"Bentley's Sof -ware Application He os Organizations Budd More Safe y, More Quickly, Anc To deliver These Projects More Cost-Effective

Transcription

1 Face To Face "Bentley's Sof -ware Application He os Organizations Budd More Safe y, More Quickly, Anc To deliver These Projects More Cost-Effective Bentley Sustaining, infrastructure Mr. Steven Cockerell, Global Marketing Director, Civil, Bentley Systems in an interview with CE&CR, reveals some important facts about the company's software application's range, benefits, marketing strategy, company mission, R&D activities, BE Employable application and userfriend/iness. CE&CR: Could you give us a bird's eye view of construction-related software packages offered by your company? S.C.: Bentley delivers three main products that support direct construction related work tasks. They are: ConstructSim - Bentley's construction simulation software covers the planning, sequencing, executing, and monitoring of construction work tasks in the field, including detailed work-face planning and level-5 schedules. ConstructSim enables owneroperators and construction managers working on large, complex projects to avoid costly mistakes and change orders by creating and tracking work packages that closely match the actual construction workflow. ConstructSim/ Navigator - Bentley's dynamic collaboration software is used by infrastructure teams to interactively view, analyze, and augment project information. It has the functionality to review, measure, mark up, resolve clashes, simulate movement (such as cranes) and more. http: / /www. bendey. com/ en-us/products /proj ec twise/020navigator Lastly, Bentley Onsite and related field applications are used for stakeout, machine control, and inspection in the civil engineering field. Products/Civil+ Construction/ CE&CR: How has the construction fraternity benefitted by the software packages provided by Bentley? S.C.:Bentley offers a comprehensive portfolio of products that benefits all construction organizations - engineers, direct hire contractors, and owner-operators. The links in my answer to question one provide several user examples and case studies across a wide range of infrastructure projects. Bentley's software application helps organizations build more safely, more quickly, and to deliver these projects more cost-effectively. CE&CR: What is your market share and what strategies are you adopting to increase it? S.C.: Since its founding in 1984, Bentley has built a portfolio of solutions and products that is unique in its breadth and depth. For starters, we are the No. 1 provider of 84 CE&CR SEPTEMBER 2010

2 software for building energy performance, structural engineering, water modelling, roads and transit design, bridge engineering, and plant operations. We are a global business with more than 60 percent of our revenues coming from users outside of North America. In fact, Bentley users can be found in 169 countries around the world, and our nearly 3,000 colleagues are located in more than 45 countries. Though Bentley is privately held, we produce an annual report for our most important stakeholders - our users. To view a copy of our May 2010 annual report, visit wwwbentley.com. Our mission is defined as "Sustaining Infrastructure," and our approach to sustaining infrastructure focuses on three main components: sustaining our society sustaining our environment sustaining the infrastructure professions Infrastructure clearly plays a vital role in sustaining our society and, in turn, our economy. It improves our quality of life by providing clean water and energy systems, transportation, health-care, commerce, and education facilities, and structures that provide safety, resilience, and adaptability. Infrastructure sustains our environment by reducing the impact of human activity through sewage treatment plants and renewable power generation plants. Green buildings and energy-efficient transportation systems allow us to more wisely use non-renewable resources; and new infrastructure will help us mitigate the impact of climate change. Sustaining the professions is only made possible through a well-trained workforce of infrastructure professionals. Bentley's commitment to sustaining infrastructure professions is evident with its many programs aimed at attracting new talent to the infrastructure fields. We do this by providing opportunities for continuous learning, empowering infrastructure professionals with tools to make their work more valuable, and promoting the positive impact they have on our world. Bentley's mission is defined as "Sustaining Infrastructure," focusing on three main components: sustaining our society; sustaining our environment; sustaining the infrastructure professions. Throughout history, infrastructure investment has led to increased productivity and improved living standards. It began with physical infrastructure for transportation, water, energy, and institutions for health and learning. However, the world has witnessed in the last 50 years a revolution of sorts in digital infrastructure investment for communications and information processing. Now, a new phase is developing, that of intelligent infrastructure investment, which leverages the power of digital infrastructure and information modelling capabilities to create infrastructure that will achieve higher performance over its lifecycle. Some examples include a power plant that produces more electricity with fewer emissions; a building that consumes less energy and provides greater comfort; a roadway designed to handle greater capacity with fewer disruptions from storm water flooding; or a bridge that spans a greater distance using less steel and concrete. Bentley focuses on leveraging the best in available information technology to improve the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Using information modelling technology empowers infrastructure professionals to interactively simulate the behaviour of infrastructure systems to improve their performance. CE&CR: What would you consider as your USP? S.C.: One of Bentley's strategic distinctions is the strength and diversity of its colleagues' qualifications to sustain infrastructure projects. By way of advanced educational accomplishments, in terms of professional studies, 58 colleagues currently hold doctorate degrees, and 564 colleagues hold master's-level degrees in infrastructurerelated disciplines. As a company, Bentley strives to bring sustainability best CE&CR SEPTEMBER

