A financially secure and privately held company whose 2008 annual revenues increased to more than $500 million, Bentley Systems was also named as the No. 1 provider of plant software and services to owner-operators for 2008 in the newly released Daratech report. “Our 25 years of leadership continuity, our subscription-driven cashflow predictability, and our negligible net debt enable us to focus uniquely on the long-term value proposition we can bring to our users, and to respond proactively to help them sustain their businesses through difficult times,” Mr. Bentley added. “A majority of our revenues come from owner-operators, which has prepared us for a market in which improving the value creation of existing facilities and operations is essential to remaining competitive.”
In support of this approach, Bentley Systems announced at daratechPLANT its new ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service, which enables change-managed read access to visualize, query, analyze, and annotate complete PDS data and models extracted directly from the PDS project database, providing superior performance at a fraction of the cost of proprietary offerings. “We’ve just made ProjectWise, our industry-leading system of collaboration servers, ‘PDx-wise,’ extending all of its capabilities to PDS content. Gone now are the days when users are forced to pay for proprietary software – at price levels reminiscent of the bygone UNIX-workstation mindset – just to access and review the information locked in a PDS model,” Mr. Bentley emphasized.
During his address at the Bentley-sponsored daratechPLANT luncheon, Mr. Bentley also urged the conference attendees to “think OpenPlant.” “OpenPlant PowerPID was previewed at this conference a year ago,” said Mr. Bentley. “Bentley Systems has delivered on its promise and, since Q4 2008, we’ve been shipping the industry’s first ISO 15926-based plant engineering product. The great thing about using this open standard is that our users can create new value from existing DGN- and DWG-based P&ID drawings by bringing them into the open ISO 15926 format, as well as use the best-in-class functionality of OpenPlant PowerPID to create a new P&ID model in less time, for less cost, and at a higher quality than competitive offerings.”
Mr. Bentley also outlined the roadmap for ongoing additions to the OpenPlant software product range. The roadmap includes OpenPlant Modeler V8i, the first and only 3D plant modeling software based on the open ISO 15926 data model. OpenPlant Modeler V8i, which was previewed at the conference for release during 2009, enables engineering, tracking, and management at the component level, in addition to conventional plant information deliverables. Mr. Bentley then made the following commitment, “Not only will all of Bentley’s uniquely comprehensive plant portfolio be advanced for inherent interoperability through OpenPlant’s ISO 15926 schema, but also all OpenPlant software will be priced to provide a breakthrough in value creation, with license costs that are less than our competitors’ current maintenance charges.”
With new plant construction slowed, Mr. Bentley described one proactive value-creating response for Bentley and plant engineering professionals as “embracing the work-face,” referring to both the retrofit construction and operations/maintenance of existing plants. In particular, Mr. Bentley described Bentley’s objective to specifically target IT functionality to improve safety, health, and environmental aspects.
Leading the way for business-effective value creation through plant safety is Jim Porter, former chief engineer at DuPont, past chairman of Construction Industry Institute and FIATECH, and Mr. Bentley’s guest speaker at the luncheon. Mr. Porter was recently appointed by Bentley to head up a new committee of outside experts dedicated to thought leadership in using information to improve plant safety – from construction through operations. “We have to include the modeling of the crafts’ work-facing processes in the planning, simulation, execution, and risk management of construction and retrofits in order to take us to the next level of safety performance in our industry,” said Mr. Porter. “Thankfully, we can start with the use of Bentley’s ConstructSim software, which is already bringing such benefits to projects. And I know from experience that the more safely the plant is constructed, the more safely it can be operated.” At daratechPLANT, project successes with ConstructSim were presented by Jacobs Engineering, S&B, and Zachry.
Also at daratechPLANT, Bentley introduced two new initiatives, responsive to current market conditions, to help sustain the infrastructure professions: the Be Employable program and a groundbreaking enhancement to the Bentley LEARN subscription.
Be Employable has been added to Bentley’s Be Careers Network to create
value for individual practitioners impacted by the downsizing of design
and engineering organizations. Be Employable is designed to help
outplaced architectural, engineering, construction, and geospatial
professionals update and upgrade their technology skill sets, giving
them a competitive edge in today’s difficult job market. It provides
free access to a comprehensive portfolio of Bentley’s software and
training, plus additional benefits to help them resume rewarding careers
as soon as possible. For additional information, visit
www.bentley.com/beemployable .
