CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
9 February 2010
Acquisitions
Bentley Systems Announces Two Significant Acquisitions to Launch Its ‘AssetWise’ Initiative for Owner-Operators
Bentley Systems, Incorporated announced that it has acquired Enterprise Informatics, Incorporated (www.enterpriseinformatics.com) and Exor Corporation (www.exorcorp.com). The Enterprise Informatics eB Insight software provides configuration and change management capabilities for mission-critical infrastructure asset operations for the energy, nuclear, rail, and government sectors. Exor information modeling software provides for the management and operations of linear networks for infrastructure, including roads and railways. These strategic acquisitions accelerate Bentley’s focus on value creation for owner-operators – enabling operations and maintenance to take full advantage of information modeling, and thus realize the potential of “intelligent” infrastructure assets. Bentley’s “AssetWise” platform, newly announced today, will combine multiple information modeling services to improve the lifecycle management and operational performance, safety, compliance, and governance of infrastructure assets while increasing the return on investment for owner-operators.
“These two acquisitions anchor the next stage in Bentley’s progression as an infrastructure software provider,” CEO Greg Bentley said. “In AssetWise we see a tremendous opportunity – driven by advances in computing and information modeling –to substantially increase owner-operators’ return on investment, furthering our corporate mission of sustaining infrastructure.
“Throughout Bentley’s 25 years, our focus on interoperability and federated information reuse has always met with business success. We’ve observed that an infrastructure asset’s lifecycle necessarily includes periodic capital project cycles. Such projects – through design and simulation applications such as Bentley’s and ProjectWise dynamic collaboration services – yield better performance capabilities, but stress operational processes. With AssetWise, our new objective is to empower owner-operators to leverage the value of information modeling throughout operations and maintenance – while maintaining the transactional integrity that their enterprise applications demand. I’m confident that we and AssetWise users will continually gain new value – because increased interoperability and reuse will always drive ROI.”
Over half of Bentley’s revenue is directly from infrastructure owner-operators – and already, ProjectWise has been adopted by 44 percent of the 500 largest such owner-operators for capital projects. Now, along with supporting Bentley’s existing applications for operations and maintenance, the AssetWise platform will improve and manage access to infrastructure asset information modeling, for owner-operators’ choices of enterprise applications.
eB Insight software ensures that asset information is governed, secure, controlled, and can be trusted – delivering relevant information in context to users and turning information into an organizational asset. Users increase business process efficiency while reducing the cost of compliance and minimizing risks. eB Insight captures and models the relationships among both structured and unstructured information critical to infrastructure operations. Its information modeling services are able to capture, (beyond “what”), the “why,” “how,” “where,” and “when” about information objects, and can identify what may affect, change, or impact them – or be affected, changed, or impacted. Like ProjectWise, eB Insight fully leverages Microsoft technologies including SharePoint to provide broad user access to asset information.
eB Insight is a leading operations mainstay in the nuclear industry – one of the most heavily regulated industries in the world – where it is deployed in research, waste management, fuel processing, and power generation units. Among other sectors globally taking advantage of eB Insight are energy companies, rail, government, and construction. Specific users of eB include Constellation Energy, Ameren Corporation, Nuclear Fuel Services, Rolls-Royce, City of Las Vegas, Colorado Springs Utilities, CH2M HILL, Aker Solutions, Network Rail, De Beers, and South African Airways.
Exor information modeling software provides for the management and operations of linear networks, including roads, railways, and water networks, as well as all components connected to them. For instance, sixty percent of all roadway miles in the U.K. are managed by Exor. The software enables owner-operators to manage multiple networks while relating structures, safety, pavement conditions, permits, and right-of-way information to the network. Exor leverages Oracle’s information technologies, especially Oracle Spatial, to provide an unbreakable and secure data management foundation for mission-critical enterprise solutions.
The Exor worldwide user community includes a number of departments of transportation in North America, such as the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Oregon DOT, and the province of British Columbia. Among Exor users in Europe are Transport for London, the Welsh Assembly Government, and DRD Northern Ireland. Among users in Asia-Pacific are Main Roads Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory, and Transit New Zealand.
What Analysts, Technology Partners, and Users Are Saying
“Bentley’s acquisition of Enterprise Informatics makes perfect sense from a business, market, and technology perspective. Enterprise Informatics’ eB, when combined with the rich product portfolio of Bentley’s infrastructure solutions, enables a comprehensive asset information management solution that spans the lifecycle of infrastructure – design, licensing, construction, operations, maintenance, and eventually decommissioning.” – Martin Gander, associate senior research analyst, Ovum – Butler Group
“As economics pressures existing infrastructure and new build projects, there is an increasing sense of urgency to manage the operation and sustainability of mission-critical infrastructure assets. Bentley Systems is extending its solutions for infrastructure design and build phases through the acquisition of Enterprise Informatics to support its strategic initiative to provide products and solutions for the operation and sustainability of infrastructure assets. Enterprise Informatics’ flagship product, eB, brings enterprise-class technology proven in the nuclear industry for configuration and change management. These solutions fully leverage Microsoft technologies for enterprise scalability, reliability, and collaboration.” – Jon Arnold, managing director, Worldwide Power & Utilities Industry, Microsoft Corporation
“We were pleased to learn that Bentley Systems has acquired Enterprise Informatics. Ameren has used both MicroStation and eB for many years, and we rely on both products at different phases of asset development and maintenance. Bentley’s strategic initiative to build a platform to support the management of intelligent asset information for facility operations and maintenance will provide a missing link that we’ve considered creating internally for quite a while.” – Scott Clardy, Configuration Management supervisor, AmerenUE Callaway Nuclear Power Plant
“Bentley Systems’ acquisition of Enterprise Informatics places two products we rely on under the umbrella of one strong, forward-thinking company that will support and enhance our software solutions. Having products we already use be optimized by Bentley to support asset management from development through operations and maintenance will save us time and money, and provide solutions that will improve efficiency and ensure information integrity.” – Thomas Stotlar, supervising engineer, Configuration Management, AmerenUE Callaway Nuclear Power Plant
“The operation and maintenance of complex infrastructure is dependent on configuration and change management processes and best practices to manage the lifecycle of operational assets. With the acquisition of Enterprise Informatics’ eB, Bentley has added an industry-proven configuration and change management solution to its operations application portfolio that has been certified by the Configuration Management Process Improvement Center (CMPIC) as compliant with the CMPIC configuration management framework.” – Steve Easterbrook, president, CMPIC LLC
For more information about Bentley’s new AssetWise offerings, visit www.bentley.com/AssetWise.
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