Underscored by Daratech's Reports, 2004 a "Banner Year" for Bentley in Plant Market
Year Marked by Rise to First in 14 Daratech Plant Market Categories, Success of DigitalPlant, Growth in Enterprise Subscriptions, and Four Strategic Acquisitions
Houston - daratechPLANT2005 - January 24, 2005 - Here at the Bentley/Engineering News-Record reception, CEO Greg Bentley summed up 2004 as a banner year for Bentley in the plant market, pointing to the company's 14 first-place rankings in Daratech's plant market reports, the success of Bentley's DigitalPlant solution, strong growth in enterprise subscriptions, and four strategic acquisitions in the plant market: eWarehouse from ESSI, the AXSYS process engineering products from AspenTech, Haestad Methods and its water modeling products, and IFS software products. Charles Foundyller, president and CEO of Daratech, Inc., agreed, "For Bentley, 2004 was indeed a banner year. The company led in 14 of Daratech's 2004 revenue categories." He continued, "We're also impressed with its strategic acquisition strategy - which bolsters the company's positioning as the plant market's most comprehensive software supplier."
Foundyller added, "I know our attendees and the market are very keen to hear more about DigitalPlant - Bentley's proven solution for bringing the worlds of plant enterprise information and engineering information together."
According to the just-released findings of market researcher Daratech, Inc., Bentley's record 2004 revenue of more than $300 million and recurring revenue of more than $200 million place the company as the leading vendor in 14 Daratech plant software market categories, including: overall software sales and recurring revenue for plant creation; software and services sales of plant-specific platforms; software and services sales to owner-operators for plant creation (with revenue in this category greater than the total of the three closest vendors); and software sales and recurring software revenue for conceptual plant creation.
Bentley DigitalPlant
At daratechPLANT2005, Bentley highlighted its solution for bringing the worlds of engineering information and business information together: DigitalPlant. On the business side, ERP programs from vendors such as SAP have consolidated enterprise information into a unified resource system to cut costs and increase efficiencies. To achieve this on the plant operations side, Bentley provides DigitalPlant, which connects the silos of engineering information to each other and to enterprise resource systems.
DigitalPlant meets the demanding requirements for this connectivity:
1. Proven technology, not untried software products with uncertain futures: improving the management of plant facilities requires solutions with real references. Owner-operators can install DigitalPlant now and benefit now.
2. Protection of current investments: starting from scratch in their information systems is not an option for owner-operators. DigitalPlant preserves and extends existing investments by connecting - not replacing - all current systems and information.
3. Support of files and components: a reality of plant information systems is that they handle and communicate information at two levels - components and files. Connecting these systems properly requires the exchange and management of information at both the file and component level - a capability unique to DigitalPlant.
4. Management of change: information in each of the plant systems is constantly changing. A fundamental requirement of connecting these systems is to manage the change across these systems, otherwise one or many become woefully out of date. DigitalPlant manages and processes change across all plant information systems.
DigitalPlant's benefits, including significant cost reduction and greater efficiencies, have been realized by some of the world's leading process industry companies, including BP, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Bayer, Alcan, Bechtel, Chantier Atlantic, EDF, Jacobs, KBR, M+W Zander, WGI, Foster Wheeler, BHP Billiton, Uhde, and ABB, just to name a few.
Acquisitions in 2004
Bentley made four significant acquisitions in the plant market in 2004.
Early in the year, Bentley acquired ESSI and has successfully integrated its eWarehouse into the DigitalPlant solution.
In July, Bentley announced the acquisition of the AXSYS integrated process engineering product line from Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN). These proven products include AXSYS.Process, which offers front-end design with feedback from plant operations and equipment history, and AXSYS.Integrity, which provides risk-based inspection and planning to evaluate life extensions and plant maintenance.
On the acquisition, Daratech reported that it "believes that AXSYS is a valuable addition to Bentley's overall product line for the plant design marketplace and will ultimately create a true end-to-end plant design solution."
In August, Bentley acquired Haestad Methods, Inc., an industry leader in water resources solutions. At the time, Bentley CEO Greg Bentley noted that Haestad Methods founder and CEO, John Haestad, "has literally written the book for applying information technology in water systems." This acquisition expanded Bentley's offerings available to owner-operators in the water and wastewater markets and to engineering, procurement, and construction contractors (EPCs) serving those markets.
Finally, Bentley today announced at daratechPLANT2005 the acquisition of AutoCAD-based applications for process, electrical, piping, and instrumentation design from IFS, headquartered in Linköping, Sweden. IFS users are largely owner-operators in the power generation and pulp and paper industries, and the products are integrated with the IFS suite of business solutions for asset maintenance and spare parts logistics.
Enterprise License Subscription Growth
An important measure of Bentley's 2004 success is the increasing adoption of Bentley's Enterprise License Subscriptions (ELS), under which users access Bentley's entire portfolio of software products for a fixed, annual fee. Organizations participating in the program can increase their software productivity and reduce their total AEC software costs simultaneously. In the plant industry, more than 20 organizations have subscribed to ELS, including nine owner-operators and 12 of Engineering News-Record's Top Design Firms. In 2004, Bentley secured 16 new ELS agreements, including these notable firms in the AEC industry: Michael Baker Corporation (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Bechtel Corporation (U.S.), BMW Group (Germany), TECHNIP (France), and Washington Group International (U.S.). Top Design Firms Reception
Bentley and McGraw-Hill honored the world's top-ranked EPC firms at the second annual reception for attendees representing firms placed in Engineering News-Record's Top 500 Design Firms and the ENR Top 200 International Design Firms. ENR publisher Jay McGraw presented commemorative plaques to each honoree.
In 2004, 80 percent of the top design firms were Bentley subscribers, and these subscriber firms performed more than 90 percent of the design billings of all the top firms. Also, the top design firms increased their business with Bentley by more than 16 percent compared with 2003.
About Bentley
Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world's infrastructure. The company's comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2004 revenues exceeding $300 million, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Top 500 Design Firms and major owner-operators.
