Clear Focus Group delivers business services via Web

Sean Taylor knows the importance of having a business' name properly reflect its mission.

That's why HR Focus Inc. switched its trade name to Clear Focus Group in August.

"With HR Group, it limited us to human resources," said Taylor, company vice president. "In today's changing business environment, we did not want to have that limit on us."

Taylor feels the new, all-encompassing name better reflects the company's management of all aspects of business using Internet-based technology.

The top three issues on an employer's mind are health care costs, employee retention and government compliance, Taylor said.

"We can help employers with all of those things."

Lance Green is president of Clear Focus, which has put together package programs to provide relationship management, employee management, e-commerce management and financial management for area businesses. The programs are integrated to make it easier for clients to navigate the system.

"We use technology to solve specific business problems in the areas of employee management for example, HR, payroll, health care and we provide a full suite of financial management. Basically, everything you would need to run a business," Green said.

"Everything that we do, we use the Web. The Web is the system that facilitates the movement of information that is involved. (For) every piece of it, the Web is the platform that we use."

The company has five local employees. Clear Focus also has one sales representative in St. Louis and plans to open offices in Kansas City, Tulsa, Okla., and Texas.

In addition to the name change, the company also is changing addresses. The company is moving Oct. 1 to 311 Park Central East. The 2,500 square feet of office space will house the Internet access servers, executive and sales offices, and a training space. The business was located in the Vandivort building on East Walnut.

Green said he and Taylor enjoy being located in center city and decided to situate the business there permanently.

"One reason we wanted to stay downtown is fiber optics is so available," Green said.

The kind of band width City Utilities has installed in the area gives the company greater capacity to grow and offer online high-speed Internet capability to its customers, Green added.

Packages

Clear Focus has worked out a group health care package where the employer can choose a higher deductible, then offer the employee a set amount of money to use as he sees fit for smaller medical or dental expenses. The employee can access his benefits on the Web and draw on the funds as needed instead of the usual situation of meeting deductible and co-pay requirements.

"This allows employers not to have to go with the 20 percent per year increases associated with health insurance rates," Green said.

Clear Focus Group's new accounting program interfaces employee-side business practice with the management and sales operations.

He plans to also offer workshops on a number of vital issues facing employers today.

"We can show them how to solve business problems using Internet technology," Taylor said.