The synergy of Omron STI enables it to cater effectively to various industry verticals including automotive, tier 1 suppliers, appliances, aerospace, high-tech manufacturing and packaging equipment. Omron STI's extensive product suite and its capability to provide value-added integrated solutions also ensure the company's success. Omron STI's persistent focus on driving customer value has helped the company to establish a leading market share in the excess of 30.0 percent in the North American machine safety domain. This is very evident from the fact that it has a strong revenue growth rate as well as a growing clientele.

Customers prefer a solution which minimizes their total ownership cost, return on investment (ROI) period and maximizes throughput along with improved overall equipment efficiency (OEE). While industry peers provide solutions which partially addressed these challenges, Omron STI's superior product quality and reliability has enabled customers to attain the highest levels of safety and a quicker ROI, which significantly reduced the total ownership cost. Maximum availability improves OEE of machines, thus driving overall productivity and business profitability for customers worldwide. Customers have time and again established significant bottom line improvements, due to Omron STI's products, and have voiced complete satisfaction over their regulatory compliance levels.

North American machine safety market is a late adopter of technology, due to low awareness level of customers and significant untapped potential. Omron STI has differentiated itself from its industry peers with demonstrated efforts in technology excellence and a degree of strategy innovation. This is very evident from their product, the F3SJ safety light curtain, which has an inbuilt muting function, while many peer products require a dedicated controller. The product F3SJ can suit a variety of safety needs ranging from finger, hand, limb and custom-made body protection. Omron STI has yet again proved their leadership in innovation, with the introduction of the universal mounting brackets for safety interlock switches which has the benefit of lesser installation time and assists in trouble-free alignment between the switch and actuator. Omron STI has consistently exceeded customer expectations and delivered profit impacting solutions, thus driving customer value and satisfaction.

The state of the future in the machine safety market is the transition from a component based business to an integrated solution offering. Most of the competitors are adopting measures to be more customer focused and demand driven, but Omron STI's efforts in driving customer value by providing total integrated machine safety solutions, right from risk assessment to mitigation of risk and complete system integration is truly commendable. Its synergistic capability to provide automation solutions along with machine safety makes them the most preferred partner amidst competitors. Customers have experienced the added advantage of relying on a one-stop shop solution provider, which helps them choose products that suit their needs and improve their overall process safety and efficiency.

North American machine safety market is a fragmented market, which makes the establishment of a strong brand name an uphill challenge. Omron STI has successfully leveraged its 35 years presence in the machine safety market, comprehensive product portfolio and the technology expertise to enhance customer experience and satisfaction. This is evident from the fact that Omron STI enjoys superior customer confidence and loyalty of global industry leaders like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Ingersoll Rand, Chrysler, Ford, Harley-Davidson, Whirlpool, Toyota, Honda, Alcoa, Seagate and Johnson & Johnson.

Omron STI's capability to provide integrated machine safety solutions and their ability to introduce innovative products reinforces its position as the preferred partner for a wide range of customers. In recognition of its dominant market share and capability to create outstanding customer value with their integrated solutions, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2008 Company of the Year Award in the machine safety domain to Omron STI, Inc.

The Frost & Sullivan Company of the year Award is given to the company that has exhibited excellence in technology and achieved market share leadership through implementation of various strategies to win in market place. The recipient has excelled in different market dynamics including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as anticipating the future market needs and have consistently addressed these challenges by enhancing the customer value through delivering value added solutions. The various services that the company offers which benefit the clients immensely are also important criteria that set this company apart.

To choose the recipient of this award, the analysts track market participants' revenues and market share within the industry. This is achieved through interviews with all market participants and extensive secondary research of proprietary data sources. Finally, the market participants are compared and ranked for relative position. Frost & Sullivan then presents the award to the company that received the number one industry rank.

In addition to the methodology described above, there are specific criteria used in determining the final ranking of industry competitors. The recipient of this award has excelled based on the following criteria:

• Market share and revenue growth rate
  
• Maximizing profitability and minimizing Total cost of ownership (TCO) to its customers.
  
• Pioneering technology innovation and leadership
  
• Delivering value-added services to customers
  
• Increased name recognition