Mark Solda

Programming • Data Architecture • Software Architectural Design • Project Management

 

​When I went to work in administration at a campus of Columbia University, the Accounting Department was using a customized software that kept data in its own format.  As there was no application programming interface to the data format, any new report required coding by and subsequent payment to the software vendor.  With budget constraints, spending for new reports was rarely authorized, though there was a desire.

Hoping to be able to use the data in these files, I examined the contents of the files, and since they were binary files, I used an octal dump of the files.  

I figured out the structure of the files and format of the data.  Using that information, I created a read-only API and began to create reports for the various departments, including Accounting.

From that point forward, it was no longer was necessary to put money in the budget for new reports, saving money and increasing usefulness of the data already being collected.