New year, same question: what matters most? After the chaos of 2020, it would be easy to play it safe, stick to what we know, consolidate. We're not doing that. We're expanding into international development, going deeper on health tech, and finally sorting out the integration patterns we've been putting off for two years.
What You Need to Know
- RIVER is expanding into international development work across the Pacific, starting with a major UN project
- Health tech remains a core focus, with Edison Health and the Mental Health Foundation both entering new phases
- Integration architecture is becoming the bottleneck for every enterprise client we work with
- Trev is growing steadily and proving that niche SaaS can work from New Zealand
International Development
We've been talking about doing meaningful work in the Pacific for years. In 2021, it's happening. We're beginning work with UNESCO on a case management system for survivors of domestic violence in Samoa, built in partnership with SVSG (Samoa Victim Support Group). This is the kind of project that tests everything: technical constraints, cultural competence, infrastructure limitations, and the weight of building something that genuinely matters to vulnerable people.
It's also a step-change for us as an organisation. Working in the Pacific is different from working in Wellington. Internet connectivity is variable. Power isn't guaranteed. The people using the system are often working in high-stress, resource-limited environments. Every assumption we make about how software gets used needs to be re-examined.
Building for international development isn't charity work. And it should be.
Isaac Rolfe
Managing Director
Health Tech, Deeper
Edison Health is entering its next phase. We've been building in the health technology space long enough to know that the easy wins are behind us. What comes next is harder: interoperability, clinical workflow integration, data governance that actually works across organisations. The Mental Health Foundation continues to evolve. These aren't "projects" any more. They're long-term partnerships that require sustained commitment.
67%
of NZ health organisations identified system integration as a top-3 priority for 2021
Source: NZ Digital Health Association Survey, 2020
The Integration Problem
This is the thread that runs through everything. Every enterprise client we work with has the same problem: systems that don't talk to each other. It was manageable when they had three or four tools. After 2020's digital acceleration, most have eight to fifteen. Each one was bought for a good reason. None of them were bought with integration in mind.
We're investing in integration architecture this year. Not because it's exciting, but because it's the thing that makes everything else work. APIs, middleware, event-driven patterns. The plumbing that nobody wants to fund but everybody needs.
Trev Keeps Growing
Our agriculture SaaS product, trev, continues to grow. The farming sector in New Zealand has been underserved by technology for decades, and the appetite for practical digital tools is real. Trev isn't trying to be a platform. It's trying to solve specific problems for specific people. That's enough.
Oceania Football
We're continuing our work with Oceania Football Confederation, supporting their digital infrastructure across the Pacific. Sport governance technology is its own niche, and the challenges are similar to international development: distributed teams, variable connectivity, diverse stakeholder needs. It's good work.
The Year Ahead
If 2020 was about survival and adaptation, 2021 is about depth and expansion. We're not adding new services or chasing trends. We're going deeper on what we already do well, and expanding into contexts that challenge us to be better. That feels like the right call.