Copa Data was founded in Salzburg in 1987 by Thomas Punzenberger. Twelve years later, the German subsidiary based in Ottobrunn was opened. Initially, the focus was on the automotive industry with its highly automated manufacturing processes. The non-cyclical pharmaceutical and food & beverage sectors were added. For some years now, the area of "non-factory" applications has also been gaining in importance. Today, Copa-Data offers interdisciplinary and integrated solutions for the smart factory and smart city. The company now has two additional offices in Ludwigshafen and Cologne and is present in more than 50 countries with local sales and support.

"We started 20 years ago with the ambitious goal of anchoring the Zenon brand in the manufacturing industry in Germany and worldwide. The main aim was to win over the major DAX companies," says Jürgen Schrödel, Managing Director of Copa-Data Germany. Today, 20 years later, many of the really big companies from the DAX and the EURO Stoxx are among the long-standing customers and in 2018 Copa-Data Germany was able to close its most successful financial year since the company was founded with sales growth of 30 percent.

"Germany is way ahead in terms of technological development. As the home of many global players and successful SMEs, it is a very important market for us. I am delighted that Copa-Data Germany has been supporting us in our mission to make our customers' lives a little easier for 20 years now," says Thomas Punzenberger.

Jürgen Schrödel sees the employees as an important success factor for business development. Numerous top performers have been with the company for many years. The demands placed on them have changed significantly since the company was founded. Increasing automation and digitalization require greater networking between the different domains of the production process. "Our employees must constantly engage with new tasks in order to cluster the crucial information from the process. This is the only way they can generate valuable knowledge from the collected data," says Jürgen Schrödel. as