Your business is ready to move. Your workflows—and AI plans—need to catch up.
For CEOs of midsize firms: find the bottleneck, assess where AI can help, and build around how your people actually work.
What FHIS actually does ↗Requests from three teams all need the owner’s approval. Routine work waits whenever that person is busy.
We build AI assistants, connect business software, and improve reporting. Each project starts with a specific task to improve.
Better IT. Practical AI. Work that flows.
Technology consulting for midsize firms: IT, servers, AI implementation, and internal workflow optimization. We assess the need, design the solution, and help put it into operation.
Upgrade your IT, connect your tools, and put AI to work where it helps. Start with an assessment or bring us a project that’s ready to build.
Review your IT, servers, workflows, and AI opportunities. Leave with clear priorities and a practical plan.
Turn the business need into working technology, from server infrastructure and integrations to AI systems.
Scope, milestones, and responsibilities are agreed before work starts.
Review and improve the systems your team depends on every day.
Plan and build server environments around your business and AI workloads.
Find where AI can help, then design, build, and deploy around the actual need.
Remove bottlenecks in how information and work move inside the company.
Connect business tools and develop software that supports the way you work.
Business development, HR, leadership development, and coaching support the technical engagement when needed.
AI implementation depends on data, workflow design, and the employees using it. We account for those needs in the system design, with clear responsibilities, testing, and a practical handover.
Explore our engineering capabilities ↗Open-source applications, applied business research, and emerging computing. Choose an area to explore.
Follow application development where it happens.
We monitor recent developments in open-source software communities, then examine how applications are being used in practice.
We look at emerging tools, practical implementations, and the lessons shared by developers and users. The aim is to identify developments worth a closer look for business use.
We examine the intended task, setup requirements, data needs, maintenance demands, and evidence from actual use. We assess practices in context rather than assuming one approach fits every company.
Research can help frame which applications deserve a trial and which questions a business should test before adoption. The scope and outputs of any commissioned review are agreed with the client.
Understand the work behind the use case.
We study how applications are used in business settings, the problems they address, and the conditions that make them useful.
Who uses the application? What problem are they trying to solve? We examine the workflow, information, and practical constraints behind the example.
We consider the work required to implement the tool, employee experience, data quality, and how performance is assessed. An outcome in one setting does not establish that it will transfer to another.
The research connects practical examples with a company’s needs. It can inform a trial, a workflow change, or a decision to investigate another approach.
Study the whole workflow, not just one tool.
Commissioned workflow research examines how work moves inside a business and whether changes improve it over time.
We investigate handoffs, approval paths, information gaps, and repeated manual work. The research starts with the process and the employees involved.
We can examine a redesigned workflow, a software integration, or an AI-supported step. The study defines what will be assessed and which practical constraints matter.
Longer investigations allow further inspection, testing, and assessment as employees use the changed process. Research questions, access, and reporting are agreed for the engagement.
Investigate what AI adoption actually requires.
AI implementation is a technology question, an employee question, a data question, and a workflow design question. It also sits within an industry that is changing.
We examine where AI could help, which data it would need, and how it would connect with existing IT and server environments. A model is evaluated against the intended work.
Skills, confidence, roles, and review responsibilities affect adoption. We study where AI fits into a workflow, what people need to check, and how exceptions should be handled.
Commissioned research can involve ongoing AI tool testing and assessment of how well an implementation works. The methods, evidence, and reporting are defined around the client’s question.
Prepare businesses to understand photonic computing.
Our current involvement is early research and basic educational material to help businesses become photonic-ready.
We are preparing introductory material that helps business audiences understand optical and photonic computing, the questions it raises, and what further investigation may be needed.
Industry clients can discuss optical or photonic computing research and testing with us. The particular system, test requirements, available resources, and outputs need to be scoped in conversation.
The starting point is what the organization needs to learn. We distinguish early research and educational work from established capabilities or demonstrated outcomes.
Give deeper questions the investigation they need.
Some research goes beyond a consulting brief. It may involve doctoral-level researchers intending to develop and publish papers.
Our research network includes highly educated researchers who may participate in projects suited to their expertise. Dr. Rick Livinggood brings doctoral-level academic mentorship and business research experience.
Work may include defining the research question, designing a study, conducting analysis, and preparing a manuscript. The research scope and responsibilities are agreed for each project.
We distinguish work in progress, submitted manuscripts, and published findings, and state methods and limitations. Commissioned research is shared or published only under agreed confidentiality, ownership, and publication terms.
Know the industry. Need a business partner?
Have an industry-led SaaS idea but need help getting started? FHIS combines business guidance, market testing, and technical development to help shape and build the product.
You bring firsthand experience, a product idea, and insight into the people who would use it. We start with the problem, current alternatives, and the assumptions that need testing.
FHIS helps assess customer value, clarify the business model, and set priorities. Our proprietary product-market-fit testing tool helps evaluate the opportunity alongside customer feedback and research.
