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Mike Eberhart is
a software developer by nature. He has and always will remain committed
to designing and developing cost-effective, defect-free, high-quality, dependable,
useful software solutions. Since 1986, his talents have been constantly applied to the design and development of custom business applications, with a primary focus on business operations and accounting systems.
Mike's career in software began after his first encounter with an
early "personal computer" in 1979 when he was just entering high
school. After seeing one, he just knew he had to try his hand at
making one "work". So, he got busy mowing lawns, delivering newspapers,
and shoveling sidewalks and soon saved up enough to obtain one of
the only affordable computers available at the time: a used Radio
Shack TRS Model I with 16KB of RAM, a black and white low resolution
monitor, and a cassette-tape storage system (disk drives were not
affordable yet).
This would launch Mike's career in software development at the
age of 13. He started out studying binary mathematics, and creating
BASIC and Z80-Assembly based video games on the Model I; spending
nearly all his free time developing clones of then-popular arcade
games like Space Invaders, Missile Command, and Defender. When his
high-school introduced a computer class in his Junior year, he was
able to help teach BASIC to others, having had more experience developing
software than the instructor. And, through work and a bit of luck,
he was able to upgrade to a used Model III (with a whopping 48K
of RAM) by his Senior year.
By this time (1984), he had established himself as somewhat of
a Z80-Assembler and BASIC expert, and had acquired a fair amount
of knowledge in Pascal and Forth. Even in these early years, Mike
had learned some valuable software development techniques related
to reuse, optimization, and usability that would help him succeed
later in his career.
Although he contemplated bypassing college in favor of writing
video games professionally, Mike made the decision to attend
Baldwin Wallace College in Berea Ohio
where he later obtained a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics.
He completed the core programming requirements in the first year
and a half, and wrapped the remaining Computer Science courses in
the next year. This positioned him well for his consulting work
he did part-time during the first two years of college, and helped
him secure a position as a Software Developer with
Hewlett Packard (HP) by his Junior
year. The job at HP allowed Mike to establish himself as an expert
in the technology of HP Business Basic, Turbo Image (databases), MPE3000 (operating
system), while enhancing and developing HP's internal software systems for: accounting, inventory, sales analysis, repairs and MTBF analysis, and additional operations and accounting solutions.
Immediately out of college, Mike had a tough choice to make:
stay with HP and move to either Palo Alto, CA or Naperville, IL
with the rest of their software developers, or stay in the Cleveland,
Ohio region and make a go of it. Mike ultimately accepted a position
as a Systems Analyst in an HP environment for a regional government
agency, and remained in this position for not quite a year before
being promoted to the position of IT Director in 1989. During his tenure, he customized and implemented a new computerized accounting system that included AR, AP, Payroll, GL, and additional operational modules, But, the
call of the private sector was overwhelming, and "management" jobs
were not his real passion. So, he moved on to where could make his
mark in software development: consulting!
Consulting engagements really presented Mike with the challenges
and opportunities he had been looking for. In 1990, he started working
for clients such as BP and
Invacare through the consulting
firm Analysts International. Mike's expertise during this time included
Cognos 4GL and COBOL on the VAX VMS/RMS and HP3000/Image platforms.
But, he was earning his reputation for being much more than just
a "programmer" -- he was a "business software solutions developer"
that really took extreme interest in the underlying business case
for the software being developed, and he acquired a great deal of
experience and expertise in accounting and operational systems across
a variety of industries. During these years, Mike worked exclusively on the financial systems used to analyze and optimize corporate profitability (AR, AP, GL, Sales Analysis, Inventory, Cost Accounting, Product and Product-Mix Margin Analysis, and additional logistics and analysis applications), By 1993, Mike had left the big consulting
firms behind in favor of the much more targeted and focused small-firm
approach.
In the mid-1990's, Mike had the fortune of developing significant
Petrochemical business accounting and operational management software
under the direction of a reengineering visionary genius, Tony Sementelli,
at British Petroleum. It was during this time that Mike's knowledge
and understanding of the "bigger picture" was further honed, with
an emphasis on automating manual processes and improving existing
systems and business processes, efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness
of data. During this time, his work focused on petrochemical inventory
and pricing systems, and he developed a best-in-class Exchange-Accounting
system for the Oil Industry. On the side, Mike stayed up on the
latest technologies including Windows-based development using C/C++,
PowerBuilder, Visual Basic, FoxPro, Oracle, and other tools while
developing various custom software for clients and commercial /
shareware / freeware release.
