At The Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference, MicroStation CONNECT Edition and Navigator CONNECT Edition applications were introduced. CONNECT Edition applications advance schema consistency and incorporate MicroStation CONNECT Edition innovations such as functional components and cross-discipline Documentation Center, for unprecedented intraoperability.

During 2016, a stream of CONNECT Editions of design, analytical, construction, and reality modeling applications have been released including AutoPipe, Descartes, Pointools, gINT, RM, LARS, SACS, MOSES, MAXSURF, SITEOPS, STAAD, and RAM. OpenRoads ConceptStation was introduced earlier this year, and OpenRoads Designer CONNECT Edition was announced at the Conference. CONNECT Editions of AECOsim Building Designer, MineCycle, Promis.e, OpenUtilities, and OpenPlant, during the first half of 2017, will complete the cycle.

CONNECT Edition applications and services will be accessed by each user through Bentley’s new Connection Center, with personalized project profiles, “playbooks,” and dashboards. Significantly, Connection Center takes full advantage of Azure cloud services to enable a spectrum of new “just-in-time” personalized services from Bentley software and engineering experts and to assure that CONNECT Edition applications are always up to date.

ProjectWise CONNECT Edition and Commercial Innovations

ProjectWise for worksharing is already used by 44 of the 50 largest, and by 355 of the 641 Engineering News-Record Top Design Firms globally. ProjectWise CONNECT Edition, introduced at The Year in Infrastructure 2015 Conference, leverages Azure cloud services to extend its BIM-enabling Collaboration Center capabilities for comprehensive project delivery beyond organizations and users of on-premises servers. To date in 2016, Azure-provisioned ProjectWise and AssetWise services have achieved availability service levels above 99.8 percent.

CONNECT Edition servers are “UNLIMITED,” with no licensing charges for those either Azure-provisioned, deployed on-premises, or in any hybrid combination. ProjectWise services are instead charged for the value generated through their “consumption,” based on actual usage determined after every calendar quarter. Each unique user is charged for a Passport, which “universally” entitles access to, and usage of, connected environment data, including through “apps” for issue resolution, submittal and/or transmittal of deliverables, dashboard visibility, and more. Users may also be charged in a quarter for Visas to the extent of their actual usage of additional functionality. Accordingly, ProjectWise user organizations no longer bear fixed costs and charges are aligned with realized BIM outcomes.

At the Conference, Bentley introduced new ProjectWise CONNECT Edition cloud services for organizations seeking to institutionalize BIM advancements, purposefully propagating best practices in “going digital” through shared resources:

• Automation Center for standardizing repeatable workflows and deliverables;
• Components Center to share catalogs and to accumulate intelligence across design, fabrication, asset registry, and reliability experience; and
• Optioneering Center for leveraging parallel computing resources, including for cross-discipline design and analytical scenarios and insights.

ProjectWise CONNECT Edition Visas include:

• Design Integration Visa (work-sharing and integration workflows, to include Automation and Components);
• BIM Review Visa (including Navigator Clash Resolution, Schedule Simulation);
• BIM Standards Management Visa (to define standard workflow templates, Automation, Components, Forms);
• Optioneering Visa;
• Construction Management Visa (EADOC);
• Advanced Work Packaging Visa (ConstructSim); and
• Completions Visa (asset commissioning and handover).

Through Success Plans, Bentley Systems’ expert professionals can be virtually dedicated, through Azure cloud services, to ensure service levels:

• Enterprise Success Plans assign to Bentley responsibility for ProjectWise and/or AssetWise system administration and project provisioning;
• Project (or Business Unit) Success Plans virtually embed Bentley BIM and application experts, engineering-credentialed, to introduce and propagate BIM advancements, which can include leveraging Automation Center, Components Center, and Optioneering Center.