Employee Skills Training Grant Award

Hixardt Technologies

Hixardt Technologies received an Employee Skills Training Grant for $35,000 matched by an equal investment. Founded by military veterans in 2001, Hixardt provides information technology, systems integration, telecommunications and network engineering services. 

Hixardt serves customers throughout Northwest Florida and Alabama and derives much of its business from the federal government. Hixardt is an 8a certified business through the Small Business Administration, allowing it to compete for special contracting opportunities designed to help minority and women owned businesses grow. In addition to federal contracts, Hixardt offers managed services, which are outsourced IT solutions for businesses, and infrastructure development, which calls for construction-phase IT installation or retrofitting older buildings.

Employees at Hixardt train on specific product sets such as Cisco, Aladdin and Check Point. The WIRED funds are being used for online training through SkillSoft as well as on-the-job training and courses at Pensacola Junior College. “We run our pay scales like the military,” explains Hixardt President and CEO and former Navy pilot Mike Hicks. “Our employees must obtain certifications to move to the next pay grade. They have control of their pay, and the system drives value for the company and the individual.”

Hixardt not only focuses on training its employees, the company supports educational programs that will build the trained technology workforce it will need to grow in the future. “We are actively involved with West Florida High School of Advanced Technology,” Hicks says. “Hixardt is interested in growing talent locally, so we also offer a four-year scholarship to the University of West Florida for high school students interested in staying in the area after graduation and studying and working in technology fields.”

The company, which recently acquired 51% ownership in Entrepreneurship Grant recipient Cogon Systems, is on a growth trajectory. With construction beginning soon on a new 30,000 to 40,000-square-foot facility, Hixardt is planning to bring 100 new jobs to downtown Pensacola. Hixardt has also given back to Northwest Florida’s economy by awarding around $1 million in sub-contracts to local businesses.