Signals tracked for Forward Systems
The public records we read for Forward Systems, ordered by how close each sits to the moment an owner or managing partner picks who runs the office's IT. Every account on the Accounts tab came out of one of these classes, and the class is named there.
How we rank a signal
Two questions decide a signal's value: how close is it to the moment the owner picks who runs the help desk, the network and the security, and can the office buy at Forward Systems' size. A filed record with a date beats an announcement; an announcement beats a job post.
One record is a lead. Two independent records at the same address, such as a city permit and the firm's own site still showing the old office, is a qualified window.
Closest to the decision
Thirty to ninety days outRecords an office files because it must. Dated, tied to one address, and sized by the suite.
A building permit for a new office build-out
A city or county interior-finish or tenant-improvement permit naming the business, with the suite, the entry date and the issue date. A tenant finish runs sixty to one hundred twenty days to move-in, and the cabling, firewall, phones and internet circuit are ordered thirty to seventy-five days before the doors open. We read Alpharetta's open-data permits, Gwinnett's weekly permit lists and Forsyth's portal, then check the firm's own site for its current address.
From this screenJennings Executive Search, interior finish permit BC260294 issued October 14, 2026 for 2325 Lakeview Parkway Suite 275, Alpharetta, while the firm's site still gives Perimeter Center as its office.
Early, with a date attached
Ninety days to a year outThe obligation attaches on the licence date; the buying moment comes at the first exam, the insurance renewal or a client's security questionnaire.
A public filing for a new licence or line of business that adds compliance obligations
A new SEC or Georgia investment-adviser registration, a firm moving from state to SEC registration, a new USDOT number, or a new firm permit. The register gives the effective date, the office and the headcount on Form ADV, and the partners' own records show where they came from. A team leaving a national brokerage to form its own adviser has no systems of its own on day one and a written compliance programme to stand up.
From this screenLegacy Partners Financial Group, a ten-person Woodstock adviser registered with Georgia since 2021 that became SEC-registered on September 29, 2026 and filed its Form ADV the next day.
Confirming only
Fourteen to twenty-one days after postingNever lead with these. A posting confirms there is no IT department and names the stack; it can also mean the owner has already decided to hire rather than outsource.
A first IT manager or administrator posting
A live posting for the one person who will own IT at an office that ran on the owner, an office manager and a break-fix shop. We date it from the posting's own metadata, read the description for 'own', 'sole' or 'establish', and drop staffing firms, other IT providers and postings beside an existing IT team. After about forty-five days the role is usually filled; the honest opening is coverage until the hire lands.
From this screenSterling Issuer Services: an Office Manager posting dated October 14, 2026 at a small financial-filings firm on Powers Ferry Road asks for a tech-savvy hire but names no IT duties, so it does not yet read as a first IT hire.
Watching, not yet reading
VariesA breach notice on another state's list
Georgia publishes no breach list, but a North Georgia firm that had to notify residents of Maine, Vermont, California, Massachusetts or Washington appears on those states' attorney-general lists with the date and the data types. A professional firm inside its first sixty days after a breach changes providers more often than any other record here.
A local IT provider acquired or closed
When a roll-up buys a North Georgia IT provider, its clients see new account managers and new pricing within months. The deal is public; the client list usually is not, so this class only produces an account when a client is named somewhere public.
What each account arrives with
- Company, city and the public record that flagged it, linked to the source with its date
- Who would decide, by role, with a name only where the firm's own page or a filing gives one
- The suggested first line and the correction, so outreach never claims more than the record shows
No email or phone appears unless it is published on the company's own site or a public filing.
Signal classes describe categories of public record and the cadence we read them on. Per-account claims live on the Accounts tab with their sources.