Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems, Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Computer Software.[1]
Founded	1984 (1984) Exton, Pennsylvania
Headquarters	Exton, Pennsylvania
Key people	Greg Bentley, CEO Keith A. Bentley, Co-Founder Barry J. Bentley, Co-Founder Raymond B. Bentley, Co-Founder
Products	Software
Revenue	US$625 million (2014)
Number of employees	3000+ (2015)[2]
Website	www.bentley.com

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, is an American-based software development company that develops, manufactures, licenses, sells and supports computer software and services for the design, construction, and operation of infrastructure. The company’s software serves the building, plant, civil, and geospatial markets in the areas of architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. Their software products are used to design, engineer, build, and operate large constructed assets such as roadways, railways, bridges, buildings, industrial plants, power plants, and utility networks. The company re-invests 20% of their revenues in research and development^[3]

Bentley Systems is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, United States, but has development, sales and other departments in over 50 countries. The company had revenues of $625 million in 2014.^[4][5]

Software

Bentley has three principal software product lines: MicroStation, ProjectWise, and AssetWise. MicroStation is a desktop 2D/3D CAD platform. Bentley Map is an extension from Bentley that runs on top of MicroStation adding GIS and spatial capabilities to the CAD program. ProjectWise is project information management and cloud collaboration AECO software for sharing project information. AssetWise is Bentley’s project risk management software to determine how safe are infrastructure assets, such as bridges, roads, power plants or offshore platforms.

Bentley is a provider of building information modeling (BIM) software, AECOsim Building Designer for the architecture, civil, structural, and mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. Bentley also provides GenerativeComponents, a parametric modeling product used primarily by architects and engineers in building design.

Apart from desktop applications, Bentley also has a few server applications. The most prominent application created is a project information management and cloud collaboration AECO technology called ProjectWise.Bentley published a majority of its products in fall 2008 under the V8i brand.

In 2014, Bentley announced an edition of its products which is built on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service.^[6][7]

History

Keith A. Bentley, in conjunction with his brother, Barry J. Bentley, founded Bentley Systems in 1984.^[8] They introduced the commercial version of PseudoStation in 1985, which allowed users of Intergraph's VAX systems to use low-cost graphics terminals to view and modify the designs on their Intergraph IGDS (Interactive Graphics Design System) installations.^[9] This greatly expanded access to such designs, which could otherwise be accessed only through very expensive special purpose workstations. The product was shown to potential users who were polled as to what they would be willing to pay for it. The Bentley brothers then decided to simply average the results, thus arriving at a price of $7,943.^[10]

The Bentley's PseudoStation experience convinced them that there was a ready market for a stand-alone personal computer-based computer-aided design (CAD) system compatible with the Intergraph CAD file format. At the time, the IBM AT personal computer, based on Intel's 80286 microprocessor, was just becoming available, and their tests showed that it had enough processing power, disk speed, and graphics capability to do the job. MicroStation Version 1, which allowed users to download files directly from their VAX system to their PC to view and plot them (a very primitive Bentley View), was introduced to the market in 1986^[11]

Acquisitions

• On June 18, 1997, Bentley acquired IdeaGraphix, a developer of MicroStation-based application software for architecture, engineering, and facilities management.^[12]
• On January 15, 1998, Bentley acquired Jacobus.^[13]
• On January 2, 2001, Bentley acquired Intergraph's civil engineering, plot-services and raster conversion software businesses.^[14]
• On October 17, 2001, Bentley Systems bought Geopak design software for road and rail infrastructure.^[15]
• On July 30, 2002, Bentley Systems acquired Rebis.^[16]
• On January 6, 2003, Bentley announced it would acquire Infrasoft Corporation.^[17]
• On August 2, 2004, Bentley acquired Haestad Methods, Inc.^[18]
• On August 31, 2005, Bentley agreed to acquire netGuru's Research Engineers International (REI) business which included its STAAD structural analysis and design product line.^[19]
• On June 6, 2006, Bentley acquired GEF-RIS AG.^[20]
• On January 29, 2007, Bentley acquired KIWI Software.^[21]
• On May 12, 2007, Bentley acquired C.W. Beilfuss and Associates.^[22]
• On May 9, 2007, Bentley acquired TDV GmbH, an analysis and design software provider for bridge engineering.^[23]
• On January 22, 2008, Bentley acquired Hevacomp, Ltd.^[24]
• On January 24, 2008, Bentley acquired LEAP Software, Inc.^[25]
• On January 29, 2008, Bentley acquired promis•e product line from ECT International.^[26]
• On May 28, 2008, Bentley Systems acquired Common Point for mainstream construction simulation.^[27]
• On October 13, 2009, Bentley added geotechnical and geoenvironmental capabilities with the acquisition of gINT Software.^[28]
• On February 9, 2010, Bentley Systems announced two acquisitions: Exor Corporation and Enterprise Informatics.^[29]
• On March 2, 2011, Bentley Systems acquired software for offshore structural analysis from Engineering Dynamics, Inc.^[30]
• On December 10, 2011, Bentley acquired FormSys.^[31]
• On November 8, 2011, Bentley acquired Pointools Ltd., an England developer of point-cloud software technology.^[32]
• On March 7, 2014, Bentley acquired the elcoSystem software business of Hannappel Software.^[33]
• On May 18, 2012, Bentley acquired InspectTech Systems, USA, a provider of field inspection applications and asset management services for bridges and other transportation assets.^[34]
• On September 19, 2012, Bentley acquired Canadian-based Ivara.^[35]
• On November 12, 2012, Bentley acquired the Microprotol pressure vessel design and analysis software from EuResearch.^[36]
• On November 13, 2012, Bentley acquired SpecWave.^[37]
• On March 14, 2013, Bentley acquired topoGRAPH, a provider of surveying software.^[38]
• On October 8, 2013, Bentley acquired the MOSES software business from Ultramarine.^[39]
• On February 25, 2014, Bentley acquired DocQnet Systems’ eB Services BizDocQnet Systems.^[40]
• On September 26, 2014, Bentley acquired SITEOPS, optimization software for enhanced land development site design, from Blueridge Analytics.^[41]
• On January 14, 2015, Bentley acquired C3global for predictive modeling.^[42]
• On February 10, 2015, Bentley acquired Acute3D.^[43]
• On February 15, 2015, Bentley acquired reality modeling creator e-on.^[44]

In April 2002, Bentley filed for an initial public offering,^[45] but it was withdrawn before taking effect.^[46] In November 2016, German-based Siemens announced it would pay about $76 million for a minority stake in Bentley, as well as invest in developing joint software with it.^[47]

Bentley Institute Press

Bentley Systems also is a publisher of textbooks and professional references for the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC), operations, geospatial, and educational communities, under the name Bentley Institute Press^[48][49]

Bentley Infrastructure 500

Since 2010, Bentley annually published a ranking of the top owners of infrastructure from both the public and private sectors.^[50]

References

External links

• Official website
• Patents Owned by Bentley Systems
• The Engineering Design Revolution : The People, Companies and Computer Systems That Changed Forever the Practice of Engineering, By David E. Weisberg - Chapter 10: Bentley Systems Incorporated
• Bentley Systems at 30 -- no slowing down