COPA-DATA

COPA-DATA is an independent, family-owned industrial software company founded in Salzburg, Austria, in 1987 by engineer Thomas Punzenberger. Its name reflects its original focus: “COPA” stands for “Computer Optimized Process Automation,” while “DATA” refers to the collection, processing, visualization, and analysis of data in industrial processes. The company began with the aim of making plant control easier through software and has developed into an international supplier of automation software. Its principal offering is zenon, a software platform for industrial automation. COPA-DATA describes zenon as connecting equipment operation, data collection, and analysis, while helping users control and monitor operations through a central interface. The platform is intended to simplify process control and data exchange between production-level systems and management. Its applications include manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure, with further industry solutions for areas such as life sciences and pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, process manufacturing, automotive, and mechanical engineering. COPA-DATA highlights sector-specific requirements in its product positioning. In energy and infrastructure, it emphasizes scalability, security, networking, standards compliance, and uses such as substation automation, renewable energy, storage, and public transportation. For life sciences and pharmaceuticals, it points to batch control, data integrity, and regulatory compliance needs. Food and beverage applications include line management, process control, monitoring, and plant information management. The company supports a partner network that includes system integrators, OEMs, machine builders, educational institutions, and research facilities. Its Partner Community uses membership categories and levels, including Listed Member, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with progression tied to expertise and engagement with zenon. COPA-DATA’s company history documents early customers and international expansion, and describes the business as selling its core product, zenon, around the world.

COPA-DATA was founded in Salzburg, Austria, in 1987 by engineer Thomas Punzenberger. According to the company’s account, the business began in a two-room apartment, where Punzenberger set out to develop software that would make plant control easier. The company name summarizes its original subject matter: “COPA” means “Computer Optimized Process Automation,” and “DATA” refers to handling data in industrial processes. In 1988, Thomas’s brother Alexander Punzenberger joined the company. The following year, Thomas began writing the first lines of code for zenon. In 1991, COPA-DATA launched zenon as an HMI/SCADA system and installed it for the first time at a customer site, AEG AG in Berlin. The company lists Krones AG and VA TECH SAT GmbH among its first major customers in 1993. In 1995, VA TECH SAT acquired a 30% stake in COPA-DATA. The company continued developing zenon and extending its reach. In 1999, it introduced zenon as an HMI solution for Microsoft Windows CE and established its first foreign subsidiary in Ottobrunn, Germany. In 2000, it opened an affiliated company in Eppan, Bolzano, Italy. In 2002, COPA-DATA expanded and acquired a 55% stake in the newly established COPALP in France; development of the straton software began. These milestones show an early combination of product development and international expansion. COPA-DATA’s later public-facing positioning centers on zenon as a software platform for industrial automation, process control, and data exchange. The company describes applications across manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure, with solutions for industries including life sciences and pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, process manufacturing, automotive, and mechanical engineering. Its energy use cases include substation automation, renewable energy, storage systems, and public transportation; manufacturing applications include process monitoring, production-line management, and plant information management. The company describes itself as independent and family-owned, and says it sells its core product, zenon, around the world. It also works through an international partner community involving system integrators, OEMs, machine builders, educational institutions, and research facilities. Partner membership includes Listed Member, Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels. The supplied company-history excerpt ends during the 2003 entry, so later dated corporate milestones are not stated here.

• 2002

  COPALP stake and straton development

• 2000

  Italian affiliated company opened

• 1999

  Windows CE HMI offering and German subsidiary

• 1995

  VA TECH SAT acquires a stake

• 1993

  First major customers

• 1991

  zenon launched as an HMI/SCADA system

• 1989

  First zenon code written

• 1988

  Alexander Punzenberger joins

• 1987

  COPA-DATA founded in Salzburg

Industrial software for digital transformation, automation, process control, and operational data management across manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure.

• zenon Software Platform

  COPA-DATA’s industrial automation platform for equipment operation, process control, data exchange, collection, and analysis.

• straton

  Software whose development began at COPALP following COPA-DATA’s 2002 acquisition of a 55% stake in the French company.

1. 1Automation software & energy software | zenon by COPA-DATAcopadata.com
2. 2Company history | COPA-DATAcopadata.com
3. 3About the Partner Community | COPA-DATA Partner Communitycopadata.com
4. 4Industrial automation software from COPA-DATAcopadata.com
5. 5COPA-DATA GmbHwikidata.org