HEEP 2000 Survey Finds Infrastructure Management Software Use Will Double by 2000.

EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 13, 1997--Bentley Systems, Inc., today announced the results of the HEEP 2000 Automation Survey of the attendees at the annual conference of the International Highway Engineering Exchange Program (HEEP) held in Portland, ME, last week. The audience, mostly IT and executive managers from state transportation agencies, predicted a doubling of the use of software for infrastructure management in their organizations. They also foresee a tremendous increase in the number of people with access to geoengineering information by the year 2000.

Along with an increase in their use of automation for infrastructure management, survey respondents reported that they will take advantage of more automation for transportation management, permitting, and routing. In fact, the survey shows a 300 percent increase in the use of permitting and routing software for oversize and overweight vehicles.

Access to geoengineering-related data within government agencies will increase by 370 percent in the next three years. The audience anticipates that new application areas for this expanded population of geoengineering users will grow accordingly. Construction and maintenance data will be added to the list of integrated data types.

A unification of geoengineering and IT is expected in order to accommodate the increase in access to geoengineering data. Ninety-seven percent of the respondents reported that by the year 2000, a client/server strategy will form the backbone of their automation and that standard relational databases will hold and serve spatial data for these systems. The spatial data will be integrated with existing design data in about 70 percent of these same systems.

The Web also proved popular. Ninety-seven percent of the respondents plan to distribute geoengineering information via the Internet in three years and 61 percent believe Java and applets will be important components to their overall systems. Respondents stated that only 33 percent of their geoengineering process is currently automated with an increase to 60 percent expected by 2000.

Of the respondents to the survey, 34 percent are engineers and 47 percent are executive or information technology managers in state transportation agencies with an average of about 3000 people. The International Highway Engineering Exchange Program (http://www.dot.state.ks.us/heep.html) promotes the exchange of information relative to highway and bridge engineering among its members. It specifically addresses the use of computers in the engineering process.

For more information about the HEEP 2000 Automation Survey, please contact Bentley at 1-800-BENTLEY, [phone] (Americas), [phone] (Europe, Middle East, Africa), [phone] (Asia Pacific), through E-mail at [e-mail], or through http://www.bentley.com . The Bentley Wire automatically delivers company press releases through e-mail within minutes of being issued. To subscribe, click http://www.bentley.com/news/bwire/

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Bentley Systems, Inc., is a worldwide leader in engineering software and user services. The company now serves over 250,000 professionals in building/plant engineering, geoengineering, and mechanical engineering. Its MicroStation(R) desktop products are used at over 70% of the largest U.S. engineering firms and are the software foundation of well-known buildings, roadways, machines, and industrial plants around the world. Its new Internet/intranet/extranet-based ModelServer(TM) products are the first to unite engineering and the enterprise. The Bentley SELECT(SM) technology and service subscription program now reaches over 135,000 users.

With revenues now over $150M annually, Bentley was listed as the second largest privately held company on the 1997 Softletter 100 and named 1996 Growth Company of the Year by the Eastern Technology Council.

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

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