Louis J. Erickson, Jr. is Chief Operations Officer andco-founder of Bit-Wizards Custom Software Solutions, Inc. of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Bit-Wizards Custom Software Solutions is an innovative commercial technology company that provides Professional Software Engineering, E-Commerce, Wireless, Web, Consulting, and Information Technology Solutions. He has over 9 years of experience developing windows based software applications with C and C++.

Louis started his career in information technology in 1992 as a mission planning analyst assistant where he was tasked with ensuring the accuracy of flight planning models. After graduating from Troy State University with a Computer Science Degree in 1994, he became a mission planning analyst and was tasked with the creation of flight planning models in C. Having developed an interest in Windows architecture and development, Louis took a job with McDonnell Douglas to develop Visual Basic applications to support the Saudi Arabian Royal Air Force that same year.

After developing sound technical skills in Windows development, Louis was asked to join a 15 member development team to build a large scale military housing application in 1995. After two years, Louis had mastered the technical side of Windows programming using tools such as Visual C++, MFC, ODBC, and many others. Furthermore, he learned the process of software engineering and was heavily involved with the CMM process.

In 1998, Louis decided to test his skills in the commercial sector and moved to Austin, Texas where he worked on numerous fast paced software projects for an industry leading software company. The ranges of projects were vast and included scientific, business, and IT support applications. Louis excelled at solving numerous business problems with information technology within schedule and budget.

In late 1997, Louis, with his long time best friend Vincent W. Mayfield, started laying the foundation for their own Software Engineering firm. It started as an idea on a napkin at children's birthday party at Chuck E.Cheese's Pizza in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Louis and Vince wanted to build a company where innovation and creativity would flourish while adhering to proven engineering methods that provided quality within the schedule and budget allotted. Over the next few years, Louis and Vince conducted detailed planning on the creation and eventual operation of Bit-Wizards.

In the early part of 2000, Louis and Vince partnered as independent contractors and incorporated Bit-Wizards Custom Software Solutions in Austin, Texas. After a year of successful projects with various customers, Vince and Louis were faced with a choice; Do we grow roots here with the relationships we've started or do we go home? Louis and Vince were raised in the Fort Walton Beach area and had close ties to the people there. They were aware of the excellent business potential in the North West Florida Region. They subsequently moved Bit-Wizards to Fort Walton Beach and re-incorporated in Florida where the company resides today.

In 2009, Bit-Wizards made Inc Magazines List of the Top 5000 Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies at number 1617.

Louis holds a BS in Computer and Information Sciences with Minors in Mathematics and Physics from Troy State University Florida Region. He holds a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer Certification.

Louis resides in Fort Walton Beach, Florida with his beautiful wife Tabitha and their 4 cats: Pokaloke, Bully, Froggy, and Cinco.

Recent Posts

Published	Title
August 24	Enterprise Mobility and a Changing Workforce
September 16	The Yellow Brick Road of Software Offshoring
October 14	Small Business Gets It Done

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

Education

B.S COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE, Minors: Mathematics and Physics. Troy State University, Eglin AFB, Florida. GPA: 3.4 1994