Bentley Systems
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | CAD/CAM Software [1] |
| Founded | Exton, Pennsylvania (1984) |
| Headquarters | Exton, Pennsylvania |
| Key people | Greg Bentley, CEO Keith A. Bentley, Co-Founder Barry Bentley, Co-Founder |
| Products | See below. |
| Revenue |  $500 million USD (2008) |
| Employees | 2700 |
| Website | bentley.com |
Bentley Systems, Incorporated is a software company that produces solutions for the design, construction and operation of infrastructure. The company’s software serves the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets in the areas of architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. Their software solutions are used to design, engineer, build and operate large constructed assets such as roadways, railways, bridges, buildings, industrial and power plants and utility networks. The company actively re-invests 20% of their revenues in research and development.
Bentley Systems is based in Exton, Pennsylvania, USA but has development, sales and other departments in 51 countries around the world. The company had revenues exceeding $500 million in 2008.[1]
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[edit] History
Keith A. Bentley, in conjunction with his brother, Barry J. Bentley, founded Bentley Systems in 1984. 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. 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 it. The Bentley brothers then decided to simply average the results, thus arriving at a price of $7,943.[2]
The Bentley's PseudoStation experience convinced them that there was a ready market for a stand-alone personal computer-based 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.
The Company conducted two company acquisitions in the second half of 2011, that of FormSys, based in Perth, Australia, and Pointools, based in Barnet, England.[3][4]
[edit] Software
Bentley's principal software solution is MicroStation. MicroStation is a desktop 2D/3D CAD platform upon which Bentley and third-party software companies build more specific solutions. For example, Bentley Map is an extension from Bentley that runs on top of MicroStation adding GIS and spatial capabilities to the CAD program.
Bentley has a history of buying companies that fit into one of their four product verticals (Geospatial, Civil, Plant and Building). In July 2004, Bentley purchased Haestad Methods, adding water/wastewater modeling tools and simulation engines to their software portfolio. In 2007 Bentley acquired the RAM and STAAD applications adding to their structural analysis and design product lines. In 2009, Bentley entered the Geotechnical space by acquiring gINT Software.
Apart from desktop applications, Bentley also has a few server applications. The most prominent application created is a Project collaboration and AECO content management solution called ProjectWise.
Bentley is a provider of Building Information Modeling (BIM) solutions for the Architecture, Structural, Mechanical and Electrical engineering disciplines.
Bentley also provides GenerativeComponents, a parametric modeling solution used primarily by architects and engineers in building design.
The current versions of a majority of Bentley products were published in fall 2008 and are branded V8i.
[edit] Bentley Infrastructure 500
Since 2010, Bentley has created a worldwide ranking of the top owners of infrastructure around the world from both the public and private sectors that will be published annually.[5] According to Bentley, the sum of all the infrastructure assets in the hands of these companies add up to US$ 13 trillion, which is equivalent to the annual GDP of the U.S..
| Rank | Organization | Headquarters Country | Infrastructure Value (millions USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT | United States | 282,700 |
| 2 | ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE SA - EDF | France | 186,466 |
| 3 | JOINT STOCK COMPANY GAZPROM | Russia | 161,813 |
| 4 | PETROCHINA COMPANY LIMITED | China | 155,973 |
| 5 | EXXON MOBIL CORP | United States | 139,116 |
| 6 | PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S.A. - PETROBRAS | Brazil | 132,286 |
| 7 | ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC | Netherlands | 129,149 |
| 8 | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY | United States | 122,145 |
| 9 | ENEL SPA | Italy | 113,951 |
| 10 | NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION | Japan | 107,856 |
Infrastructure Value above as measured by reported net tangible fixed assets.
[edit] See also
Bentley competes with AND Solution, Intergraph, Autodesk, ESRI, Buhodra Ingeniería and AVEVA in the AEC, GIS and CAD software markets.
[edit] References
- ^ Bentley 2008 annual report
- ^ Chris Barron, Friday Q&A: Chris Barron of Bentley Systems, Technically Philly, 2009
- ^ Key, Peter (8 Nov 2011), "Bentley Systems buys 2 software companies", Philadelphia Business Journal: Morning Roundup, http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/morning_roundup/2011/11/bentley-systems-buys-2-software.html?s=newsletter&ed=2011-11-08, retrieved 10 Dec 2011
- ^ Ron Kuhfeld (8 Nov 2011), Bentley PR, ed., Bentley Acquires FormSys to Expand SACS Offerings for Floating Structures (press release), Bentley Systems, http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/News/Quarter+4/formsys+acquisition?bi=homepage&v=offers_formsys%20that%20it%20bought%20FormSys, retrieved 10 Dec 2011
- ^ Bentley Infrastructure 500 Index
[edit] External links
- Bentley Systems web site
- BE Communities by Bentley
- Bentley site for Building Information Modeling
- GenerativeComponents web site
- Bentley Structural solutions web site
- BIM Executive Summits sponsored by Bentley
- Advanced Parametric design conference site featuring Bentley software users
- Independent help and Forum Group for users of Bentley's GenerativeComponents software
- Be Careers Network - Bentley's post-secondary school outreach program
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