Bentley and ESRI Announce AEC GIS Interoperability Initiative.

Business Editors

SAN ANTONIO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 3, 2003

Bentley Systems, Incorporated and ESRI today announced their AEC GIS Interoperability Initiative, an unprecedented strategic technology initiative that will result in direct and intelligent integration between desktop and server based products from the two companies.

Bentley, with its solutions for Architecture/ Engineering/ Construction (AEC) professionals, and ESRI, with its solutions for GIS professionals, both provide spatially oriented graphical applications. These applications are often used within organizations served by both Bentley and ESRI. Such organizations include municipalities, transportation agencies, national government agencies, utilities, communication providers, and others.

"Bringing information together is at the very heart of GIS," says David Maguire, director of products, ESRI. "And so this important joint interoperability initiative will be well received by our respective users."

While Bentley and ESRI applications may create and maintain data in a common coordinate space, they are designed for unique purposes and therefore used by individuals with distinct organizational functions. ESRI's GIS users typically perform enterprise data management, decision support, cartography, planning, and analysis functions. Bentley's AEC users design, engineer, build, and operate roadways, railways, buildings, plants, networks and other constructed assets.

GIS users require a broad view of spatial information, the ability to work with large areas, and powerful analytical functions. Engineers create and work from sets of detailed drawings and models, with spatial information, and require a rich set of 2D and 3D geometry-based engineering and design functions. The needs of the GIS user are best met by a continuous multi-user database. The engineer's requirements continue to be best met by a model and drawing paradigm.

Yet, despite distinct roles, GIS professionals and engineers very much depend upon each other to conduct their work. GIS users need accurate information on as-built conditions and engineers and architects need the context of plans to create their designs. Operational staff needs access to all of this information. The work is not static but synergistic, dynamically integrated, and recursive.

Interoperability is at its best when it is implemented to support real world workflows. Each environment must extract only the specific information that it needs to support a particular workflow, and then present it in a form natural to the target user. Therefore, interoperability by definition will require connections provided by Bentley that integrate with ESRI solutions, and connections provided by ESRI that integrate with Bentley solutions.

"We believe that by definition interoperability requires focused and coordinated development by cooperating vendors", said Carey Mann, vice president of industry and product marketing at Bentley. "Our joint initiative will result in unimpeded workflows that will liberate the free flow of information and truly enable collaboration between AEC and GIS professionals."

The Bentley/ESRI relationship will result in AEC/GIS Interoperability that is unequaled and unprecedented. This integration will ...

-- Enable MicroStation(R) to read ArcGIS(R) databases and enable ArcGIS clients to read DGN & DWG files;

-- Provide support for ArcGIS files (geodatabase, SHP, coverage, etc.) within Bentley's Content Management & Publishing environment; and

-- Result in an "Enterprise Connector" with ArcSDE(R) that: 1) Synchronizes relevant AEC content with the ArcGIS Geodatabase; and 2) Retrieves relevant GIS information from the ArcGIS Geodatabase.

The Bentley/ESRI Interoperability paradigm leverages the best of both worlds and does not ask its users to work with lowest common denominator tools or data to accomplish their tasks.

This work began in 2002 and will be realized with commercial delivery staged throughout 2003. A white paper that provides further detail is posted at www.bentley.com and at www.esri.com/software/opengis/index.html. Further details will be provided at the Bentley International User Conference in Baltimore, May 18-22 and at the ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, July 7-11.

About Bentley

Bentley Systems, Inc., a global software vendor founded in 1984, provides software solutions to create, manage, and publish architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) content. Bentley enables leading AEC firms and owners to design, build, and operate facilities, industrial plants, roadways, and other essential infrastructure assets. Bentley delivers integrated building design, plant design, civil engineering, and geospatial solutions for transportation, process and discrete manufacturing, government and public works, building, and utilities.

Bentley's 2002 revenues reached $230 million. Bentley software plays a mission-critical role in over two-thirds of the work of the Engineering News-Record Top 500 Design Firms.

For more information, call 1-800-BENTLEY or visit us on the Web at www.bentley.com.

About ESRI

For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI software is used in all 200 of the largest cities in the United States and in more than 60 percent of counties and municipalities nationwide. Headquartered in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,400 business partners. ESRI's goal is to develop comprehensive tools that enable users to efficiently manage, use, and serve geographic information to make a difference in the world around them. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. ESRI can be found on the Web at www.esri.com.

Bentley, the "B" logo and MicroStation are registered trademarks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or Bentley Software, Inc. ESRI, ArcGIS, ArcSDE, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.