In 1995, Mike had incorporated Intersoft Development, Inc. This
company leveraged his past experience to create modern, robust operations and accounting systems
for clients, but now with the addition of modern Object Oriented Development techniques, technologies, and tools including:
Borland Delphi, relational database software such as Microsoft
SQL-Server and Oracle, Version-Control systems (Visual SourceSafe), Data-Modeling tools (PowerDesigner; ER/Win),
Project Planning and Management Software (MS Project), Test-Case
Development, and related methods, tools, and software productivity/accuracy techniques.
One of the early substantial client projects for Intersoft Development placed Mike in the role of
Lead Business Analyst, Database Designer, and Technical Architect for a major process improvement and
custom petrochemical inventory and pricing application initiative for Clark Oil using modern OOP/RDBMS technologies.
This 2½ year engagement with Clark Refining and Marketing worked to replace ineffective, inefficient and disparate
Inventory and Pricing “systems” (some were nothing more than spreadsheets manually passed between
users) with a robust, enterprise-grade software solution utilizing proven techniques for centralized,
efficient, accurate, and coherent petrochemical inventory and pricing. Mike initiated the project by performing
detailed requirements gathering, business-case analysis, process-flow modeling, and logical data
modeling. This was followed by the physical design, development, and implementation of a major
object-oriented client/server data-warehouse of
Inventory and Pricing data using Microsoft SQL-Server DB, Borland Delphi (OO/RAD Java-like
language), PowerDesigner (ERM tool), and MS VSS (for team Version Control). This rigorous and demanding project
required managing project resource and task schedules (using MS Project PERT/Gantt charting) across a team (8 maximum FTEs)
of analysts and developers with varying degrees of business and technical experience.
As Intersoft's client base
grew, Mike expanded the business by hiring experts with skills in:
Internet development (ASP, Cold Fusion, JavaScript, Macromedia
Flash, etc.), Borland Delphi, Microsoft Access, C++, Visual Basic, SQL Server, Oracle and others. Leveraging his own skills and experience along with those of his fellow workers, Intersoft Development created, deployed, enhanced, and maintained numerous accounting and operations systems in diverse settings for their many clients. By the late 90's, Mike has also expanded
Intersoft's offerings to include direct placement and recruiting
services for its ever expanding client base to help firms acquire
talented developers, analysts, and IT management.
During this same period (the late 1990's), Mike had the great
fortune of encountering a few key individuals with extreme talent
in the software development field. These highly skilled resources
have helped Mike form a larger enterprise through partnerships and
sharing of knowledge.
Daiv Russell, of Envision Software, is one of these truly gifted
individuals. Another is Kirby Turner, of
White Peak Software.
Mike has partnered up with both of these renowned software business
consultants and developers since first working with them during
the Clark Oil engagement in the late mid-1990's. With the formation
of this "mastermind" group, Mike has furthered his commitment to
specializing in software development and software engineering strategies
for many years to come.
From the late 1990's forward, Mike has established himself as a specialist in Microsoft SQL Server Databases, SQL-Server Tuning, and Data-Modeling (using PowerDesigner Data-Architect, ERWin, and the likes). Having spent a considerable amount of time working with very large databases consisting of many millions of rows of data, hundreds of tables, and thousands of stored procedures and user defined functions, a major focus has been performance optimization and tuning of such large databases. Applying this experience to eliminate bottlenecks in large corporate databases and data-warehouses has been rewarding on many levels, and allowed Mike to pass on various SQL performance optimization and tuning techniques to others. Many private and public firms have seen incredible performance gains and storage-efficiency gains from the techniques he has used (including a publicly-traded real estate development firm seeing the run-times of accounting-analysis and management-reporting data-warehouse queries reduced from many hours to just minutes). One recommendation Mike offers from these years of Database Tuning: please, engage someone like me before creating a massive and inefficient database system, since it is much easier to design it right from the start (and far less costly than fixing it later!); sadly, many firms only think to call me after they get themselves into a bind. In addition to database tuning, he has honed his OOP skills even further, especially with Borland Delphi.
