Change happens.
My last entry on travel reminded me of a story. Back in the days of yore, when giants walked the earth
(OK, thirty years ago), I had just begun work at Shared Medical Systems
(SMS - later acquired by Siemens) and I worked in the group that did
'Conversions'.
In those days, SMS was growing rapidly, getting tons of new hospital
customers all the time. Converting from one electronic system to another
is a hard time for a hospital, most run on very thin margins and any
disruption to their cash flow is very painful. So we tried very hard to
get their billings moving again as soon as we could. And we did that by
'converting' their old files from whatever system they used to run on
into the SMS file structure so we could do billings right away, in many
cases the very next day after the conversion.
I
was very pleased to be in this group doing that work because it was SO
challenging. In those days, there were many more manufacturers of
computers and many more proprietary file structures, some specifically
built for one hospital. So every conversion was different and each was a
little like forensic archeology. We had to pick the files apart and
tease the information out of them and specifications were always poor
because the company or group losing the account was never tripping over
themselves to supply proper information. They were probably hoping we
would fail so they could get another shot at the hospital. So we wrote
our conversions in a language called PL/I (Programming Language One),
which allowed us to manipulate data down to the bit level so we could
actually change characters around if we had to. And we often had to.
This is what coding in PL/I looked like: 
It was such a strong
language, we could decode bizarre 7-bit junk or data with arcane random
buffer lengths or files that had another file to tell where certain data
was posted (which was never included in the batch they sent us). But
this is where I learned my love of forcing the system to do what I
wanted it to even if it had no intention of giving me what I wanted. It
was a real rush to pull a jewel out of a steaming pile of crap. The
executives knew we were doing magic and were grateful to us and sent us
letters of appreciation. But no money.
So, what's this got to do
with travel? Well, the most money came in when we acquired a group of
hospitals and that was fairly regularly. The deal maker was a Vice
President named Mike Mulhall who had such commanding presence that his
statements were regarded as stone fact simply because he had uttered
them. These were not negotiations, they were pronouncements. It was
amazing to watch. So he and I would travel to these places and meet with
a room full of people and 'negotiate' what was going to happen. They
would bring in their technical experts and I would question them about
their file structures, aging decisions, financial codes, etc. etc. right
in front of everyone. Then I would give Mike my estimation of the
difficulty factor for the conversion and he 
would
apply it as one factor in the financial part of the deal. It was a
little like the Pros from Dover had come to town and we were there to
crack this kid's chest and get in a round of golf.
Only it wasn't
golf, it was drinking. Mike drank more than any human I'd ever seen. On
our fairly frequent trips, we would go the airport and into one of the
many airline clubs he was a member of. I didn't sit in those cold
plastic chairs at the gate for YEARS. When they called our flight, he
called for another round. We only left when it was FINAL call. And then,
when we boarded (always as the door was closing) he'd ask the
stewardess for a drink so it would be ready as soon as we were in the
air. At first, I tried to keep up with him, but that was just dumb. Mike
was a studied, hardened professional drinker, but he never showed a
sign of intoxication other than a reddening of the face as the evening
(or day) progressed. There was more than one occasion when we would fly
to our destination and go right into a meeting after drinking for hours!
I have no idea how I pulled that off other than Mike expected me to, so
that made me capable. It was a little worse when the meeting was first
thing the next day because although he didn't feel it, I sure did.
Then
my team and I actually had to DO the conversion and there was never
enough time. But that's a story for another day. Imagine staying awake
for three and half days straight and writing better code three-quarters
of the way asleep than I did wide awake and rested. If I tried that now,
I would be DEAD, DEAD, DEAD.
On the day of conversion, we didn't
have any fancy file transfer, we had one of our guys hand-carry a set
of tapes back from Michigan or Arizona or wherever. Timing was crucial
as you can imagine. Between the day-end of the other system and the
airline schedule, there was often a very tight timeframe. Our courier
told the story once of his speeding across town in his rental car,
squealing to a stop in front of the terminal door, jumping out with his
case of tapes and as he ran through the door, he tossed his rental car
keys to a cop standing there and said "Medical Emergency!" and just kept
running. I can't remember if he said he made it through the airplane
door as it was closing or it had already closed but either way there was
no time for any rental car return.
We waited breathlessly for a ticket
or bench warrant to arrive in the mail, but all we ever got was the
rental car receipt. That means the officer may have personally driven
the car to the rental car return himself and then had to arrange getting
back to his post or made it happen some other way, but however he did it, we're grateful.
Can
you IMAGINE trying a stunt like that now? We would be shot six times
before we ever got through the first door. Traveling was different in
those days.
Mike
Mulhall died very young and it was a long time ago. He had a heart
attack at the New York Athletic Club after a steam bath. I learned a lot
from Mike, we traveled all over the country together, we were a good
team. He is missed.
Rich,
I really enjoy your blog.
I could particularly relate to your most recent posting re: file conversions. Still one of my memorable and rewarding jobs (even after all these years).
Dave
March 14, 2009 at 9:20 PM