About Orion

Orion Consulting Limited was formed in May 1998. We saw a need to provide a good quality consultancy service for companies involved in implementing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or electronic commerce (EC). In both areas, differing definitions and the hype caused every time a new development or technique hits the marketplace cause confusion.

Orion will begin any project by discussing the business requirements with the potential customer. We firmly believe that technology exists to serve the business, not the other way round. From these discussions a solution can be suggested, whether it be a web-based EC solution or an integrated EDI solution, or a combination of the two.

We believe in maximum openness with our customers. We are happy to explain new technologies, and to use them where appropriate – and not when they are not appropriate. There are sites where a tried-and-tested solution will be far more effective than one with a higher buzzword count. At the same time, the Internet and XML are opening up possibilities that either did not exist previously or were too expensive for implementation.

We see electronic commerce as being complementary to EDI, providing similar services over a different mechanism to a different range of trading partners. For example, an EDI system may be used to communicate with several large trading partners for sending frequent or ‘high volume’ data, while a web commerce system may be implemented for smaller trading partners who only wish to send a few documents every day. Both these systems will Interface to a common in-house ERP system, which may be an external product such as SAP R/3 or MFG*Pro, or may be a proprietary in-house application.

Orion Consulting Limited has changed as the EC world has changed. As consultants, we discover our customers’ requirements, and as implementers we can see the advantages and disadvantages of different products and techniques. Although originally a purely consulting operation, we have seen a requirement for cost-effective products that really solve business requirements, rather than just hype. Our product ranges grew from these needs.

Our Staff

We are a small organisation, and we aim to provide a very high quality consultancy and software development service. Each of our consultants is specialised in a certain area, and is able to bring a large amount of experience and expertise to bear on your EDI or EC implementation. Our staff are listed below in alphabetical order, along with their role in the company.

Our Distributors

We also have distributors who are actively promoting our products and services outside the UK. These personnel have been users of our software and have a working knowledge of our product ranges. We are always interested in companies in other parts of the world that might wish to consider distributing our products.