Industrial software that simplifies automation

Countless machines worldwide use software from Copa-Data in Salzburg, one of Austria’s rare Unicorns

At a time when computers were not yet everyday devices, Thomas Punzenberger started Copa-Data. The small software company became a global enterprise with automation and industrial software, one of the rare Austrian companies with a value of more than one billion euros – a unicorn. Currently, founder Thomas Punzenberger is beginning to hand over his life’s work to his two sons and explains, among other things, why Copa-Data remains a family business without any outside capital investment. In 1987, the founding year, the technological possibilities were quite different. How did you start developing your software in the digital stone age?

In 1987, the founding year, the technological possibilities were quite different. How did you start developing your software in the digital stone age?
Thomas Punzenberger: Thomas Punzenberger: We started developing the software with Windows back then. It was clear to me that we needed a graphical user interface for this kind of application, and the concept for it was floating around in our heads. Of course, it was infinitely more laborious to develop than it is today, but it worked, and we were able to release the first version of Zenon in 1992 and install it at our customers.

What is the Zenon software platform and what makes your software for industrial companies so successful?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: It all started as a simple user interface for technical processes in general, for operating a machine, systems such as compressed air systems or a small power plant. That was the first core, for a user interface for interaction with technical devices. Later, we turned it into so much more, adding such things as alarms, entire alarm systems, data recording, secured releases and everything that is necessary in critical infrastructures to be able to carry out switching operations. From this, the Zenon software platform developed, which is used today in the most diverse sectors for the most diverse tasks. At the beginning of the 2000s, we also developed a control system so that control tasks, regulation tasks and more can be taken over by Zenon. This goes as far as the Historian recording, i.e. the recording of data in order to comply with legal requirements. Who changed or operated what and when? Especially in the pharmaceutical environment, it must be possible to verify that no operating errors were made and that everything is properly documented. This also includes analysing the processes themselves to increase efficiency and to see where improvements might be possible.

How many companies would come to a standstill without your software?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: Many would definitely have no more power for their computers (laughs). I can only estimate the exact number, but there are more than 5,000 worldwide.

Which are the core industries that use Zenon?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: We are operating in four core industries – in the energy sector, in the life science and pharmaceutical industry, in the food and beverage industry and the automotive industry. In general, renewables have always been important, especially hydropower, photovoltaics and wind power plants. There, Zenon is very widespread. This applies to transformer stations, for example. In the Life Science & Pharma sector, we are very active in packaging, in the so-called secondary area, but now also increasingly in processes. In Food & Beverage, the applications are similar, ranging from chocolate production, chocolate wrapping, washing and filling bottles to labelling, packaging, palletising and beer brewing itself. We also work together with machine manufacturers there because Zenon very often runs as standard software in the machines for their customers. Many end customers do not even know that they are working with Zenon. That’s why Zenon is used all over the world, and we ourselves often don’t even know where Zenon is actually running

How many companies would come to a standstill without your software?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: Here, Zenon can be found in production in the most diverse trades – from the press shop to the body shop and the paint shop. Everywhere, systems are controlled and operated by Zenon. Also important is Central Plant Monitoring (CPM), where we run the entire control and monitoring of production. Here you have a complete overview of the production in one location. These are quite demanding applications because an enormous amount of data comes together here. This no longer only affects the individual trades, but also the superordinate CPM. In addition, the entire production facility is often visualised and analysed with Zenon as the energy data management system: How is the building’s energy supply, or how efficiently is production running? Some of these are huge plants that are often only built gradually

Does every Austrian come into contact with Zenon indirectly?
Punzenberger: Does every Austrian come into contact with Zenon indirectly? Punzenberger: You could say that. Everyone comes into contact with it through the electricity supply and everyone who has drunk mineral water or a beer. Zenon plays its part everywhere.

What has made Zenon so successful worldwide? Copa-Data will not have been the only company to develop industrial software in the past decades.
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: From the beginning, we have pursued a different strategy than other providers. Our motto has always been ‘projecting instead of programming’. In the beginning, this was a rather unpopular approach, because the American systems in particular had chosen a different approach, which always required a lot of programming code for the realisation of the projects. In the end, the persistence to follow the path of simple project planning prevailed. Today, major standardisation efforts such as MTP (NB: Module Type Package) follow precisely this path of modularising things, encapsulating them and packaging them in units such as black boxes. It doesn’t matter how the black box works inside, and you can be sure that everything works. These ready-made components can be compared to Lego bricks. This will become even more widespread in the industry in the future, because everyone is moaning and groaning about the lack of skilled workers and no one has the capacity or the time to construct everything from scratch. One has to fall back on ready-made components, and this is also reflected in the software. The end users themselves are then in a position to build automation projects without having an automation specialist with them. Everything is already so well prepared that they can assemble the components themselves – in a sense, they orchestrate an entire modular system.

Do your future developments in automation go in the direction of AI? Should we be afraid of AI?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: Zenon is a software tool that can be used for a wide variety of tasks. AI will fundamentally change our lives, perhaps as much as the internet has done. AI can also be used primarily as a tool to make our lives easier and possibly compensate for the lack of IT developers. We have a project underway to build an assistant for our software – controlled by AI – so that people can ask questions and immediately get to engineering solutions on our already very powerful platform. What I see very critically are AI-generated images, video and audio files and text. There is an urgent need to introduce mandatory labels as you can do a lot of mischief with them. You can get very far with certificates, but you will never achieve 100% protection.

You are currently preparing to hand over your company to the next generation. Is that a simple procedure? Is the father the great guru who can teach the young?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: I was never the great guru. My sons have said that they want to continue the business, and we are in the process of hiring the two sons. So far, things are going quite harmoniously, but of course there are discussions, that much is clear.

You are very reserved when it comes to the fact that Copa-Data is one of the rare unicorns with a valuation of one billion euros. Why is that not important to you?
Punzenberger: Punzenberger: It’s only a virtual valuation. It’s nice to be told that, but it has no real value. It would have value if the valuation was realised. Up to now, independence as a family business has always been much more important to us. And the possibility to realise our own ideas without having to consider a capital provider. That is perhaps the answer to what makes Copa-Data different. We have the possibility and also the staying power to drive innovations forward for longer than two years. The classic period of an investor is two years, in which you have to prove that money can be earned. Otherwise, the idea is abandoned. This is what happened to many of our competitors. If we believe in an idea, we persevere and work on it successively for five years. We are profitable and earn our money, which gives us the opportunity to invest in our strategy in the medium and long term.