1993-2000 The Early Years
- Founded by Ian McCrae as a consultancy firm, Orion began as Clearfield Consulting which was sold to Deloitte and renamed Orion Systems.
- The team secured several notable IT projects, including the challenge of digitizing and connecting Auckland’s hospitals at a time when the Internet was still in its early stage and the New Zealand Health Board had just 50 green screen terminals available. To facilitate data sharing and establish connectivity between the hospitals, it meant fitting microwave dishes to their roofs.
- Orion was one of the first New Zealand companies to connect to the Internet and one of the first to use it commercially, selling early products online to customers in North America.
- The team developed the innovative idea of an internet browser-based portal for clinical applications, a concept unseen in the global healthcare market at that time.
- The biggest achievement at the turn of the millennium was our development for Counties Manukau District Health Board in New Zealand, where we implemented the tech to provide electronic discharge summaries and disease management solutions.
