City of Lakeland, Florida, Joins Bentley's Municipal License Subscription Program



    Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced that the City of
    Lakeland, Florida, has joined Bentley's Municipal License Subscription
    (MLS) program. The city will use its new MLS to make its engineers
    more productive and expand their access to advanced software. This
    will enable Lakeland to deliver enhanced services to its citizens at
    the lowest reasonable cost while maintaining its reputation as a
    low-tax city.

    Bentley's MLS offers municipalities all the software they need to
    design and manage all their infrastructure for a fixed annual fee
    based on population. The breakthrough program enables them to improve
    productivity and reduce administrative costs by outfitting their
    entire mapping and engineering organizations with fully integrated
    software for GIS and engineering workflows. This leads to improved
    services and more efficient government.

    Lakeland provides its 91,623 citizens with a complete array of
    services, including electric power, water, wastewater and stormwater
    management (within the city's 72.2-square-mile area), land
    development, road maintenance, and emergency services, to cite just a
    few. It also generates and distributes electric power from its
    city-owned-and-operated power utility to 253,405 residents spread over
    a 246-square-mile area.

    Said Tracy Kirkpatrick, Lakeland's assistant director, Department
    of Information Technology, "With our MLS, for close to the same price
    as our former subscription, we can access more than 10 times the
    number of Bentley products and solutions. Given the breadth of
    services that Lakeland delivers to its citizens, this is clearly an
    opportunity to which we had to say yes."

    He continued, "There are a number of products we are anxious to
    test and possibly deploy - for example, Bentley Expert Designer to
    improve the productivity of our engineers when designing and operating
    our electric distribution network. However, at the top of our list is
    Bentley's ProjectWise collaboration system. Its implementation will
    help us support our site development workflows and eventually make
    Lakeland an excellent example of e-government in action."

    Lakeland believes that site development automation will bring
    substantial savings through data sharing among city departments and
    external contractors and developers. In the medium term, the city
    foresees all of the paper in the site development process being
    replaced by digital documents posted to ProjectWise - available to
    users through secure log-ins and privileges. Currently, every time a
    contractor applies for a permit on a project, it has to submit 10
    paper copies of all the specifications and drawings.

    Benefits Lakeland is already enjoying from its new MLS include the
    ability to provide project teams with an increased number of licenses
    for the Bentley products it is currently deploying. Among these are
    MicroStation, Digital InterPlot, InRoads, PlantSpace, and SewerGEMS.

    As Kirkpatrick explained, "With our MLS, our engineers don't have
    to wait for access to, say, a MicroStation license. Previously, we
    sometimes had to ask field engineers to bring in their laptops after
    just 48 hours in order to free up licenses for more pressing
    assignments. Now, our field engineers can keep their laptops and
    MicroStation licenses out in the field for months at a time. The same
    holds true for the other Bentley products we regularly deploy."

    In addition, the city is saving both time and money as a result of
    dramatic reductions in software deployment times. As Kirkpatrick said,
    "With our old subscription it would take us a year to go through our
    planning and budgeting process, followed by a lengthy procurement
    process once the budget had been approved. Today, we just download the
    software we need and go from there. Without question, the MLS is
    making us a more nimble and responsive organization."

    Bentley's MLS program provides municipalities with unlimited
    access to a comprehensive portfolio of integrated GIS and engineering
    software for all of their infrastructure, including:

    -- Public works - roads, bridges, water, sewer, and storm

    -- Land development

    -- E-government

    -- Light rail design

    -- Community broadband

    -- Electric and gas network design

    -- Water and wastewater treatment plant design

    -- Urban planning

    -- Cadastre management

    -- Public safety

    -- Municipal building design

    -- Mapping and 3D modeling

    Because the program's fees are fixed, Bentley's MLS guarantees
    predictable software costs and budgeting. In addition, it removes the
    administrative burden of complex software licenses, shortens
    procurement cycles, speeds project starts, and ultimately leads to
    more efficient government.

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

    About Lakeland, Florida

    Centrally located between Tampa and Orlando, the City of Lakeland,
    Florida, offers its 91,623 residents and many visitors a wide variety
    of sports, entertainment, cultural, and educational opportunities.
    Lakeland is the heart of Polk County and it is Lakeland's charm that
    creates a beautiful blend of a small town feel with the convenience
    and amenities of much larger cities.

    Lakeland has received the distinction of being on Money Magazine's
    "Best Place to Live in America" list. In addition, Lakeland is home to
    Publix Supermarkets and Florida Southern College, which hosts the
    largest one-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, and
    has been the winter host home to the Detroit Tigers for over 65 years.
    For more information, visit the official City of Lakeland site at
    www.lakelandgov.net.

    About BE Conference

    The BE Conference, which consistently scores a 99 percent attendee
    satisfaction rating, is a once-a-year learning opportunity for Bentley
    user organizations offering professional training, technology updates,
    keynotes, and best practice sharing. At these sessions, attendees
    better themselves, better their organizations, and better the ways
    they can improve the world's infrastructure.

    For more information on BE Conference 2007, taking place this week
    at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California, go to www.be.org.

    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
    revenues now surpassing $400 million annually, and more than 2400
    colleagues globally, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software
    to the Engineering News-Record Top Design Firms and major
    owner-operators, and was named the world's No. 2 provider of
    GIS/geospatial software solutions in a recent Daratech research study.

    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 April 2007 Annual Report
    online, go to www.bentley.com/April2007annualreport.

    Bentley, the "B" logo, BE, Bentley Expert Designer, Municipal
    License Subscription, MicroStation, ProjectWise, Digital InterPlot,
    SewerGEMS, InRoads, and PlantSpace 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.