Company Investment Underscores London’s Global Leadership in Advancing Infrastructure Innovation and Best Practices

LONDON — (BUSINESS WIRE) — September 7, 2011 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, yesterday celebrated the opening of its new U.K. headquarters at 20 Gracechurch Street in the City of London. CEO Greg Bentley and COO Malcolm Walter hosted the event, which included a reception for Bentley users and colleagues, and more than 30 members of the media. Bentley’s new office overlooks London’s inspiring skyline comprising many landmark structures designed and built by leading user organizations with the help of Bentley’s information modeling and collaboration software. Bentley’s new premises, in the former Barclay’s Bank headquarters building, were designed by BDP, Europe’s most progressive interdisciplinary design practice, and in keeping with Bentley’s commitment to sustaining the environment, the project is expected to achieve a “Very Good” BREEAM rating and “Silver” LEED certification.

Malcolm Walter’s welcome address to those gathered at the opening highlighted the history of innovative infrastructure development within the U.K., dating back to Stonehenge. He closed with a few words about Bentley’s important role in sustaining the infrastructure of modern-day London. Said Mr. Walter, “Leading AEC organizations, empowered by Bentley Systems software, have been instrumental in shaping and sustaining London’s world-renowned infrastructure for more than 25 years. Among such structures iconically identified with the London skyline are 30 St Mary Axe, London City Hall, the London Eye, and the O2 Arena. Representative work in progress includes Crossrail, the largest construction project in Europe, and the Thames Tideway Tunnel, an environmental sustainability megaproject. Both take full advantage of a broad selection of information modeling software from Bentley’s comprehensive portfolio, including our ProjectWise project team collaboration and work-sharing platform.”

During his address titled “Working Smarter, Together (in the U.K.),” Greg Bentley said, “Our expanded investment in London is consistent with the U.K.’s aggressive commitment to continued sustainable infrastructure development to underpin its long-term economic growth. The U.K. is leading the world in implementing best practices for the use of digital infrastructure to manage the lifecycle of physical infrastructure, and its new National Infrastructure Plan sets the stage for accelerating these efforts going forward. Its goals include reducing public sector construction costs and continued emphasis on private sector investment in infrastructure. The Government Construction Strategy of May 2011 clearly recognizes that the keys for achieving these objectives are ‘fully collaborative 3D building information modeling’ and ‘integrated solutions’ – Bentley hallmarks.

“During the past 10 years, Bentley’s footprint in the U.K. has grown eightfold to now include almost 200 colleagues throughout the country, all of whom are proud now to be appropriately headquartered in the City of London. Over this same time period, I’ve been continually impressed by the U.K.’s thought leadership in originating and propagating innovations such as generative design, best practices for collaboration, and intelligent asset management. Accordingly, the U.K. leads the world in adoption of Bentley’s ProjectWise and AssetWise offerings. And at Bentley Systems, we have gained competitively worldwide, based on what we have learned in the course of our close working relationship with U.K. users. Now more than ever, through our new commitment represented here in London, we look forward to ‘Working Smarter, Together’ in the U.K. to further advance sustaining infrastructure for improved quality of life.”

Mr. Bentley then highlighted three current examples of new innovations from Bentley Systems that stem from thought leadership in the U.K. and which achieve global “firsts” on behalf of infrastructure constituents. The new software and service offerings include:

• ProjectWise Business Process Template for BS 1192 – This software, released last month, lets organizations institutionalize work processes involving content managed by ProjectWise in compliance with British Standard BS 1192 practices for improved collaboration. The streamlined workflows that result speed project completions and reduce project costs.
• Roadworks Online – This new portal service, which is delivered using Exor software within AssetWise, provides for the graphics-based display of live information on road works from local authorities and utilities. Its purpose is to inform the public of work currently being undertaken, why it’s being done, and by which organizations. The portal also indicates the extent of disruption to traffic flows, helping the public anticipate delays in their travel times. At the same time, this greater visibility enables road works to be better coordinated with adjacent authorities, enhancing project efficiencies and reducing costs. None of this would have been possible had the U.K. not had the foresight to begin gathering street works data years ago. Beginning 1 October 2011, this new example of innovation fostered by “Working Smarter, Together” will be available at www.roadworksonline.org.uk.
• Intelligent Trench Service – This portal-based service incorporates the Intelligent Trench underground mapping solution from Bentley, 3M, Trac-ID, and Infotec, which is now combined with PelicanCorp’s beforeUdig service to provide the most complete and accurate national record-sharing service for underground assets in the U.K. The Exor spatial asset data, part of Bentley’s AssetWise solution, is crucial to the new service.