Orion Health celebrates 20 years in business

Orion Health celebrates 20 years in business

Largest indeptendently owned health software company

Surpasses the $100 million revenue target

Helping kiwi students into exciting IT careers

In 1993 when entrepreneur and innovator Ian McCrae left a consulting job at Ernst & Young to start a ‘software’ company, not many shared his dream. In fact only 3 ½ people formed the basis of Orion Health as it began its journey as a boutique consultancy based in Auckland.

Twenty years later, McCrae’s Orion Health has grown into a New Zealand success story. With revenues of over $100m and in excess of 750 global employees across 18 offices, Orion Health remains independently owned and New Zealand operated. Its healthcare specific software solutions are implemented in over 30 countries and used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians to help improve care for millions of patients.

Orion Health’s core products help with the exchange and consolidation of large amounts of healthcare information. They have a world leading ability to integrate all systems in typical healthcare environments, unlocking efficiency and enhancing information exchange. This approach is supported through elegant design on user interfaces displaying patient information, creating single view records regardless of where a patient receives their care.

Orion Health’s specific expertise began with early project work that included Auckland District Health Board’s desire to computerise and connect Auckland’s hospitals. At that time, ADHB had only 50 green screen terminals available, but by using microwave dishes on the roofs of hospitals to facilitate data sharing, a high level of inter-connectedness was possible.

This was interspersed with the odd foray in a variety of projects including baggage handling, an airline reservation system and accounting software. However, market signs suggested that health would overshadow these as a potential growth sector and led to Orion Health’s specialisation and narrowing of focus.

Orion Health has enjoyed a very successful history of winning key contracts all around the world, highlighting a flexible and adaptable approach to business. Over the past 20 years, major deals have been brokered in the USA, Australia, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Scandinavia, and more recently in Japan, Singapore and China.

Ian McCrae says the company’s key differentiator remains the same – a total focus on delivering elegant, modern and usable software solutions that produce meaningful results for customers.

“We resource key markets with flexible and agile sales teams to provide the best possible experience for our customers as well as the capacity for site visits and interaction with key personnel for prospective customers. When we introduced this, it was met with genuine surprise by customers, as they had no previous face-to-face interaction with previous suppliers. Our ability to apply learnings from over 20 years experience and our desire to keep drawing insights into the actual requirements of clinicians, physicians, patients, IT staff and executives is what makes our products so good.

Ian is passionate about the education of New Zealand’s future creators and the role this plays in providing a pipeline of graduates to fuel the engine room of New Zealand’s IT growth.

So much so, that the company has just announced $100,000 of scholarships to the University of Canterbury to encourage more students into the study of Information Science. Additionally, the company recently launched Codeworx, with a vision that every New Zealand student in every school has the opportunity to learn how to code and that computer science be part of the core New Zealand curriculum, alongside other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses. To kick-start Codeworx, Orion Health is the brains behind a national competition where high school student teams, using a Raspberry Pi computer, create solutions to problems for prizes.

Ian McCrae sees the future of healthcare as one where patients are enabled to participate in their healthcare decisions, supported by their network of healthcare professionals. He believes that mathematical analysis of data, advances in genomics, the ability to practice proactive medicine based on predictive modelling and the ongoing analysis of historical information, is the face of future healthcare.

“Orion Health is now positioned to provide support to patients and doctors across the entire healthcare environment. With our modern and fully integrated suite of technology we can eliminate the majority of common challenges facing local, regional and national healthcare systems. . There is no limit for us and we’re in a market that is currently running at $40bn-50bn. We have consistently posted double digit annual growth (CAGR) and predict great things for the company’s future.

He also sees the Orion Health focus on governance as a significant advantage. “We’ve had a consistent board, whereas many of our competitors have been bought or merged by investors looking for a quick exit. We’ve been consistent in our strategy and been able to enunciate this clearly to our customers, and staff. We also have a philosophy of employing clinicians on staff, and we work closely with hospitals, such as our R&D relationship with the Canterbury District Health Board, which gives us a unique advantage. “

Things you might not have known about Orion Health and Ian McCrae

• The company was the first in NZ to use the internet commercially; prior to that it was university use only

• Several Orion Health staff make up the world champion team of Adventure Racing (multi-day non stop running, orienteering, kayaking, abseiling etc)

• Ian holds a Masters in Engineering Sciences and Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from Auckland University , and did his master’s thesis on the glacial movement of ice shelves

ENDS

© Scoop Media