Bentley Recommends a 'Smart Plan' for PDS Users

Leapfrog to Open Project Environments - With Deserved Continuity!

HOUSTON, March 1, 2010 - DIGITAL PLANT Conference 2010 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the
leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for
the infrastructure that sustains our world, today demonstrated to PDS users a
path to broad interoperability for reuse and choice, to a comprehensive
portfolio encompassing all infrastructure disciplines for all plant projects,
and to sustained return on existing equity in PDS, all while minimizing
project and business risk. In light of the compelling new Bentley OpenPlant
offerings unveiled today (www.bentley.com/openminds), PDS users now
should consider Bentley's recommended "Smart Plan."

(Logo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090611/PH30770LOGO )

PDS has apparently remained the leading plant design application,
measured by expenditures, long after its proprietor has declared an imminent
end to its life - while declining to provide a migration plan. Instead, users
are being forced to start over with yet another proprietary system. Even more
unfortunately, that "new" system has taken so long to become barely viable
that its fundamental design premise (rigidly enforcing centralized,
monolithic, and static project structures) has arguably already become
functionally obsolete, by virtue of changes in the plant creation marketplace
that economically favor globally-sourced, loosely-coupled project
environments.

Bentley's response to PDS users facing this predicament culminates in
today's announcement of this recommended alternative "Smart Plan":

1. Continue to leverage MicroStation and ProjectWise platforms.

Bentley's MicroStation is the market-leading platform for plant creation
applications and provides intrinsic interoperability with second-place
Autodesk's DWG platform, assuring universal accessibility for dispersed
project teams and for lifecycle data reuse. MicroStation robustly supports
applications for every infrastructure discipline and will always proactively
evolve to incorporate new data types, such as 3D PDF and point clouds.

Bentley's ProjectWise collaboration servers are used by the vast majority
of PDS user organizations (even to manage PDS' DGN deliverables) and are
mission critical to managing distributed enterprise workflows across other
disciplines and project types.

2. Natively access all PDS data for reference outside of PDS.

The ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service natively references and
extracts all PDS model and file data with full fidelity directly from PDS'
existing Oracle or SQL Server databases without requiring PDS software.
Unlike the traditional DGN/DRV file route, ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review
Service opens up the entire PDS project database and provides read access to
anyone using Bentley's MicroStation, ProjectWise Navigator, or ConstructSim.

3. Publish PDS models, piping catalogs, and specifications by way of ISO
15926 for other applications.

Bentley's OpenPlant ModelServer V8i automates the migration of full PDS
models, as well as piping catalogs and specifications, to ISO 15926 protocols
so that PDS data can be readily shared across enterprise lifecycle
applications.

4. Adopt OpenPlant applications to modify existing PDS projects or to
start new ones.

PDS models that have been automatically migrated to OpenPlant ModelServer
are available to be edited and reused by any OpenPlant application, such as
Bentley OpenPlant Modeler V8i - with changes and new models being maintained
by OpenPlant ModelServer. This enables the secure management of both
components and files, and prevents ever writing back to PDS. So while the
integrity of any existing PDS database can never be jeopardized,
owner-operators can generate increasing returns on the investment it
represents.

Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley said, "It is gratifying for us to now
fully enable PDS users - whom of course are also long-standing users of our
MicroStation platform - to move beyond the PDS 'stalemate.' In fact,
eliciting greater return from existing investment by providing continuous
innovation has always been Bentley's hallmark.

"PDS users can now leapfrog into a modern, agile, open software
environment that assures them data reuse and interoperable choices among
multiple toolsets for integrated projects across all aspects and all types of
plant creation, operations, and adaptation. Our new OpenPlant offerings
uniquely combine the most robust platform and dynamic collaboration servers
for accessibility, concurrent component- and file-based workflows, and
comprehensive applications and services. At the same time, we've made the
unwarranted overpricing of current proprietary 3D piping applications as
obsolete as the expensive UNIX workstations that 'shading cylinders' very
long ago required - so users can save while advancing. However, it's because
these gains can be compounded with continued returns on PDS 'equity' that
we're so confident about recommending to PDS users this 'Smart Plan'!"

Mr. Bentley continued, "Assuring forward interoperability takes
determined work, but beyond being always worthwhile for the sake of users, we
at Bentley Systems have consistently proven that such 'succession' strategies
- for instance, with DGN and DWG, previously - offer compelling business
opportunities, so we're enthusiastically committed to investing in PDS
continuity. Despite the dead end its proprietor self-servingly declared, we
have absolutely established the viability of natively referencing complete
PDS models, and of bringing forward their value through ISO 15926-based
interoperable accessibility. We're pleased that so many PDS users have taken
the first steps in their 'Smart Plan.'"

Introduced last year, ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service is already
being used by 48 organizations around the world, including Bechtel,
Petrobras, WorleyParsons, CH2M HILL, and Praxair.

Commenting on their results to date, Ken Adamson, Bentley vice president,
Electrical, Pipe, and Plant Products, said, "We have users piloting
ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service with all scales and complexity of PDS
models, from small to very, very large. For example, the very first ISO 15926
model in Brazil was delivered using ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service
from a Petrobras PDS model. To date, we have not come across a PDS model that
ProjectWise PDx Dynamic Review Service cannot handle and successfully
extract."

Bentley's demonstrations this week at DIGITAL PLANT illustrate the full
"Smart Plan" in action. In one demonstration, a PDS model is published
through ISO 15926 into an iRING environment for diverse applications to
access. Next, the model is directly imported into OpenPlant Modeler, where
the PDS piping lines are edited and new lines are created. Finally, new
isometrics are generated using OpenPlant Isometrics Manager V8i. In another
demonstration, a PDS model is brought into ConstructSim V8i, Bentley's
construction simulation software that optimizes projects through the
planning, sequencing, execution, and monitoring of construction activities.

For a copy of Bentley's white paper "Making PDS Interoperable," to view
the press release announcing Bentley's new OpenPlant products, and/or for
additional information about OpenPlant and PDS users, visit
www.bentley.com/SmartPlan.

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects,
engineers, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software
solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Founded in 1984, Bentley has more
than 2,700 colleagues and offices in more than 45 countries, achieved in 2008
the milestone of US$500 million in revenues, and, since 1995, has invested
more than US$1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.

For additional information about Bentley, visit www.bentley.com.
To subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts, visit
www.bentley.com/rss/news. To view a searchable collection of
innovative projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, visit
www.bentley.com/yearininfrastructure. For information about Be
Communities, a professional networking site that enables members of the
infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other,
visit communities.bentley.com.

Bentley, the "B" Bentley logo, Be, MicroStation, ConstructSim, and
ProjectWise are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks
of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly
owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their
respective owners.

    Press Contact:
    Ron Kuhfeld
    +1-610-321-6493
    ron.kuhfeld@bentley.com

Ron Kuhfeld, +1-610-321-6493, ron.kuhfeld at bentley.com