Rick Higgins, our founder, has been in the IT business for over 20 years. And for the past 16 of them, he has also been a father (to four teenagers, no less!). So over the years, those two universes often came together in the form of requests from schools, PTAs, and neighborhood associations to build web sites. When such a request from both a PTA and a civic association arrived at the same time, he decided that it was time to do something different - and thus the idea of COM*WISE was born.

He built one of the web sites in such as way as to be completely re-usable. A template in a way. He created common tools that could be shared by a number of organizations. And he devised a way that server space could also be shared, all the while keeping the final web sites looking and behaving exactly as if they were running in their own dedicated environment. And then he successfully cloned that site for the second request and saw just how easy it was.

Well, that started the wheels turning. Both groups wanted some specific tools to be built and Rick realized that there was a common theme in what they were asking. The ability to manage dynamic web sites without having to dig up volunteers who had programming experience. He also realized that across the nation there were hundreds if not thousands of groups that also needed a commercial grade web presence, but had absolutely no access to an IT staff, nor the funds even if they did. And he wanted to help those groups out as he had with the ones in his own backyard.

So COM*WISE was formally launched. It is now a small IT factory that serves community and family-based associations and groups, providing real web solutions at costs that are extremely affordable. We don't spend heavily on advertising, rather we rely on word of mouth and some well-intended emails. We don't have any real overhead, prefering to keep the company small and lean - so we can afford to keep our prices at the "affordable" level. And finally, we aren't trying to grow the company in the traditional sense. Our business plan doesn't call for certain profit levels. It calls for certain levels of service to groups who are in the business of helping others in their own communities. We want to help you help others.

And so that's our story. It starts with a concerned, helpful Dad -- and winds up in much the same way.