EQUIcon's History

1976 Start of cooperation between the later founders of EQUIcon Software GmbH Jena (at the time together with staff in the Mathematics Department at the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena) with the former VEB Carl Zeiss Jena for algorithm and software development for the ZBA 10 device, the worldwide first commercially available electron beam lithography tool with variably-shaped beam.

1992 Foundation of EQUIcon Software GmbH Jena by 11 mathematicians and physicists from the ZBA software development team; all the founders also worked for the company. The company name – EQUIcon – was derived from the initial and, to date, most important business sector "software for equipment control applications". The most important client is initially Jenoptik GmbH, who has taken over the electron beam lithography sector but soon handed it over to Leica Lithography Systeme Jena GmbH. Nowadays, this business segment is owned by Vistec Electron Beam GmbH.

1995 Sectors for the virtualization of classical computer systems, system programming/device drivers and software for logistics applications were added to the original business sector of software development. EQUIcon first achieves revenue of (converted) more than 1 million euros and now has customers in the region of Jena, throughout Germany (e.g. H. Stoll GmbH & Co. KG in Reutlingen, National Metrological Institute in Braunschweig) and also abroad in Europe (e.g. Ferrari in Maranello, Italy, CNRS in Paris, France) and the USA (e.g. NASA).

1997 Completion of the company's headquarters at Konrad-Zuse-Straße 2 in Jena-Göschwitz, first with two floors.

1998 Start of cooperation with Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, newly founded in 1990, initially in the laboratory automation sector for users in the pharmaceutical industry. This business sector is currently run by PerkinElmer. EQUIcon has continuously expanded its activities in this sector since this time.

2000 EQUIcon has now grown to around 20 workers and achieves revenues of more than 2 million euros for the first time.

2001 EQUIcon continues to grow and space is getting tight in our offices so the company building is extended by one floor.

2002 Commissioning of EQ-Sped software for the ILN (International Logistic Network) – one of the largest forwarding cooperatives in Germany and Europe. EQ-Sped software ensures the creation, management and distribution of the information necessary for handling shipments for all the companies participating in the transport of shipment, in addition to the solution of other important tasks. Later on, the CargoSystem (which has ceased operating in the meantime) and GEL cooperatives work completely or partially using EQ-Sped software. In 2000 the subsidiary "EQUIcon Service GmbH" was established for the operation of the software and to deal with commercial services. Besides that, a fail-safe data center was put in operation and is expanded continuously.

2004 EQUIcon's quality management system is certified to ISO 9000 for the first time. Since this time certification has been retained through annual re-audits or re-certification, lately using the ISO 9001:2015.

2007 By now, EQUIcon companies employ around 30 staff; EQUIcon's sales continue to increase through cooperation with new regional and national partners (including various Zeiss companies, Cross Match Technologies and Q-Cells).

2010 The ePLACE software package is supplied to the first customers. ePLACE is a data conversion software for operators of electron lithography equipment, and is developed and marketed in cooperation with Vistec and the Fraunhofer IPMS.

2012 Two further software products are made ready for their respective markets with niceLAB and EQ-Sped.cargo. EQUIcon therefore now offers a well-balanced mix of services and software products in all business sectors, and these form the basis for further growth of all EQUIcon companies, who now employ more than 40 staff.

2020 On January 1, 2020, sim cargo GmbH, which emerged from the forwarding cooperations ILN and S.T.a.R, will start its operations. As in the past for ILN, EQUIcon has accompanied the merger as an IT service provider with the EQ-Sped software and also ensures the operational business for sim cargo.

2021 After almost 30 years of company history, EQUIcon, now grown to about 50 employees, has completed a generational change in various areas. Most employees of the founding generation have handed over their tasks to younger employees in order to seamlessly continue the work for our customers in the usual quality. As part of this process, the change in management was also completed as of July 1, 2021. The management, previously consisting of Dr. Reinhard Galler, Dr. Klaus Krönert and Dr. Bernd Papenfuß, now consists of the long-time EQUIcon employees Ronny Arnold, Martin Sülzle and Frank Thierbach.