OMICRON electronics

OMICRON electronics has been ranked among the 15 best European employers and has received an award for it from the Great Place to Work Institute.

1250 companies of 15 EU member states take part in the Great Place to Work Award. The definition of a great place to work is a place where the employees: Trust the people they work for, have pride in what they do, and enjoy the people they work with.

Further information can be found at www.greatplacetowork-europe.com.

OMICRON electronics has just received an award after being recognized as the best employer in Europe in the field of electronics by the Great Place to Work Institute (GPTWI).

The competition is based on national studies completed by the GPTWI in 15 of the EU member states and an award is presented in each of them. Using the same criteria for all countries allows for a comparison at European level of the different participants.

Awards are given for outstanding achievements in the fields of workplace culture and personnel issues. The grading is based on credibility, respect and fairness of the management towards the employees and also on identification and team building within the company.

Further information can be found at www.greatplacetowork-europe.com

OMICRON has been awarded with the "Trigos Award" in the category Society . This award is given to companies with outstanding corporate social responsibility efforts. The award was made in recognition of OMICRON's Crossing Borders program.

In 2002 OMICRON has been awarded with the "Vorarlberger Unternehmens-Oscar" (company award of the county Vorarlberg). This award is given to companies with outstanding entrepreneurial efforts, respectively innovative company ideas. OMICRON got this award for the multifunctional primary test system CPC 100.

The jury founded this decision as follows:

• top technological performance,
• systematic and professional development with innovative elements,
• fast reaction on chances of the market,
• leadership in a niche market,
• in-house research,
• higher-than-average export quota and development of an international network

In the Vorarlberg Economic Chamber (Austria) recently, a tribute was paid to the company which had won the "Growth through Research” prize awarded last year by the Forschungsförderungsfond (FFF) [Fund for the Promotion of Research] and the Economic Chamber. The prize in the category of medium-sized companies was awarded to OMICRON.

At the recent awards ceremony, Komm. Rat Kuno Riedmann, President of the Economic Chamber, declared: "We have been brought together here by a most joyous occasion. Companies that are strong in both research and development have made a considerable contribution to setting Vorarlberg on the path to becoming one of the top 10 regions in Europe".

Three Vorarlberg building sponsors have been awarded the Austrian Bauherrenpreis 2001. One of the prizes was awarded to the OMICRON Development Centre in Klaus. The prize was given by the Zentralvereinigung der Architekten Österreichs (the Central Association of Austrian Architects). The award is presented in recognition of building projects which are considered to be exemplary in terms of the accomplishment of their building mission, their construction, their architectural form, their commitment to society and their innovative character.

On the 24th of May, a UCA Substation Demonstration Meeting took place in Vancouver, Canada to examine UCA connectivity.

OMICRON demonstrated five CMC prototypes which had been adapted to be used in a UCA / IEC substation network. In such an application, the feedback from the relay (e.g. the trip) is transmitted in data packets (known as GOOSE messages) over a substation network, not via the usual hard wired binary outputs and inputs.

The demonstration of the OMICRON test sets was a great success and participating relay vendors seemed keen to see their equipment connected to an OMICRON test set. OMICRON's UCA enabled test sets are the only ones available for protection testing in this type of application.

As a result OMICRON was awarded with the "Loosy Goose Award" for proven UCA connectivity.
See OMICRON listed with other award winners in: http://www.ucausersgroup.org.
On this site, more information on UCA can be found.

Forschung" ("Success by Research") award for extraordinary performances in research and development together with outstanding economic success, was gratefully received by OMICRON electronics recently. This award which is also known as the Golden Badge was presented by The Austrian Industrial Research Promotion fund ("Forschungs-Förderungs-Fond", FFF) during the opening ceremony of the OMICRON Development Center in Klaus, Austria.

The award was presented against the project "CM Leadership - test systems of the next generation”, with which OMICRON has been very successful in the world market. This project, which had been realized with the help of the FFF, had the target of providing the market with an extremely handy, light-weight, and thus truly mobile test system to the market, which, by means of its user software -can be easily expanded or adapted in terms of its functionality.

We thank the FFF for this honor and view it as an incentive and encouragement to continue undertaking extraordinary efforts in research and development.

We are proud to announce that OMICRON has been presented with the Vorarlberger Bauherrenpreis 2001 award for the creation of the OMICRON Development Center building. The award honors remarkable contemporary architecture within the Vorarlberg/Austria region and thereby acknowledges the successful co-operation between the building's owner and its architects.

Out of 39 applications eight companies were nominated in the category "company buildings" with just three of them being presented with awards. The prize ceremony took place on May 18th when, Martin Pfanner, the General Manager of OMICRON, received the prize on behalf of the whole team and said; "Teamwork and high quality working places were the essential goals in creating this building. After ten months of use we have the acknowledgement that we built the optimal environment for working together and development."

The judging panel consisted of five highly recognized experts which reported:

The readily expandable three-floor building has an harmonious appearance and highlights the intelligent, sensitive and flexible use of space. The facade is designed as a finely structured climate-space-layer while the inside is generously spacious which is enhanced by its transparency and shape. The offices communicate with the inside galleries and (partly) with the yard-side terraces. The office floors are accessible through a central atrium which is illuminated from the top by natural daylight. This hall is used as a central welcome and communication area and has an impressive representative quality. The atrium is an open, fresh, modern environment which has a timeless and positive atmosphere and can be described as providing an outstanding contribution to the workplace.

In 1997, the founder of OMICRON electronics won the prestigious "Entrepreneur of the year" award in the services category from Trend. Below is an excerpt from the Trend article:

"Rainer Aberer, a TELECOMMUNICATION worker from Vorarlberg, conquers the world with his inventiveness and a good team...". To read the entire article click here (PDF, 164 KB).

This Prize, created by the "Union of Industry" honors the creation of additional jobs.OMICRON received this award for "the creation of additional high-qualified industrial jobs and/or competitive products on the world market through innovative development."

Evaluation criteria included:

• Quantity and quality of the additional jobs created
• Type and structure of the new jobs (skill required)
• Industrial potential and export opportunities
• Additional jobs during the last three years
• Company development during the last three years
• Successful innovation
• Exceptional results in the Human Resources area
• Innovative employment projects and developments

OMICRON was awarded the "Austrian Export Prize 1996" in the trade section by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Dr. Farnleitner and the President of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Ing. Maderthaner. The "Austrian Export Prize" recognizes and acknowledges the commitment and success of Austrian companies in foreign markets. The award is presented to one company within each of the trade, commerce and industry sectors.

The "Innovation award" was created by the Vorarlberg government and Chamber of Commerce in Austria.

This prize helps to encourage innovative activity within the local economy through its financial benefit and, more importantly, it creates an awareness of the appreciation within the community