Bentley announces Microsoft Azure-based cloud services

Bentley Systems announced new ProjectWise CONNECT Edition cloud services, powered by Microsoft Azure. The Azure-based services complement ProjectWise Design Integration service, the proven workhorse for work-sharing across collaborating engineering teams—which can be deployed on-premises, as a cloud service, or in any hybrid combination.

By virtue of the shared Azure platform, project delivery organizations using both ProjectWise CONNECT Edition’s new “365 Services” and Microsoft Office 365 will increasingly benefit from digital workflows between their engineering work processes and enterprise productivity tools. Along with “365 Services,” Bentley’s connected data environment, shared between ProjectWise and AssetWise, now includes Components Center, ContextShare, ConstructSim Completions, and iModelHub services.

New ProjectWise CONNECT Edition cloud services for comprehensive project delivery include:
•          Deliverables Management to create, send, and receive transmittals, submittals, and RFIs;
•          Issues Resolution to submit, manage, and resolve issues;
•          Field Data Management for configurable forms-based data collection;
•          Project Performance Dashboards for insight into project progress;
•          Share to broadly and securely share general project information; and
•          Construction Management for contract, cost, change, and risk management.

As to Construction Management, Ron Perkins, vice president, HDR, Inc., said, “The integration between ProjectWise Construction Management and ProjectWise Design Integration will help make projects more efficient by improving the coordination between design and construction teams. The ability to access design drawings and information will simplify the delivery of design content to our construction partners, and will help save time and reduce errors by eliminating redundant data entry.”

Connected Data Environment
Services contributing to both project delivery and asset performance, benefiting users of ProjectWise and/or AssetWise, include:
•          ContextShare, to access and share engineering-ready reality meshes;
•          iModelHub, to synchronize and distribute changes in BIM workflows;
•          ConstructSim Completions;
•          Components Center; and
•          “365 Services”.

For immersive visibility, Bentley also previewed Navigator Web, which enables users to access project models and engineering content directly from a browser. Highly performant with even large and complex 3D models, Navigator Web will be leveraged by all CONNECT Edition cloud services which benefit from interactive viewing, visualization, querying, or analysis of models in a standard browser interface.

Collect and submit field data leveraging configurable forms

ConstructSim Completions
A critical phase of any project is verifying that the asset that is being delivered meets the detailed requirements and specifications contracted for by the owner. ConstructSim Completions helps both project delivery organizations and owner operations progress and validate system readiness for efficient project closeout and turnover. Fully integrated with ConstructSim Work Package Server, ConstructSim Completions enables organizations to eliminate manual data collection with automated check sheets and to easily monitor, control, and automate testing and inspection workflows for real-time project status and reporting. Support is also provided for mechanical completion review and commissioning, including dashboard-based status reports and mobile digital smart forms. ConstructSim Completions delivers crucial design and construction information, at the point of commissioning and just as an asset “goes live,” accelerating systems readiness, reducing risk and complexity, and delivering improved safety and over current methods.

Components Center
Components Center is an Azure cloud service of libraries which align, across disciplines and applications, the semantic content of catalogued components, potentially including vendor data, fabrication details, component requirements (for example, electrical specifications and connections), reliability characteristics, and representational views required for documentation (for example, 3D, plan, schematic). A digital component is reused across BIM workflows in design modeling, analytical modeling, construction modeling, and asset registries—from catalogued component, to engineered component, to installed component, to operated component.

The Components Center is being initialized with libraries of generic components with appropriate intelligence, and libraries from manufacturers and vendors, including formats such as RFA, but is intended to be maintained and extended by user organizations.

“365 Services”
Bentley’s connected data environment services are implemented to take full advantage of native Microsoft Azure capabilities—so that infrastructure engineering enterprises, in going digital, can leverage their ongoing Microsoft investments in tools and data—for digital workflows to comprehensively advance project delivery and asset performance. Examples to date include:
•          Microsoft Flow connector to facilitate configurable workflows with native Microsoft Office 365 interfaces, including for real-time communication, email consolidation, and other document-centric work processes;
•          Microsoft Azure Search for immediate access to project and operational information;
•          Microsoft SharePoint federation to enable documents stored in Microsoft SharePoint to be referenced through ProjectWise and AssetWise workflows; and
•          Microsoft Power BI integration, for project and operational analytics across engineering and enterprise data sources.

Understand project and operational analytics across engineering and enterprise data sources, with ProjectWise Project Performance Dashboards powered by Microsoft PowerBI

Bill Smith, ‎CIO, Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson (JMT), said, “With so many enterprise collaboration tools available, the challenge is to bring together the right ones in a cohesive and painless user experience that drives adoption and return on our IT investment. Bentley’s strategy to integrate ProjectWise with Office 365 addresses this challenge, making it possible to increase collaboration quality and business process standardization while enabling unified access to all data types related to the project.”

Global engineering, management and development company Mott MacDonald uses ProjectWise and Microsoft Office 365 as foundations for a frictionless knowledge management and collaboration experience across its global network of 16,000 experts. Derek Murray, Mott MacDonald’s global head of digital projects, said: “The integration of ProjectWise and Office 365 will advance this frictionless experience by creating seamless workflows across both systems, breaking down barriers between information repositories, and making engineering progress insights more accessible to management. These advantages will transform how we work with partners and drive enhanced outcomes for our clients.”

Rob Howard, director, Office Ecosystem, Microsoft Corporation said, “Microsoft and Bentley have enjoyed a strong relationship for decades. We are pleased to see that Bentley is unifying, accelerating, and improving collaboration, project and operational insights, and organizational performance through comprehensive integrations with Microsoft Office 365. Unified access to design and non-design project data will drive value to our joint customers by enabling digital workflows between their engineering work processes and enterprise productivity tools. It will be great to see Bentley build upon the commitment they’ve made to the Azure platform by executing on this new vision.”

Website Bentley Systems  

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