Bentley Offers Municipalities Software Subscription for Mapping and Engineering.

EXTON, Pa. -- Bentley Systems, Incorporated, provider of software for the world's infrastructure, today announced its innovative software subscription for municipalities. Called the Municipal License Subscription (MLS) program, it offers municipalities all the software they need for the mapping and engineering of all their infrastructure for a fixed annual fee, based on population.

Often, because of budget constraints, municipalities have an incomplete or unintegrated set of software tools to map and engineer their infrastructure - an essential function for these governments. With the MLS, they can slash their software and administrative costs, outfit their entire mapping and engineering organizations with fully integrated software, and realize a more efficient government.

"The MLS makes it affordable for local governments of all sizes to take advantage of the full breadth of Bentley's software," said Styli Camateros, vice president, Bentley Geospatial. "We are actively removing the obstacles that hold up projects - long budget cycles, extended evaluations, and complex procurement processes. This approach allows chief information officers, engineering directors, and others to quickly equip their teams with the capabilities they need, all while saving a substantial amount of money."

The comprehensive MLS portfolio includes integrated geospatial and engineering solutions for:

--Surveying, site and terrain modeling

--Land management

--Mapping, imaging and document conversion

--Road and highway design, rail and transit system design

--Water and wastewater management

--Architecture and facilities management 

--Communications network design

--Plant design and operation

--Urban visualization, Web publishing, and much more

This unparalleled breadth of software, accessed through the program's annual term, can produce major savings in both software and administrative costs. As Phil Thompson, general supervisor for Mapping and Records, Drainage Services - Drainage Planning of the City of Edmonton, Canada, explained, "The Bentley MLS has given us organization-wide access to incremental licenses and upgrades at no extra cost. It also has simplified the administration of our software licenses with just one invoice to be paid per annum."

"We can deploy software as necessary to support our operations," Thompson continued, "and we no longer have to worry whether we are in compliance with fragmented and nonconcurrent license agreements for individual products and users."

Said Kari Tikkanen, city surveyor at City of Kotka, a large municipal government in southern Finland, "Bentley's new MLS allows us to manage our software costs very tightly while making continued deployments of Bentley products across our various departments at no extra cost. Thanks to the MLS, there are 20 new users of MicroStation in the Port of Kotka, the Environment Centre, and the City of Kotka Museum. We have already saved 50,000 euros, and we expect to increase those savings as we deploy ProjectWise Geospatial Management broadly across our organization."

The integration of these solutions helps make municipalities more efficient. Because Bentley's mapping and engineering tools work together as one, project teams can work together as one - leading to more streamlined workflows and interoperable organizations. Also, the ability to pilot all MLS products at no extra charge facilitates finding and deploying the most efficient and timely solutions.

Said Bruce Jenkins, senior analyst and managing partner at Spar Point Research LLC, "In a study we are conducting among local government organizations, customers report the MLS program is easy to justify on the basis of direct software cost savings alone. We've also heard license administration labor is reduced by 50 percent or more. Looking ahead, the greatest benefit customers foresee is the ability to gain efficiencies by easily being able to try out and adopt Bentley software applications in disciplines where they were not used before."

For more information about Bentley's MLS program initiative and software or to contact a Bentley representative, visit www.bentley.com/MLS.

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 verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2005 revenues of $336 million, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators.

To receive Bentley press releases as they are issued, visit www.bentley.com/bentleywire. For more information, visit www.bentley.com. To view a copy of Bentley's June 2005 Annual Report online, go to www.bentley.com/june2005annualreport.

Bentley, the "B" logo, Municipal Licensing Subscription, MLS, MicroStation, and ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.