EAI Vendor Eyes U.S. VARs
Orion Systems, based in Auckland, New Zealand, with U.S. headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., is readying a new version of its EAI product, the Rhapsody Interface Engine, for release in December, said Ian McCrae, the company's CEO.
New in Rhapsody 1.2 will be validation services to ensure that companies comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, McCrae said. The current product already supports messaging and mapping for HIPAA compliance, he said.
McCrae did not provide exact pricing for the new product but said the existing Rhapsody engine costs $50,000. "For people who couldn't afford an integration broker, now they have an option," he said.
The price tag for a HIPAA solution from Redwood Shores, Calif.-based competing vendor SeeBeyond begins at $200,000 for a 12-week implementation that includes professional services. "Smaller integration players might offer cheaper solutions but, just like anything, you get what you pay for," said Scott Harper, vice president, health care at SeeBeyond.
Orion has an international reseller program and is looking to expand its partner base in the United States. "Our product is far more attractive to [VARs than alternatives are, because alternative products require weeks of training [and highly skilled people and are difficult to run," McCrae said. "Ours is easy to install, easy to train and easy to operate."
Darin Grehen, COO and CTO at medical systems integrator Healthblocks, Dallas, said Orion's product is particularly attractive for the health-care industry, where "money is always an issue."
"The price point is considerably lower than other products that are out there," he said.
Grehen said Orion's product is written in Java, which makes it easier to deploy than proprietary technology used in other EAI software.
"It's new technology, which makes it flexible and extensible," he said. "We've done some Java coding to add some custom features that weren't hard at all [to build, which made the solution more compelling."