diverted into other folders on the computer like other spam solutions on the market do.

Chris said that many businesses are underestimating the problem with security and lost labour hours.

He said: "Spam has almost become an accepted part of the daily ritual of email opening and sometimes, particularly after a short break, it can get to 9.30am before people can begin their working days.

"When asked, many businesses said they tolerated the problems because they had concerns that important legitimate emails would also be stopped which is understandable.

"With this new software however, businesses have an opportunity to reflect on the items that didn't make it through and in choosing to release the legitimate emails, they will help the server to learn the good ones from the bad ones, eventually leading to the problem being removed".

Having successfully tested the software with a number of smaller clients, Dansam is now looking to offer a free trial to three businesses in Bolton who regularly encounter problems with spam.

Businesses with between five and 100 employees are invited to apply by calling 01204 374826 or by emailing info@dansamspam.co.uk.