Siemens and Bentley Systems Join Forces

Siemens and Bentley Systems have formalised a strategic alliance agreement to drive new business value by accelerating digitalisation in order to advance infrastructure project delivery and asset performance in complementary business areas. Siemens and Bentley Systems will initially invest at least EUR50 million in developing joint solutions to enlarge their respective offerings for infrastructure and industry to the benefit of the end customers. This work will leverage new cloud services for a connected data environment to converge respective digital engineering models from both companies. In addition, Siemens has acquired approximately EUR70 million of secondary shares of Bentley’s common stock under a company programme that will continue until such time as Bentley Systems’ stock is publicly traded.

Siemens and Bentley Systems have a track record of complementing their respective portfolios through the licensing of each other’s technology to provide solutions in the Digital Factory and Process Industries & Drives divisions, where respective software offerings have already been integrated. For example, Bentley’s reality modelling software has been integrated into Siemens Process Simulate to leverage Lidar point clouds in modelling the existing context of brownfield industrial environments. The automotive industry manufacturer Turnkey Manufacturing Systems (TMS) successfully employed the innovative point cloud capabilities to create a 'digital twin' of its production line to significantly enhance its planning and validation processes, while also saving time and costs.

Digital engineering models

The new investment initiatives will involve virtually all Siemens divisions. The major benefit will be accumulating intelligence from Siemens' solutions throughout Bentley’s complementary applications for design modelling, analytical modelling, construction modelling and asset performance modelling. As a result, the integrated and accessible digital engineering models, such as the 'digital twin' viewed through an immersive 3D interface, will enable unprecedented operational performance, visibility and reliability. This work will converge digital engineering models: physical engineering models in their 3D physical reality context by way of Bentley’s software solutions and the corresponding functional engineering 2D models within Siemens’ solutions.

Fields of application

Siemens and Bentley Systems have identified opportunities to work together in the areas of Energy Management, Power Generation, Building Technology and Mobility. Each company can leverage its respective technology and industry expertise to bring new business value to the market. For example, Bentley’s applications for the 3D modelling and structural analysis of industrial and infrastructure assets complement Siemens’ solutions and unparalleled domain expertise in electrification and automation. Siemens and Bentley Systems will each provide software from the other to deliver complete solutions from either company to the benefit of their respective customers in order to improve their project and asset performance through simulation and virtual commissioning. Development work will benefit from and extend Siemens’ and Bentley Systems’ established commitments to openness and interoperability.

New dimension

Klaus Helmrich, member of the managing board of Siemens, said this move further extends their industry software ecosystem from 2D to 3D software solutions, taking the simulation portfolio in their Digital Enterprise offering to a new dimension. He stated that Siemens is rigorously executing its ‘digital twin’ vision from virtual planning to the real product, to the benefit of customers who themselves are driving digitalisation across their value chains. Bentley Systems’ independence, track record in interoperability and leadership in engineering and design software make the company the ideal partner for this undertaking, Helmrich added.

Bentley Systems' CEO Greg Bentley said that only with Siemens could Bentley so purposefully advance beyond merely linking the ‘Industrial Internet of Things’ to ultimately leverage digital engineering models for visual operations and connected infrastructure asset performance. Given the long history of sharing complementary technologies, Bentley is very excited to now contribute so broadly to Siemens’ industrial digitalisation leadership, he concluded.