GroupSouth was founded on the principle that information technologies could enable managers and business owner to better manage their daily operations. Managers and business owners have their own metrics and procedures they feel are important to running a successful business. The goal of GroupSouth is to develop solutions that assist managers to capture and report the information that the business's management feel is essential to their own success.

Many software solutions for businesses are nothing more than computerized general ledgers. The information these systems manage is for financial accounting. This information is important for preparing reports for external parties. Some examples are income taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes, and applying for a loan at a bank. These reports can be prepared weekly or even monthly and be completely accurate and useful. The information is designed to report the state of the business at a certain date. Examples are the amount of outstanding receivables and payables. This information is important, but it does not assist in managing daily operations.

There is a wealth of information that a business needs to manage on a daily, hourly or even an instant basis. Every business has some similar functions, generating work orders, scheduling service calls, ordering parts, and receiving parts. These may seem to be generic functions. Yet every business has established rules that the management set to make these functions different. An example is that some repair businesses require serial number and date of purchase before a warranty service call will be scheduled; others send a technician who collects all the warranty information during the service call. Another example is that some service centers try offer same day service, others schedule calls a day or two later. Many decisions require information that is accurate up to the minute.

There is also information that needs to be compiled to indicate trends. The trend information helps the manager direct future operations. A few examples are work order completion rate, out of stocks, self-warranty work. A manager has to determine if a technician is productive, or if the parts manager is doing a good job. The trend information can help the manager make the decision. An example is that a technician has a low completion on service calls. Is it because his truck does not stock the proper parts, or is the technician performing work orders covered by the service center's warranty work? In the first case, the parts manager needs to improve the parts stocked on the truck. In the second, the technician needs training. The manager needs information to determine the root cause of the issues and the solutions.

GroupSouth solutions are designed to provide the information that the management needs. GroupSouth uses industry standard software and hardware to provide these solutions. We do not believe in proprietary database formats. Every customer should be able to access their own data however they want. Our WindowsÔ based solutions use the Microsoft JET database so that customers can leverage their investment in Microsoft OfficeÔ or compatible applications. Our web interfaces use Microsoft SQL ServerÔ and Internet Information ServerÔ. We use the Windows CEÔ operating system for our handheld solutions. Seagate Crystal Reports is our report-printing engine. Crystal Report users can customize their reports and create their own custom reports.

The entire purpose of GroupSouth solutions is to provide the customer with the ability collect the information they need to manage their operations, wherever they want to collect that information, and report that information in the method desired by the customer.