3 practices to our business operations. In 2007, for example, we set a goal to reduce our carbon footprint per colleague by 15 percent by We are pleased to say that we far exceeded that target, and achieved a reduction of 25 percent over that period. But we won't stop there. Bentley continues to look for ways to further reduce our environmental impact. "Sustaining infrastructure" is not just something we say, it is something we strive to do every day. CE&CR: Market research plays an important role in the design of an optimum software package. What techniques has Bentley adopted for useful market input? S.C.: Despite the economic downturn that impacted our markets and user organizations throughout late 2008 and 2009, Bentley showed financial resilience, which enabled us to gain market share during this time. While our revenues declined about 10 percent from 2008 levels, about half of that decline was due to changing currency exchange rates. In fact, over the past 10 years, Bentley has shown a compound annual growth rate of 10.7 percent. Bentley remains steadfast in investing 20 percent of revenues in R&D, investing a combined $125 million in R&D and strategic acquisitions in 2009 alone. Since 1999, Bentley has invested more than $1 billion in R&D and strategic acquisitions. With our low net debt and conservative capital structure, Bentley is well positioned to continue to make opportunistic investments, even in volatile economic conditions. Bentley's solutions combine an infra-operable software portfolio with professional services and learning, plus an open platform to enable interoperations and collaboration. Each solution reflects the rich domain expertise of our development teams, and is designed around specific infrastructure types ranging from process manufacturing to metals and mining, power generation to rail and transit, roads, and bridges. Each solution, along with the applications that combine within it, is enhanced through the continuous engagement with user organizations. Our solutions executives meet regularly with infrastructure professionals around the world, both face to face and via our new BE Communities professional networking website. BE Communities was created specifically to empower the sharing of best practices, ideas, and content with each infrastructure solution community. For more on our solution offerings, visit With Bentley's low net debt and conservative capital structure, Bentley is well positioned to continue to make opportunistic investments, even in volatile economic conditions. CE&CR: In the software industry, human resources are the key to success. What strategies does Bentley employ to maintain a skilled workforce? S.C.: In terms of keeping our users well trained in the use of our software, there are two strategies that spring to mind: Bentley LEARN and BE Employable. Bentley LEARN is a training subscription aimed at balancing our user organizations' training time and costs with the learning needs of their project teams. Bentley LEARN offers organization-wide learning for a single annual fee, and provides every user with unlimited access to LIVE training in Bentley's virtual classroom and OnDemand elearning. It enables organizations to eliminate all training-related travel time and costs, as well as reduce scheduling headaches. For senior executives, a Bentley LEARN training subscription can help increase profitability while reducing the cost of training by more than 60 percent. For software users who want to improve their skills, work efficiently, and accelerate their careers, a Bentley LEARN training subscription eliminates travel, increases productivity, and enables professional growth over time. Of course, Bentley colleagues can also access and benefit from Bentley LEARN training (which they regularly do) to keep their skills honed. 86 CE&CR SEPTEMBER 2010

