Bentley Acquires promis*e Product Line to Further Extend Electrical System Design Portfolio



    Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced that it has acquired
    the global business of ECT International, Inc., the leading provider
    of advanced computer-aided engineering design tools for electrical
    control systems. The company´s flagship product line, promis*e,
    comprises intelligent, easy-to-use software that generates electrical
    system schematics and supporting documentation, reducing electrical
    design time by more than 30 percent. The software, in combination with
    MicroStation, MicroStation PowerDraft, or AutoCAD, also makes the
    electrical design process more accurate by virtue of more than 2
    million up-to-date parts in its uniquely comprehensive content
    repository. Among the diversity of original equipment manufacturers,
    electrical systems integrators, engineering/procurement/construction
    (EPC) firms, suppliers and vendors of electrical system components,
    and facility owners designing with promis*e are ABB, Procter & Gamble,
    Eaton, Solar Turbines, Duke Energy, Long Island Rail Road, and
    Siemens. Partner companies providing database content include Rockwell
    Automation, Schneider Electric, Panduit, and Hoffman, among others.
    The acquisition of promis*e complements and further extends Bentley´s
    comprehensive portfolio of software for the design and operation of
    electrical systems for process plants, factories, power generation,
    electric utilities, rail and transit, and more.

    With promis*e, Bentley will be better able to respond to a growing
    need among building, plant, civil, and geospatial infrastructure
    professionals for more comprehensive solutions incorporating
    electrical wiring, diagramming, and drawing production. In addition,
    promis*e adds to Bentley´s contributions within a vendor category of
    rapidly growing significance for infrastructure creation - industrial
    solution suppliers. These suppliers are assuming more and more of the
    engineering on projects as they design, configure, and fabricate
    modules of larger scope for assembly on site, superseding traditional
    piecewise specification and construction. By doing so, they help
    owner-operators and EPC firms overcome professional, materials, and
    crafts resource shortages.

    Commenting on this latest Bentley acquisition, Bhupinder Singh,
    senior vice president, Bentley Software, said, "Automating the design
    of electrical control systems results in important efficiencies,
    leading to increased professional productivity. But especially,
    Bentley user organizations have wanted automated electrical design to
    be fully integrated with other disciplines and workflows across the
    infrastructure lifecycle. They know that this advancement would
    multiply, many times over, their productivity improvements.

    "Bentley´s acquisition of promis*e will result in the solution
    they´ve been looking for. It will enable Bentley to integrate
    promis*e´s functionality and extensive content repository with our
    comprehensive portfolio for infrastructure facility types and
    disciplines. So finally, users will benefit from streamlined control
    system design workflows intra-operating by way of an intelligent
    information model. This will provide increased efficiencies and
    accuracies that cut design and construction costs, shave time from
    delivery schedules, reduce operations and maintenance costs, and make
    it easier to implement ongoing system modifications - all of which
    enhance the creation of sustainable infrastructure."

    Said Art Sawall, founder of ECT and now Bentley vice president,
    "The entire ECT team is excited about becoming Bentley colleagues and
    being able to offer our users the tremendous depth and reach of
    Bentley´s comprehensive portfolio of software and services. Our two
    organizations share the common vision that open data models are the
    key to achieving interoperability and maximum value for users. That
    foundation sets the stage for significant innovations that could not
    be accomplished separately."

    Added Rob Whitesell, vice president, Bentley Plant, Building, and
    Structural development, "This acquisition is particularly auspicious
    for plant owner and creators. Last year, Bentley unveiled solutions
    that unprecedentedly span intra-operating from conceptual design
    through detailed engineering to lifecycle data management. With this
    breakthrough, users benefit from bidirectional workflows that allow
    them to iterate from simulation to process and instrumentation
    diagrams, to economically near-optimum instrumentation and pipe
    routing, to pipe stress analysis, all interactively. Our acquisition
    of promis*e enables us to soon add to this workflow electrical control
    system design - supporting drawing takeoffs from the promis*e
    intelligent database. This will extend our commitment to comprehensive
    intra-operations by providing automation for instrumentation and
    electrical engineers that works with the other discipline applications
    in our portfolio."

    Bentley, the leader in Daratech´s plant schematics market rankings
    and in integrated, intra-operating FEED workflows, will showcase at
    daratechPLANT2008 this week the latest promis*e configuration, with
    MicroStation PowerDraft. In addition, it will demonstrate
    interoperability between promis*e and Bentley´s plant applications
    through the open ISO 15926 data standard, and will discuss plans for
    integrating promis*e with Bentley´s newly announced OpenPlant product
    range.

    About promis*e

    promis*e is an intelligent software application that generates
    electrical system schematics from spreadsheets and supporting
    documentation such as panel layouts, bills of material, wire lists,
    terminal plans, cable pull lists, and interconnect diagrams. Combined
    with MicroStation, MicroStation PowerDraft, or AutoCAD, or in a
    stand-alone environment, promis*e links drawing files to SQL and
    Oracle databases to improve the productivity of control system design
    and documentation workflows. It incorporates more than 2 million parts
    in its uniquely comprehensive and current content repository.

    promis*e fully supports both IEC/DIN and ANSI/IEEE/JIC page and
    symbol formats for electrical drawings. Additional symbol libraries
    are available for hydraulic, pneumatic and process control systems, as
    are parts databases from leading component manufacturers. Dialogs and
    menus can be configured for languages including Chinese, English,
    French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

    For more information about Bentley´s promis*e, visit
    www.bentley.com/promis*e.

    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 AEC and
    operations. With revenues now surpassing $400 million annually, and
    more than 2,400 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 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, MicroStation, MicroStation PowerDraft,
    OpenPlant, and promis*e 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 brands and
    product names are trademarks of their respective owners.