30 years

With the vision of making automation in industry a hands-on experience, Thomas Punzenberger founded Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH in 1987 in Salzburg. 

What began as a small start-up is now a company which boasts international success, with subsidiaries, distributors, partners and customers based all around the globe. On 1 September 2017, COPA-DATA will celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Since its foundation, COPA-DATA has dedicated itself entirely to technology. By the end of the 1980s, the brothers Thomas and Alexander Punzenberger recognised the potential software systems offer to industry – and to the energy industry in particular.

“Right from the start, our aim was to develop automation software which was to be better and simpler than any other system on the market,” explains CEO, Thomas Punzenberger. “At that time, many advised us against establishing our system on the basis of Microsoft Windows, because this was not common practice in the industry. Our concept of “setting parameters instead of programming” was also met with a great deal of scepticism at the beginning. But our success proved us right. Both decisions have contributed significantly to our growth over the last 30 years.”

As a privately owned Austrian family business, COPA-DATA is independent of external investors and stock markets and can therefore trade with flexibility, agility, and autonomy. Although more than 90 percent of the turnover is generated through exports, the zenon software is developed exclusively at the company's headquarters in Salzburg. From here, the product is distributed via eleven subsidiaries, 16 distributors, and around 200 partner companies around the world.