When you hear the word "extraction" do you conjure images of a dentist pulling teeth or a spy being removed from a risky assignment? Before I started working at Equinox, those are some of the thoughts that sprang to mind when I heard this term. Now, however, this term has an entirely different connotation.
On my first day at Equinox, the company CEO took me around the office and introduced me to all the other employees. And that's when I met Johnny Sikes, who is Equinox's resident expert on data extraction and mediation. During my remaining orientation and training, I learned about the importance of extraction and mediation as it relates to the telecom industry — it has the power to make or break service providers. "Successful mediation is THE difference between having useless numbers or actionable data." Armed with this knowledge, Johnny devoted his efforts to making sure that every aspect of mediation — from data extraction to output delivery — was accurate, leaving nothing to chance. And he's been excelling at this task since the day he arrived.
In 1995, after graduating from Western Kentucky with a degree in Computer Science, Johnny joined Equinox. Through his initial work on virtually every product Equinox offered, Johnny quickly became the go-to person when it came to data extraction and mediation logic. In his 20-year tenure, Johnny has created and fine-tuned the logic needed to extract and map fields for the 300 formats Equinox supports for our customers. His extraction routines form the backbone for virtually every data source/target combination currently deployed at customer sites. Johnny says he's never met a format he doesn't like and plans to continue coding extraction routines until he runs out of new formats.
Previous blogs have noted that Equinox is proud to buck the trend when it comes to employee tenure. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wage and salary workers in the private sector stay with their employer an average of 4 years. At Equinox, the average tenure is right at 15 years. Among the development staff, that number is even higher — 18 years. Johnny is certainly doing his part to keep that average high. This past week marked his 20th anniversary with Equinox.
When asked why he has stayed at Equinox all this time, Johnny explains that he loves having the flexibility to take time off and spend it with his wife and kids. When he's not making mediation magic, Johnny coaches his two sons in soccer and basketball, enjoys playing golf, and is an avid Dallas Cowboys fan.
Happy 20th anniversary, Johnny!
About the Author — Amy Oldham manages corporate communications, technical documentation, customer publications, newsletters, email campaigns, and social media for Equinox Information Systems. To learn more, visit equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.