We coordinate research, testing, and development around agreed milestones. Choose a customer-funded project, where you carry more of the financial risk and retain a larger ownership stake, or explore a joint venture with agreed contributions, ownership, and shared responsibilities.
Research for the decision you need to make.
Industry clients can commission applied research into workflow optimization, AI implementation, and optical or photonic computing questions.
Studies may span one to two years, with initial consulting-style findings during the first six months, followed by further investigation, AI tool testing, and assessment of how well changes work.
We agree the business or technical question, scope, methods, access, test conditions, budget, and reporting before work begins. The outputs are determined in conversation with the client.
The work explains what was learned and what it means for the next decision. Confidentiality, ownership of results, and any publication rights are agreed for each engagement.
Engineering expertise, from networks and hardware to software and AI.
Our capabilities span cybersecurity, computer networking, software development, and hardware development, alongside involvement in photonic computing research.
Applications depend on devices, networks, and data. Security runs through all of them.
Start with the physical systems.
Cybersecurity expertise informs how systems are designed, connected, and used.
Connect the computers, devices, and infrastructure that keep an organization working.
Develop applications and integrations around the work they need to support.
Bring physical devices into the technical picture, with hardware development and prototyping capabilities.
Develop and evaluate AI assistants, agents, and private model deployments.
Early research and basic educational materials help businesses become photonic-ready.
It changes employees’ work, depends on business data, reshapes workflows, and puts pressure on how industries compete. Installing a model addresses only part of the job.
Skills, confidence, roles, and trust all affect whether people can use AI well.
Information needs clear ownership, quality checks, and appropriate access.
Decide what it prepares, who reviews it, and what happens when it is wrong.
Customer expectations, competitor offerings, and business models are shifting.
Choose models, software, hardware, and security controls to fit the need.
Our technical work connects with research in AI and photonic computing. Research questions and engineering requirements inform each other; experimental work is identified as research.
Explore the Research Lab ↗We advise, design, build, and deploy. Ongoing maintenance and managed services may be arranged through a subsidiary with separate insurance and a separate service agreement.
Perspectives on business, technology, people, and research—and what they mean for the way organizations work.
A working demonstration is a milestone. DBS and consultancy research show why value depends on what happens around it.
Read the article
The cases are drawn from the linked public sources, not FHIS client work. Study dates, methods, and limitations accompany each article.
Help the business move forward. Bring its people with it.
FHIS brings IT consulting, server infrastructure, applied AI, and workflow optimization together for midsize firms facing operational bottlenecks and pressure to adopt AI.
A professor in Indiana Wesleyan University’s Doctor of Business Administration program and an IT consultant. Rick connects business research, doctoral mentorship, and practical technology consulting.
An AI application tester, AI server builder, and founder of a design and marketing agency. Marmda brings hands-on AI evaluation, technical implementation, and experience building a business.
Our consulting centers on IT, servers, AI, and internal workflows. Business development, HR, leadership development, and coaching provide supporting expertise when the technical change calls for it.
Explore our assessment and implementation work ↗Our research network includes highly educated researchers who may participate in suitable projects. We connect applied business questions with longer-term investigation, AI tool evaluation, and early photonic computing research.
Explore the Research Lab ↗Need extra skills, a trusted referral, or help testing an idea?
Work with FHIS on a client project, introduce a business that needs help, or build a software or product idea with business and technical guidance.
Find the right partnership ↘Your firm leads the relationship. FHIS owns its agreed work.
Bring your client knowledge and expertise. FHIS adds business and technical capabilities for a coordinated engagement, with clear roles for both teams.
See how joint delivery works ↗Introduce a business without an advance meeting with FHIS. Standard project referrals earn 5%, rising to 8% for qualifying project sizes. Approved sales and official referral partners may earn up to 30%.
See how introductions work ↗Not sure where to start? Test the market fit, shape the business case, and build with FHIS through a customer-funded project or a joint venture.
Explore product partnerships ↗When a partner brings us into a client project, we join discovery or review the evidence before accepting a delivery commitment. That helps avoid selling a system that addresses the wrong problem.
The introducing consultancy normally leads the client relationship; FHIS leads its agreed workstreams. Before work starts, we document who decides, who delivers, how issues escalate, and how both firms are paid.
FHIS must be disclosed as a delivery partner. Any public acknowledgment or anonymized project discussion is agreed in the engagement and confidentiality terms.
Validate the need before committing to technology or delivery.
Agree on fees, scope, client protections and payment triggers.
Assign responsibility for milestones, testing and escalation.
Tell us the problem you are facing and why you think FHIS might be useful. We will first determine whether there is a sound reason to work together.
Complementary expertise. One coordinated client engagement.
Your firm brings its expertise and client relationships. FHIS contributes business and technical capabilities, working with you to assess the need, agree responsibilities, and deliver together. Our role must be disclosed rather than fully white-labeled. We agree visibility and any anonymized discussion of the work, including under an NDA, in advance.
Some engagements benefit from a broader team. We combine your knowledge of the client with FHIS’s business and technical expertise, then agree how the work will be delivered.
