EXTON, Pa. (March 7, 2012) – Bentley Systems, Incorporated, a company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, announced at its second Annual Corporate Update conference call, that it has acquired the elcoSystem software business of Hannappel Software GmbH, based in Wiesbaden, Germany. The elcoSystem line of software for electrical engineering is already a fundamental component of Bentley’s Raceway and Cable Management and Building Electrical Systems offerings under a distribution agreement with Hannappel. Through this acquisition, Bentley further extends its ability to deliver the next level of intelligent and efficient electrical engineering workflows across a wider range of use cases. The elcoSystem products are designed to serve the demanding needs of buildings, campuses, factories, communications, process manufacturing, rail and transit, and utilities, and are widely used by commercial, domestic, and electrical contracting companies, along with large engineering and AECO firms.
Commenting on the new acquisition, Russ Novak, research director Enterprise, ARC Advisory Group, said, “It’s exciting that Bentley has acquired the elcoSystem product line. We’re very impressed with Bentley’s new Raceway and Cable Management software as it uniquely fills a need in the marketplace and offers capabilities that span design, construction, and operations. Germany has long been the genesis of the best electrical software in the world, and elcoSystem software, as implemented in the Bentley products, is further proof of this.”
Bentley Raceway and Cable Management V8i uniquely integrates functional design with detailed physical design and includes a wide range of 2D and 3D design tools. By providing users with early and accurate material requirements via automated intelligent functions and highly realistic 3D design simulation, Bentley Raceway and Cable Management V8i improves quality, leads to increased safety in construction, and enhances operations management through the integrity of a comprehensive as-operated model across constant retrofits.
Bentley Vice President Ken Adamson said, “On behalf of the entire Bentley team, I welcome our new colleagues from Hannappel Software. We look forward to working with them and taking advantage of their electrical system expertise to bring the next phase of innovation to the users of Bentley Raceway and Cable Management and Bentley Building Electrical Systems.”
Adamson continued, “At the same time, the modular nature of the elcoSystem line will enable us to leverage these capabilities with other Bentley products such as Bentley Substation, the first integrated software for intelligent electrical and physical substation design, our promis•e software for the generation of electrical system schematics and supporting documentation, our new AECOsim family of interdisciplinary building design, analysis, and simulation software, and our plant design applications such as OpenPlant and AutoPLANT.”
Said Oliver Hannappel, former managing director of Hannappel Software and now Bentley director Electrical Engineering, “We are extremely pleased to join the Bentley team and expand the scope of our development innovations as we benefit from the breadth and depth of Bentley’s product offerings. We’ve been in business as an electrical consulting firm for 50 years and have been developing software for the electrical industry since the early 1980s. Now that we are part of Bentley, we have the unique opportunity to help create the first comprehensive and fully integrated solution for the electrical industry and broader infrastructure community.
“An early focus of the team I now head up at Bentley will be integration opportunities with Bentley Substation. This software empowers project teams to design substations 30 percent faster than they typically can with non-integrated applications, features a single interface for substation design, and provides a common intelligent information model that enables users to design more precisely. These clear advantages quickly resonated with the infrastructure community and have resulted in a growing number of Bentley Substation users around the world, including Central Southern China Electric Power Design Institute, CPS Energy, Iberdrola, Chinese State Nuclear Power Planning Design and Research Institute, ETSA, TransGrid, LTL Holdings, and ENMAX. With the addition of elcoSystem’s advanced functionality, this innovative product will become even more successful.”
Bentley is dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Bentley’s mission is to empower its users to leverage information modeling through integrated projects for high-performing intelligent infrastructure. Its solutions encompass the MicroStation platform for infrastructure design and modeling, the ProjectWise platform for infrastructure project team collaboration and work sharing, and the AssetWise platform for infrastructure asset operations – all supporting a broad portfolio of interoperable applications and complemented by worldwide professional services. Founded in 1984, Bentley has grown to nearly 3,000 colleagues in more than 45 countries and $500 million in annual revenues. Since 2003, the company has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.
03/21/2012