PROXIA awarded the TOP100 Innovation Prize

Using a scientific system, TOP 100 evaluates the innovation management of medium-sized companies and the resulting innovation successes. In the independent selection process, the company with 40 employees was particularly convincing in the category “External Orientation / Open Innovation”.

PROXIA Software AG specializes in the development of MES-Software (Manufacturing Execution System) for controlling and monitoring manufacturing processes. The TOP 100 company is successful with a modular system in which some modules offer more than 1,000 configuration options – the cooperation with customers in designing individual solutions is correspondingly close. “Our modular system is highly individualized and permanently updateable,” explains Julia Klingspor, member of the board of directors.

The Ebersberg-based top innovator is also successful with its modular system because de facto every industry and every company has individual requirements. “We are very proud to be able to pick up our customers in their respective worlds today,” says Torsten Wenzel, member of the board. And yet there are also issues that concern almost all customers: for example, the protection of data, especially when using the latest cloud solutions. With this in mind, PROXIA designed a solution that allows each company to decide for itself which data should remain in-house and which should migrate to the cloud. Moreover, with PROXIA’s MES-Software, every customer can learn collectively. This is because individual solutions are permanently integrated into the software standard. In this way, the product grows with the requirements of the market, and ultimately each individual user benefits from this, in line with the collective principle.

Out of 398 companies that applied for a TOP 100 award in the current round, PROXIA made it to the TOP 100 Innovators. The system developed by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke as scientific director gave manufacturing and service companies the same opportunities and also took into account the respective company sizes. Franke and his team tested around 120 parameters. “Innovation means restlessness. The TOP 100 companies are therefore constantly creating new products, new services, new business models and new processes. If you want to be an innovation leader, you have to consistently align the company as a whole to the innovation goal,” Franke comments on the result.

Ranga Yogeshwar, who has been mentoring the competition since 2011, summarizes the qualities of the TOP 100 as follows: “Openness to new things, tolerating mistakes, the constant endeavor to do things new and differently – these are the characteristics of a good culture of innovation. A culture that is lived out in the medium-sized companies that we honor with TOP 100. These are outstanding SMEs whose innovative spirit has become part of their DNA. They are far-sighted and hands-on entrepreneurs who put innovation first every day.”

An evaluation of key figures from the TOP 100 shows just how much the company’s own innovative strength contributes to its success: The companies are planning to create around 18,000 additional jobs between 2018 and 2020. This corresponds to a 19 percent increase in the number of employees. Their sales growth recently averaged 24 percentage points above the industry average. On average, they generated 36.4 percent of their sales with market novelties or innovative improvements and were granted almost 2,700 national and international patents in the past three years alone. 65 percent of the companies are family-run businesses.