In 2004, the culmination of years of consulting experience
has put Mike to the test as editor of the most recent book published
and released by the "mastermind group": Daiv Russell's "me-Commerce
- How to put your talents to work... for you!". Also, 2004 sees
the public launch of "Consulting
Mentor DotCom", a site dedicated to helping other consultants be better
at what they're great at by allowing them to focus
on their core competency, rather than searching all over for advice
on improving their consultancy. Mike is an active participant in
this venue, and regularly provides advice and answers questions
in the forums area.
2005 has been the year of exploring new territories in Software Development. Being an early adopter of new technologies, Mike has been busy mastering the latest SQL Server 2005 features, planning for the migration to Delphi 2006, and working with Adobe InDesign for publishing pursuits (including a book on SQL-Server Tuning and Performance Optimization). Another large focus area has been Open-Source Software and modern Linux variants including Suse, Fedora, Ubuntu, and others. Simplified Cross-Platform development (Windows/Linux/Mac) has been a longstanding pursuit, and is coming closer to reality with some of the modern cross-platform widget libraries (Qt, GTK+, WxWidgets) and languages (Python, C++, and perhaps even dotnet via the "mono" project). Although there are still challenges with cross-platform development, Mike is quite convinced that the prospects have greatly improved and merit continual monitoring and preparation; though, he sees significant challenges to overcome for many businesses - especially overcoming the heavy investment in Microsoft-only foundations.
2006 continued with a focus on SQL Server 2005, especially large data-warehouse tuning for clients, and Borland Delphi 2006 applications including large client-server and n-tier applications. In addition, Mike is currently engaged in the development of yet another business division; this time book publishing, with the first book on gluten free desserts finished and released in December 2006 — quite a diversification from his IT roots. In addition, 2006 is shaping up to be a banner year for consulting in general, as there has been strong demand for Microsoft Consultants, database developers, and software developers in general. A recent outlet for news and opinions is now available via Mike's personal Investing, Software and Technology,... Blog, and his Gluten Free Diet Blog.
Most Recently: on the software development side of things, Mike continues to maintain his Microsoft SQL-Server expertise and data-modeling skills using the latest SQL-Server 2008 release and a variety of data-modeling / ERM-diagramming tools. Computer programming activities have included quite an array of diverse programming languages and technologies including:
- Microsoft DotNet Languages and Technologies : C#, ASP.NET;
- Java - using NetBeans and Eclipse IDE platforms and technologies;
- C / C++, Objective-C (Apple), and related;
- XHTML, XML, CSS, and the usual host of markup languages;
- Nvidia CUDA / OpenCL for high-performance GPU-Powered parallel-processing software initiatives;
- Embarcadero Delphi (previously Borland / CodeGear Delphi) through Delphi 2010 and Delphi XE;
- Other emerging languages, techniques, and technologies.
Though Mike spends a fair amount of his free-time learning new programming skills and technology development trends, as well as doing quite a bit of hands-on coding, he is also focused on maintaining a solid understanding of the various technical and technological trends in software development and computer solutions so he can offer the utmost value to end customers when staffing software projects.
Perhaps most importantly, Mike is always looking at the "macro technology picture" in order to deliver maximum ROI (Return On Investment) on software and technology projects - for his clients, and for his own software pursuits. The latest "Game Changing" technology to emerge on the scene is GPU-based computing (such as Nvidia CUDA technology) which leverages the power of relatively inexpensive graphics cards to perform highly-parallel computing operations in a fraction of the time a modern CPU can accomplish the same task in (in some cases, producing 100X+ performance improvements!) This is the type of disruptive technology that can create entirely new markets as well as place one vendor's software well ahead of a competitor's (i.e., a trend not to be ignored if you want to remain competitive).
And, while the world economy appears less-than-vibrant, Mike sees plenty of opportunity to use this period of economic slowdown to help his customers leapfrog their competition and otherwise remain competitive in an increasingly global economy — using technology to drive innovation.
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