Prior to founding PEER Group in 1992, Robert Harris and Mike Kropp ran the software operations for ATS Automation, the world’s leading developer of custom production equipment and assembly lines for discrete manufacturing. While at ATS, Messrs. Harris and Kropp created the peer-to-peer messaging technology that ended up forming the basis for FASTech Integration’s MBX message bus, the foundation for the first independent automation software platform for high-technology manufacturing, CELLworks. Having familiarity with FASTech products as well as advanced manufacturing systems, PEER Group became one of FASTech’s first and most successful systems integrators, implementing automation systems in the semiconductor, electronics, disk drive, and automotive industries.
 
In 1999, PEER Group launched its equipment supplier business, developing two specialty automation solutions for Applied Materials, the world’s top equipment maker for the semiconductor and photovoltaic industries. We have since delivered more than 35 tool automation software solutions and are now the leading provider of automation software to the high-technology equipment market.
 
In 2003, PEER Group acquired the European division of TRW’s high-technology systems integration business. PEER Group GmbH provides particular expertise in equipment automation testing, supplier management, and Advanced Process Control (APC) solutions.
 
In 2004, PEER Group began a shift from a services-oriented company that offered several niche products to a product-oriented company that could broaden its delivery of cost-saving automation software. We developed PEER Tool Orchestrator (PTO), winner of the Semiconductor International Best Product award in 2007. In 2008, we acquired the CCS Envoy product from Applied Materials and, in 2009, all of Asyst Technologies software products.
 
Over the past two decades, PEER Group has helped high-volume manufacturers and equipment suppliers in all high-technology industries including optoelectronics, MEMS, consumer electronics, and photovoltaic. Each industry has its unique set of manufacturing problems and our engineers have learned to adapt software components from one industry to another while also innovating new solutions.

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PEER Group is a privately held company owned by senior management, headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, home to technology leaders like Research in Motion as well as the University of Waterloo, one of Microsoft’s favorite universities to recruit software engineers. Our European office is in Dresden, Germany, the location of Silicon Saxony, Germany’s Silicon Valley. Although most of our customers have their headquarters in North America and Europe, we are often called upon to deploy automation software solutions to their factories or outsource suppliers in Asia.