Ready, Set, Extract!

By Amy Oldham
June 16, 2015

Johnny is pictured with his wife, Beth.

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 Equinox, those are some of the thoughts that sprung 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 guy when it came to data extraction and mediation logic. In his 20 year tenure, Johnny has created and fine-tuned the logic need 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 combinations 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 latest Bureau of Labor Statistics¹, wage and salary workers in the private sector stay with their employer 4 years. At Equinox, the average tenure across the board is right at 15 years. Among the development staff, that number is even higher, at 18 years. Johnny is certainly doing his part to keep that average high—this past week marked Johnny’s 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 off and spend time with his wife and kids. In fact, 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.

It’s clear that his coworkers and customers alike benefit from Johnny’s reliable service and positive impact at Equinox. We all look forward to his contributions for a long time to come.

Happy 20th anniversary, Johnny!

About the Author: Amy Oldham is in Corporate Communications at Equinox Information Systems, where she creates and maintains the company’s technical documentation as well as all other customer-facing publications. Amy is also responsible for the company’s newsletter, email campaigns, press releases, and social media presence. When not writing, Amy enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis, and swimming.

To learn more about Equinox, its products, and the people who power them, visit www.equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.

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¹According to 2014 Current Population Survey: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf.