Bit-Wizards - Louis J. Erickson Jr.

Louis J. Erickson Jr.

Chief Operations Officer

Microsoft Certifications:
MCTS - Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuration
Microsoft Achievement - Delivering Value Planning Services
MCSD.NET, MCSD, MCAD, MCP

Bio Blog Resume Contact

A successful entrepreneur, Louis manages the day-today operations of Bit-Wizards as the company’s Chief Operations Officer. Along with co-founder Vince Mayfield, he has led a team of software engineers and designers since 2000.

Through his leadership, Bit-Wizards has grown each year and been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America four years in a row beginning in 2009 with a 3-year growth rate of 198 percent. Bit-Wizards has also has been named to Florida Trend magazine’s list of Florida’s Best Companies to Work For three consecutive years, ranking higher each year reaching the number two spot in 2012. And in 2011, Bit-Wizards was selected as one of fifty “Florida Companies to Watch” by GrowFL, the Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida and ACG Florida.

Louis is involved in the local business community and is a member of Vistage. He is a member and helps sponsor the Gulf Coast .NET User’s Group and IT Gulf Coast. He sits on the Okaloosa County Economic Development Policy Board, Florida’s Great Northwest Policy Board, and is involved with several other technical, economic development, and entrepreneurial groups.

Louis is also a proud sponsor of many charities including The Taylor Haugen Foundation, Cohen Pearson Scholarship Fund, Northwest Florida Ballet, BEST Robotics, several technical scholarships, and other charities.

Louis holds a BS in Computer Science with Minors in Math and Physics from Troy State University. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer Enterprise Application Developer and a Certified SCRUM Master.

Louis has a passion for bodybuilding, skiing, and is a skilled poker player. He also enjoys Latin dancing, sailing, and traveling with his beautiful wife Tabitha, a Medical Laboratory Scientist at Sacred Heart Hospital. He met Tabitha in 2001 after relocating Bit-Wizards to Florida, a decision Louis believes to be one of the best he ever made. For even if his business had failed miserably, he feels it would have still been one of the best decisions of his life because he might not have ever met his wonderful wife, Tabitha.

Bio File

Technical Skills

Operating Systems:
Win Server 2008/2003	Win 7/Vista/XP	Win 98/95/ME	Win Mobile 6/5
Win CE 4/3	MS-DOS	UNIX

Languages/Databases:
Visual C++	C#	Visual Basic	Visual Basic.NET
HTML/XML	COM/DCOM	MFC	ATL
PASCAL	FORTRAN	COBOL	Oracle
SQL Server	PL *SQL	Transact-SQL	ADO.NET
ODBC	Linq	MS Access

Software/Technology:
.NET	Visual Studio .NET	Infragistics	Active Reports
MS Office	Enterprise Manager	Query Analyzer	Visio
SQL Mgmt Studio	Ontime	IE/Firefox/Safari	ErWin
Objective Toolkit & Grid	Visual Source Safe	IIS	Telerik
Component Art	Kentico CMS	WPF/WCF/WWF	Source Offsite
TOAD	embedded Tools	MS Project	Crystal Reports

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer, Vice President
Bit-Wizards Custom Software Solutions, Inc. Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Jan 00 – Present

Primary decision maker involved in all aspects of running a small business: human resources, marketing, financial, receivables, payables, and all other functions to keep Bit-Wizards thriving.
Macrotect – Built a web based application using Visual Studio 2008 ASP.NET C# and SQL Server 2005 to collect retirement plan demographic data securely for multiple businesses that outsourced the management of that activity to Macrotect. The application was called Census Centurion.
Cook-Hurlbert, Inc. - Designed and developed .NET WinForms components written in C# that were instantiated by COM objects written in C++.
Motorola. Debugged and enhanced a Visual Basic 6.0 application with an Oracle 8.i back end.
Viva Group International - Designed and developed a multifaceted production tracking system in a 4 man development team. The product includes a SQL Server 2000 backend, a WinForms client application written in Visual Studio .NET using C#, and a WebForms viewer application written in ASP.NET using C#. Third party components such as Active Reports and Infragistics were incorporated throughout the application and integration to an existing AS400 system was also enabled utilizing XML. This application included a small utility to facilitate replication for disconnected users.
Synchronicity, Inc - Created a Visual Basic COM Add-in for Project 2000/2002 called PluginSync. PluginSync stored application specific data in the custom document properties, created customizable columns for tasks that were used to make tasks for import and export, and then imported or exported task to a proprietary project management tool called Project Sync through a proprietary document control system called DesignSync.
Compass Marketing, Inc. - Reworked a Visual Basic 6 client application with an Access backend database. Upgraded the Access database to SQL Server 2000 and added more referential integrity and other data validation mechanisms. Fixed application flaws throughout the VB front end. Compass Marketing was not able to fund a complete rewrite so the application is flawed, but Compass Marketing raved about the speed and quantity of fixes I was able to provide.
Melior Systems, Inc. - Designed and Developed a Windows Pocket PC 2002 tour guide application for the Compaq iPaq 3870. This project was completed using eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0, the Pocket PC 2002 SDK, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server CE 1.0, ADOCE 3.1, and third party tools to interpret and RF signal and play .mp3 files. I implemented a combination of Merge Replication and Remote Data Access to synchronize data between SQL Server CE and SQL Server 2000.
Cook-Hurlbert, Inc. - Designed and Developed a Windows based two tier Electric and Gas Feature Configuration Tool. This project was completed alone using Visual Basic 6.0 for the GUI, Visual C++ 6.0 to build COM Components, ADO for database access, and Oracle 8.1 for data storage.
Cook-Hurlbert, Inc. - Designed and Developed a Windows based three tier Electric and Gas Utilities Design Tool in a 13-member development team using Visual C++ 6.0, Objective Grid, and Objective Toolkit for the four client GUIs, ATL COM for the middle tier business objects, ADO for database access, and Oracle 8.1 for data storage.
Xerox Omnifax, Inc. - Debugged and refined a Windows based client/server Repair Scheduler and Parts Manager in a 2-member development team using Visual C++ 6.0, OO4O, Win32, and Oracle 8.1. This system includes Server applications, a Windows CE client, and some web interfaces.
Macmillan Publishing, Inc. - Technical Editor for a variety of technical books published by Macmillan.

