The GoAnywhere Customer Who Didn’t Panic

In Douglas Adams’ much-loved work of science-fiction whimsy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel Fish is a small yellow fish inserted into a person's ear to provide instant translation of any language.   

Described by The Guide as “probably the oddest thing in the universe”*, the Babel Fish is a neat (if somewhat slimy) solution to the pervasive galactic challenge of interspecies communication.  

It reminds me how GoAnywhere MFT once solved a customer’s pressing “payslip-up”.  

“But the plans were on display…”* 

Our customer, a leading provider of human services who employs thousands, had installed a new payroll system.  This system, like the outdated system it was replacing, produced employee payslips as PDF files.  These were subsequently distributed to employees via a separate Human Resources system. 

Installation, testing and initialisation of the new payroll system had all gone according to plan.   

Until, that is, the first pay run was performed.  

“Have you any idea what these strange symbols are?”* 

In what The Hitchhiker’s Guide may well have cited as “a practical demonstration of the principles of infinite improbability” employees didn’t receive their payslips.   

It was soon realised that the problem had occurred because the PDF payslips produced by the new payroll system were formatted differently to the PDFs previously produced by the old one.  (The old system had output the PDFs as individual PDF files for each employee, compressed into a zip file.  The new system output one PDF file for each employee and, further complicating the situation, the new payslips varied in number of pages.)  

These PDF formatting changes rendered the output from the new payroll system unreadable by the Human Resources system - a problem which had somehow been overlooked during testing. 

“The consequences of not knowing any of this stuff are particularly terrible”* 

This failure of inter-systems communication wasn’t just a problem for the employees, who had understandably grown accustomed to keeping tabs on their earnings, but it created a looming compliance problem for the business.  Australia’s Fair Work Act is vexingly inflexible when it comes to the timing of providing employees with payslips.  (This is in marked contrast to the famously flexible relationship with time enjoyed by The Guide’s author Douglas Adams, particularly as relates to deadlines). 

Failure to fix the problem quickly would expose the business to financial penalties, legal consequences and potential union action.   

“Don’t Panic!”* 

Heeding the single most important piece of advice in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, our customer didn’t panic.  Instead, they called me to ask whether Generic Systems Australia could help solve their predicament. 

And - thanks to their installed GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer solution – we could! 

The Babel Fish* 

Faster than a Vogon invited to a poetry recital**, our Solutions Architect revised the customer’s GoAnywhere automated file transfer process.  

GoAnywhere was already collecting the PGP-encrypted PDF from the new payroll system via SFTP, decrypting it, and transferring it to the customer’s Human Resources system.  He added to that automated transfer process new logic which split the PDF pages, correctly formatting the output and allowing for payslips of varying page lengths. 

GoAnywhere was, in effect, performing the role of a computerised Babel Fish.  And, thanks to GoAnywhere’s easy to use drag-and-drop interface, it took our Solutions Architect less than half a day to set up the workflows. 

He didn’t even need a towel***. 

“If you ever need help again…”* 

There’s no need to go to the ends of the universe**** to get expert help on file transfers and translations. 

At Generic Systems Australia, we’re Australia and New Zealand’s experts in helping business take advantage of every one of GoAnywhere’s many capabilities.  We’ve assisted hundreds of organisations to automate their data flows, making their file transfers resilient, secure and reliable, and boosting their efficiency. 

If you’d like to discuss how we can boost your organisation’s efficiency, please feel welcome to contact me.  I’m always happy to have an obligation-free chat and explain how easily we can transition you from your current approach to a galaxy-leading level of productivity.   

At Generic Systems Australia, we’re your local experts in data transfer. 

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* A direct quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 

** In The Guide, Vogon poetry is described as the third worst in the universe, surpassed only by the poetry of the Azgoths of Kria and the late Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings. It's so bad, it's often used as a form of torture, causing physical pain to the listener. 

*** The Guide describes a towel as the most massively useful thing an interstellar

hitchhiker can have - not just useful for practical purposes like warmth, sunbathing, or even as a weapon, but also with significant psychological value. A hitchhiker who knows where their towel is is seen as someone together and capable, as it implies they also possess other essential items.  

**** The Guide describes Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, as being enclosed in a time bubble and offering a unique floorshow featuring the end of the universe.