The recently-released findings of market researcher, Daratech, underscore Bentley's leadership positions in the plant software market. In keeping with daratechPLANT 2004's theme of asset lifecycle management, Daratech introduced the category of plant creation software sold to owner-operators. Increasingly, owner-operators, whose ROI is at stake, require lifecycle management support in the design deliverables from their engineering/procurement contractors (EPCs). Daratech found Bentley to be the leader in this market-driving category, reporting that, ".owner-operators invested more in Bentley's software/services than those of all other vendors combined."

According to Daratech, Bentley also ranked as the leading software/service provider in:

* Plant-specific platforms.

* Conceptual plant creation.

* Process and instrumentation diagram creation.

Bentley products in these three categories include MicroStation, PlantSpace for MicroStation users, and AutoPLANT for AutoCAD users.

"This year's market standings and the buzz at the daratechPLANT conference lead to the conclusion that Bentley has emerged as a leading participant and visionary in the plant lifecycle and AECO markets," commented Charles Foundyller, president and CEO of Daratech. "Bentley's very compelling path forward is based on its unmatched footprint in EPC platforms and owner-operator solutions, strengthened by the inclusion of ESSI's data warehousing into an already comprehensive portfolio."

He concluded, "We expect that all major EPCs and owner-operators are taking a serious look at the Bentley vision and product offerings, which promise to lead to enhanced financial performance through the elimination of engineering overhead."

Bentley Plant credits its continuing success to allowing owner-operators and EPCs to effectively manage risk and maximise reward by providing choices in key areas, including: a continuous evolutionary approach to technology advance; support for DWG, DGN, and Adobe's PDF file formats; a common platform for all their AEC business areas; and a globally scalable managed environment for distributed engineering.

For more information contact Tex van Deventer, Bentley Systems, 011 462 5811, www.bentley.com