Daratech Reports Outstanding 1995 Performance for Bentley; Research Firm Estimates Bentley Revenue of over $95M and MicroStation growth of over 25 percent.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 1996--Daratech Inc., a market research and technology assessment firm specializing in CAD/CAM, CAE, at their Plant Design/Plant Management Automation Strategy Workshops, today reported a strong overall 1995 performance for Bentley Systems, Inc. For the year, Daratech estimates that Bentley exceeded $95M in revenue and that user expenditures on the flagship MicroStation(R) product increased by more than 25 percent.

Charles Foundyller, president of Daratech, comments, "1995 was Bentley's first year of independence and was outstanding for the company in many ways. Bentley exceeded our financial expectations, launched a range of very competitive products, invested in several strategic technologies, and proved able to build and maintain a world-class sales and support organization." Foundyller continues, "In my opinion, Bentley is positioned very strongly in all three of their engineering markets -- GeoEngineering, mechanical engineering, and building engineering."

Separately, Bentley stated that the fourth quarter of 1995 and the 1995 year brought tripled revenues compared with 1994 figures. Growth in user expenditures on all MicroStation products exceeded Bentley's own estimates of 35 percent. The company also recorded a full year of strong profitability and a continued debt-free balance sheet in its first year of consolidated development, marketing, and sales operations. The company, which has grown to 450 employees, also expanded its installed based to over 200,000 users during the year.

Bentley president and chairman, Greg Bentley, comments, "Naturally, we are quite pleased with 1995. Out of the gate, we emphasized quality in everything we did and managed to accomplish a great deal for us and our users worldwide. As a result, our corporate results were outstanding." He adds, "We are committed to a long string of outstanding years and plan to be the one to catch in engineering, especially in the new and developing markets."

Bentley also noted that the majority of its 1995 revenues came from distribution channels established during the year, namely worldwide MicroStationVARs and authorized resellers. This distribution mix marks successful implementation of the company's channel diversification strategy.

Other major corporate developments for the company during the year included:

o the opening of over 23 new offices throughout the world,

o the shipment of MicroStation 95, the major productivity upgrade

measured to be more than twice as productive as AutoCAD R13,

o the shipments of seven major new products, including the debut

of the company's second and third most popular products,

MicroStation PowerDraft(TM) and MicroStation Modeler(TM),

o the announcements of the Objective MicroStation architecture

and MicroStation OpenSpace program for application

excellence and interoperability,

o the investment in several Bentley Strategic affiliates,

o the company's entry into the fast-growing mechanical and

geographic information systems (GIS) markets,

o the establishment of the MicroStation Institute, the company's

worldwide training program, and

o the company's membership in the Industry Alliance for

Interoperability (IAI), an object technology standards-definition

group, and in the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

During the year, several major accounts signed long-term product and service purchasing commitments with Bentley. For example, Bechtel, Volkswagen, Duke Power, Fluor Daniel, Kvaerner, the City of Helsinki, Philips Electronics, and Anheuser Busch all entered into multi-year MicroStation purchasing agreements. Also, the North Dakota Department of Transportation (DOT) selected MicroStation as its software foundation for civil engineering, the 40th state DOT to do so. Overall, subscriptions to the MicroStationCSP (SM) comprehensive support program more than doubled in the year.

For more information, please contact Bentley at 1-800-BENTLEY, [phone] (US), [phone] (Europe), [phone] (Asia), via e-mail at [e-mail], or through the World Wide Web at http://www.bentley.com/.

More on Bentley

Bentley Systems, Inc. is a worldwide leader in engineering software products, user services, and overall quality. The company now serves over 200,000 professionals in building engineering, GeoEngineering, and mechanical engineering. Its MicroStation products are proven at over 70 percent of the largest U.S. engineering firms and are the software foundation behind the engineering of well-known buildings, airports, hospitals, facilities, highways, bridges, and industrial plants throughout the world. Founded in 1984, Bentley has now become one of the world's fastest growing software companies. -0-

MicroStation is a registered trademark; Bentley, MicroStation PowerDraft and MicroStation Modeler are trademarks; and MicroStationCSP is a service mark of Bentley Systems, Inc. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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