We join or review discovery to identify root causes, map workflows, examine systems and test whether the proposed solution is feasible.
We connect process design, data, software integration, technology architecture, and appropriate AI—not a one-tool answer to a broader problem.
FHIS takes responsibility for agreed workstreams, with milestones, testing, documentation, handover, and a human escalation contact.
Tell us about the client’s goals, your firm’s expertise, and where collaboration could add value.
We attend the assessment or validate the existing one before quoting scope, schedule, or technical outcomes.
We agree who leads the client, who performs each task, what success looks like, how fees work, and what happens if things change.
We deliver and test our scope, report problems early, and hand off the result to the people who will own it.
The introducing firm ordinarily remains the main client contact and leads the overall engagement. FHIS is identified by name and communicates within agreed boundaries.
FHIS is accountable for its agreed technical and operational work. We validate the scope before committing, identify the delivery lead, and escalate issues that threaten the outcome.
The exact responsibilities, client-protection period, subcontractor involvement, insurance, fees, and remedies are negotiated and documented for each engagement. A partnership does not automatically make both firms jointly liable for every outcome.
Have a client opportunity that would benefit from a combined team? Tell us about your expertise and the engagement you have in mind. We can explore how to work together.
Know a business we should meet? Make the introduction.
You do not need to consult FHIS before making a standard referral. With your contact’s permission, introduce them and tell us about the opportunity. For a sales or official referral partner role, speak with us about qualification and terms.
A straightforward introduction and an ongoing sales partnership involve different levels of work. Standard project referrals use a 5–8% commission range. Qualified sales roles and official referral partnerships may earn up to 30%.
The standard commission is 5% for eligible project referrals, increasing to 8% for qualifying project sizes. No advance consultation with FHIS is required to make the introduction.
A qualified sales role or official referral partnership may earn a higher commission. The rate depends on the approved role, responsibilities, and agreed terms.
Detailed referral terms are being finalized, including project-size bands, the commission calculation basis, eligibility, and payment timing.
Look for concrete issues—unclear workflows, disconnected systems, poor reporting, or an AI initiative lacking operational direction.
Connect us with your contact’s permission. Include your name and a short description of the need. A prior meeting with FHIS is not required.
FHIS determines whether it can responsibly help and whether a defined paid engagement makes sense.
For an eligible project referral, the standard 5% rate applies, rising to 8% for qualifying sizes. Higher partner rates require an approved role and agreed terms.
You can make an introduction without first negotiating a custom rate. The standard project-referral commission starts at 5%; qualifying project sizes may earn up to 8%.
Partners do not quote technical outcomes or bind FHIS to scope, fees, or timing without explicit authorization.
Some accounting, legal, regulated, or public-sector relationships restrict compensation for referrals. The arrangement must be reviewed for suitability.
Referrals are not automatic acceptance of a client. FHIS retains responsibility for deciding whether an opportunity is a responsible fit. We do not purchase client information or encourage disclosure without permission.
Have your contact’s permission? Tell us about the opportunity and make the introduction. For an official referral partnership or sales role, ask about qualification and the higher commission range.
Have a software or product idea, but don’t know where to start? Let’s build it together.
Bring what you know about the problem. We combine business guidance, market testing, and technical development to help you turn it into a product.
Define who it’s for and the problem it should solve.
For founders, business owners, and industry experts who see a product opportunity and need a partner to shape the business case and build it well.
You understand the users, their work, and a need that existing products do not meet well.
We help turn the idea into questions to test, product priorities, and a practical development plan.
FHIS connects business guidance with the technical capabilities needed to develop the product.
You fund development and take on more of the financial risk. In return, you retain the larger product ownership stake, while FHIS holds a small agreed share.
Room to grow together. We may reserve a pool of economic participation so FHIS can earn an additional economic share if we also help commercialize the product beyond development. The pool and how participation is earned are agreed together.
Have a strong product idea but no way to build it properly? A joint venture brings your opportunity and industry knowledge together with FHIS’s business and technical capabilities.
A partner from the start. We help shape the business and the product, with shared responsibility for moving the opportunity forward.
Each arrangement is tailored to the product. Product ownership, economic participation, funding, and decision rights are defined in the project or venture agreement.
FHIS has a proprietary tool to test a product’s market fit. We use it to help assess the opportunity and decide what needs validating before committing to a larger build.
The findings inform product decisions alongside customer feedback and research, helping shape the business case, product scope, and next development step.
Define the customer, the problem, existing alternatives, and the assumptions behind the idea.
Use our proprietary tool, research, and customer feedback to decide what to validate and build first.
Develop and test the product in agreed stages, reviewing progress, costs, and priorities together.
Agree who brings the product to market and how FHIS’s participation beyond development will be recognized.
Tell us the problem, who the product would serve, and what you need to move forward. We’ll explore the right collaboration model with you.
Tell us what is going wrong and who it affects. We will discuss whether FHIS can help and what to do next.
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