“I firmly believe that if each of us tries to always choose to do the right and proper and loving thing (whether in business or in our personal lives), that we can change the world.”
KW Support & Consulting, LLC is closing it’s doors in 2020. Kevin Weilbacher, the owner, decided that after spending 50 years in the computer field, that it was time to hang up the shingle.
His career started when he took a computer programming class in January 1970, during his freshman year at Florida State University (FSU). He immediately knew recognized that this was the direction for his work career. He worked with suchg programming languages as FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, APL, ALGOL RPG, and Assembler Code on Contral Data 6500 Systems at FSU.
After graduating from FSU he worked part time at the Florida Dept of Commerce and FSU Physics Dept doing programming.
In January 1974 he was hired by Burroughs (Unisys) Corporation and moved to Tampa, FL to work for their Southeast District, where he worked for 15 years.
From 1974-1981 he did COBOL programming for their L/TC series (and later B80/B90/B800 series) of business computers systems. He programmed commercial business applications (payroll, A/R, A/P, etc.) for small businesses, and specialize software (such as water and electric billing systems) for city & county offices.
He had several major accomplishments during this period, including:
- Design and support for a state-wide Government Budgetary system that was implemented in a half dozen Florida counties
- Design and support for a CPA Financial Accounting system that was sold throughout the Southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico
- Design and support for a Credit Union Financial Accounting System that was sold throughout the U.S.
By the early 1980’s he moved into a Regional Pre-Sales Technical position, where he was involved with the newest and latest technology for business solutions, and presenting them to customers. This allowed him to be at the forefront of the micro-computer / PC explosion, where he worked on a variety of systems, including new computerized bank ATMs, voice activated phone systems, computerized cash registers for retail stores, financial teller systems for banks and S&L, and early implementation of networking of computers from Convergent Technologies.
For his work, Burroughs/Unisys awarded him their 1986 Worldwide Legion of Honor.
By 1989 his job required a lot of travelling, and staying with Burroughs/Unisys would eventually involve moving (perhaps to Atlanta, Detroit, or Philadelphia). With two daughters entering their teenage years, he and his wife decided to remain in Tampa.
In November 1989 he took a position as I.T. Director for the local Tampa blood bank, (Southwest Florida Blood Bank. With a staff of programmers, he implemented structured procedures for coding, testing and documentation with a new-fangled 3GL programming language called MAPPER (developed by Sperry).
During his 12 years there, the blood bank industry saw a rapid rise in new blood testing equipment due to HIV and other diseased. He was involved with implementing and interfacing those new testing systems to their mainframe.
Highlights of his work included:
- Design and implement an early use of the web for online secured transmittal of blood inventory from the hospitals they serve
- Design and implement a web based system for tracking the delivery and testing of blood results sent from other blood centers throughout the United States.
- Implemented computerized transfer of blood collection data from the blood bank mobile vans
- Headed up I.T. work for the design of a new high tech blood bank home office and laboratory facility on the campus of University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa.
- Worked on the successful merger of three blood centers into Florida Blood Services
- Managed the extensive coding and testing of blood bank software for “Y2K”
The stress and time requirements of his job were taking a toll on him physically. In 2001 he stepped down from his career at the blood bank and began his 3rd career — working for himself.
KW Support started slowly with some small consulting work, designing web sites for small businesses. He became a well-known expert with a web development tool called Trellix (later renamed CuteSite Builder), founded by Dan Bricklin, who developed VisiCalc,the first spreadsheet.
One of his first business customers provided insurance and aftermarket products for the auto industry and dealerships. They hired him for 5 years to grow the technology department and interface with dealerships across the U.S.
In looking for the right niche market to grow his business, he discovered Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) solution, and once again he knew that this was the path for him.
SBS was a solution designed for small businesses under 25 employees. He would market himself as being the I.T. person for small businesses who could not afford or did not need a full time I.T. person.
Within a few years, Microsoft recognized his knowledge and experience of SBS, and his willingness to share that knowledge with other I.T. people. In 2004 they designated him as a Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP). He was awarded this honor for 12 more consecutive years.
He had opportunities to speaks an I.T. and Microsoft sponsored conferences across the country, including Microsoft’s 2012 Tech Ed conference, and was a co-author on the book “Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed“.
By 2013 there were changes in the air in the computer industry. Talk of “cloud computing” and concerns with “computer hacking” were growing. The need to learn even new things led him to join ASCII Group, a national group of like minded I.T./MSP professionals.
By 2019 he realized that running his own business was no longer the desire of his life, and began implementing changes in his job with the goal of closing his business in 2020.