4 Launched in February 2009, BE Employable is a particularly popular strategy that has been helping outplaced architectural, engineering, construction, and geospatial professionals update and upgrade their technology skill sets, giving them a significant competitive edge in today's challenging job market. It provides free access to Bentley's comprehensive software portfolio and training as well as the ability to earn Learning Units from the Bentley Institute. By taking advantage of these offerings, BE Employable participants are better positioned as top candidates for employment opportunities across a broad spectrum of projects. In addition, Bentley continues to grow interest in the infrastructure professions among young people through its support of the U.S.-based National Engineering Week Future City Competition and the India-based Future Cities India These highly successful competitions challenge students to design a city of the future, in the course of which young people experience, firsthand, the creativity and gratification of planning and creating infrastructure. Both programs provide students with experiences they will never forget. For example, a number of finalists in the 2010 Future City Competition were invited by the White House to meet President Barack Obama and speak with astronauts orbiting the Earth. Through these types of competitions, Bentley underscores its commitment to sustaining the infrastructure professions-by encouraging students to study math and the sciences and ultimately pursue architectural or engineering careers. CE&CR: You might have dreamt about what Bentley will be like in Eve years. Would you please share that dream with us? S.C.:Sustaining the world's infrastructure is the core mission of our company, and we strongly believe that intelligent information modelling across the infrastructure lifecycle - from concept through design, construction, operations and eventually end of life - holds the key to this. We do, indeed, dream of a world where no information about the asset is lost and all information is reused to improve its performance in every way. CE&CR: Could you please refer to some most recent modifications or new packages introduced by Bentley? S.C.:A core Bentley tenet is remaining committed to aligning our offerings to our users' needs. This applies not only to Launched in February 2009, BE Employable is a particularly popular strategy that has been helping outplaced architectural, engineering, construction, and geospatial professionals. our software, but also to our programs and services for learning, support, and product delivery. So, with the economic challenges facing the global infrastructure community, Bentley was stimulated to rethink its subscriptions portfolio and the value its users realize from their subscriptions investment. In 2009 Bentley introduced Passport Subscriptions-specifically created for individual infrastructure practitioners-to provide the benefits of "software as a service." In adding Passport Subscriptions to its portfolio, Bentley regrouped its subscriptions offerings to make them more accessible to users. Today, Bentley offers subscriptions for individual professionals, organizations, large enterprises, municipalities, and academics. A discipline-specific Passport Subscription provides access to the full range of software, training, and digital content appropriate to each discipline. It also includes unlimited access to LIVE training via the virtual classroom and On-Demand elearning. Each subscriber also gets SELECTseries software updates and 24/7 SELECTsupport, all for a single annual fee. Some Passport Subscriptions also include a ProjectWise Passport, and Manufacturer's Content or local code content where applicable. As an example, the Structural Engineer for Plant Design 88 CE&CR SEPTEMBER 2010

5 Passport Subscription includes MicroStation V8i, STAAD.Pro V8i, STAAD.Pro Advanced Analysis Module, STAAD.foundation, ProSteel Professional V8i, RAM Connection V8i, a ProjectWise Passport, and Navigator V8i. All this is available for just $5,495 a year in North America. In addition to the suite of software, the passport also includes technical support and industry-specific content-in this case, the structural design codes for your country of practice, as well as a Bentley LEARN subscription. CE&CR: On a scale of 10, where would you place your products as far as user friendliness is concerned? S.C.: Ease of use is always a priority for Bentley. Even our approach to providing software updates to our users is geared toward making it easier for them to move up to an information-modelling level of practice. Bentley's SELECTseries approach to software updates, new to V8i, facilitates work process improvements without the disruption, cost, and risk of competitors' mandated upgrade policies. In particular, V8i (SELECTseries 2) updates: assure compatibility with and across all V8i products and prior SELECTseries updates, easing software administration; apply and leverage new horizontal technologies (such as SharePoint 2010 and touch screens) for infrastructure practitioners; serve to mainstream once-specialist technologies (such as Luxology for rendering and Pointools for referencing point cloud datasets) for widespread adoption. CE&CR: What is the level of awareness about relevant software packages in construction industry? S.C.: Increasingly we see the use of 3D engineering models produced by designers to visualiie the end result, guide decision making, check for clash detection, and so on. Using these models to manage and govern construction work tasks in the field has been tried. However, the success has been limited by a lack of understanding that the engineering models need to be transformed to construction models to effectively manage field work and deliver productivity gains to the construction worker. As users focus on and use BIM and 3D models, the awareness of what is needed for those in the field and the potential benefits is increasing. 90 CE&CR: Could you give us an overview of qualitative and quantitative shift in construction related software industry? S.C.: Software vendors are increasingly focused on delivering tools and adapting software used in the engineering office for the site. To address that need, Bentley acquired the global business of Common Point, Inc., the pioneer and market leader in software products for construction simulation and operations simulation, and its ConstructSim software to add the capability of work-face planning specifically for construction to its portfolio. ConstructSim is the first software to model the construction process and provide a construction management environment that links data from design deliverables, schematics, project management, materials, and resource management systems in a virtual and visual model. This linked model allows users to create and track work packages that closely match the actual construction workflow, enabling project managers to more quickly identify issues with time-critical activities or incorrect materials and avoid costly mistakes, schedule overruns, and change orders. About Bentley Systems, Incorporated Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries, $500 million in annual revenues, and, since 1999, has invested more than $1 billion research, development, and acquisitions. For additional information about Bentley, visit To view a copy of Bentley's May 2010 Annual Report, visit To subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts, visit To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual BE Inspired Awards, visit yearininfrastructure. For information about BE Communities, a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit communities.bentley.com. CE&CR SEPTEMBER 2010