Software Engineer
Eureka Software Solutions, Inc. Austin, Texas. Jan 98 – Jan 00

Designed and Developed a Windows based three tier Point of Sale and Inventory Control software in a 3-member development team using Visual C++ 6.0, Objective Grid, and Objective Toolkit for the two client GUIs and ATL COM for the middle tier business objects, ADO for database access, and MS SQL Server 7.0 for data storage.
Designed and Developed a Windows based client/server Tour Information Management System in a 4-member development team using Visual C++ 6.0, Obj. Grid, Obj. Toolkit, ODBC, MS SQL 6.5.
Developed a Windows NT Service that implemented several custom COM interfaces in a 3-member development team using Visual C++ 5.0, Objective Grid, and Objective Toolkit. This application was modeled using Visual Case 1.0 and takes advantage of the NT Event Viewer.
Designed a Windows based Client/Server Fuel Cell Test Software system in a 2-member development team using Visual C++ 5.0, Objective Grid, and Objective Toolkit.
Designed a Windows based Client/Server Audiometric Management Software system in a 2-member development team using Visual C++ 5.0, ODBC, and Access 97.

Lead Software Engineer
BTG – Delta Research Division Niceville, Florida. Jan 96 – Dec 97

Developed a Windows based Client/Server Housing Information Management System in an 18-member development team using Visual C++ 5.0, ODBC 3.0, and ORACLE 7.3 with IDEF1X RDBMS modeling standards.
Lead Software Designer for the largest and most complex module in the project using Booche Object Oriented Design Methodology. Complied with Windows User Interface Guideline, SEI Capability Maturity Model, MIL-STD-498 and IEEE software development standards.

Software Engineer
McDonnell Douglas Services Khamis Mushayt, Saudi Arabia. Jun 95 – Dec 95

Developed Windows based applications for the 55th Squadron of the Royal Saudi Air Force including a Stan/Eval testing program and a database to track the pilots’ progress and produce required reports.
Technical advisor to four other RSAF squadrons.

Mission Planning Analyst
Tybrin Corporation & Orlando Technologies, Inc. May 93 – June 95

Operations Specialist, 3rd Class
United States Navy Oct 87 – Oct 89

Awards and Accomplishments

Lifesaving Award
Amelia Earhart Award
Hurlbert NCO Leadership School Honor Cadet
Air Force Association Leadership Award
President’s list/Dean’s List
Civil Air Patrol Scholarship Winner

Florida Educational Association of Data Systems Scholarship Winner
Achieved a 97 percent average and was top graduate of my technical training school class in the US Navy
Advanced to E-4 in 18 months of service in the US Navy
2006 Most Valuable Employee Award

Professional Licenses & Memberships

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP ID 374282)
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD.NET)
- Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD)
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer .NET (MCSD.NET)
  - Exam 70-674: Delivering Value Planning Services
  - Exam 70-229: Designing and Implementing Databases with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition
  - Exam 70-320: Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework
  - Exam 70-315: Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
  - Exam 70-316: Developing and Implementing Windows-based Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
  - Exam 70-100: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solution Architectures
  - Exam 70-016: Designing & Implementing Desktop Applications with MS Visual C++ 6.0
  - Exam 70-015: Designing & Implementing Distributed Applications with MS Visual C++ 6.0
  - Exam 70-150: Microsoft Windows Operating Systems and Services Architecture I
  - Exam 70-160: Microsoft Windows Architecture I
  - Exam 70-024: Developing Applications with C++ Using the Microsoft Foundation Class Library
  - Exam 70-300: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures

Specialized Training

1995 - Windows Programming - Washington University, St. Louis Missouri
1995 - Object Oriented Programming using Visual C++ - Washington University, St. Louis Missouri
1996 - Understanding MIL-STD-498, BTG - Delta Research Division, Niceville Florida
1996 - Oracle Fundamentals, Oracle Corporation, Fort Walton Beach Florida
1997 - PL*SQL, Oracle Corporation, Fort Walton Beach Florida
2001 - Microsoft .NET Developer Training Tour, MSDN Training Series, Atlanta Georgia
2002 - Networking Essentials, TekTutors, Fort Walton Beach Florida
2003 – Present Board member of the Gulf Coast .NET User’s Group