GPS / EquipmentMicrostation-Bentley

What are Bentley and Trimble up to?

This looks like my predictions Of the day of the innocent, but it's not like that. A few hours ago a collaboration agreement was formally communicated that we heard something from behind the scenes, and that leaves us to think about what could be happening between the two companies Bentley Systems and Trimble Dimensions.

Trimmer bentley

We are aware that the fusion between data capture technologies and geospatial information management is an irreversible trend. We saw that with the other side, where Intergraph, Erdas and Leica are consolidated in the European giant that Exagon represents, with special priority in remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems.

Now we see something similar in the American giant, Trimble that was eating all the equipment manufacturers, among the last What was left of Ashtech, Magellan, Spectra and now a strong approach with Bentley -That was born and grew- Shading Intergraph but which managed to position itself in the field of Geo-Engineering.

Nothing says they are performing a merger, but nobody denies that many things like that start. Due to the aggressiveness of Trimble and the situation of Bentley, we could see in a few years an interesting model of data management in the field, linked to the integration of the cycle represented by Project Wise and Asset Wise, on a platform that although not It has a high proportion in the market that AutoDesk has, yes it is at the level of strategic companies in the field of civil and plant engineering. And although the companies are independent, the proximity benefits us all, bringing the construction and its gajes (topography, maintenance, environment) closer to the design and its own.

Steve Berglund, CEO of Trimble has said something rather superficial but clear if we read and suspect between the lines.

Trimble's goal is to provide our customers with integrated, world-class positioning solutions that allow them to collect, manage and analyze complex information faster and easier. Our collaboration with Bentley provides engineers and contractors with greater knowledge of construction problems and improved positioning solutions. It will also reinforce the application of the model in which information in the field and in the cabinet are no longer seen as isolated.

Meanwhile, Greg Bentley has said:

Working with Trimble, whose cutting-edge technologies are used by many of our partner organizations, only leads us to provide greater benefits in constructive processes that we could not have offered independently. In particular, the geolocation In the applications of Bentley has become a norm that sooner or later would take us to get closer to the real space of work: the field.

Added to the series of events that preceded the merger of Intergraph with Erdas and Leica, there are three points that we must not rule out, and which mark a starting point for Bentley:

  • 1 The output to the Asset Wise work portfolio, which gives the information a fourth dimension with respect to the time and monitoring of infrastructure works and field objects (BIM) dreamed in the digital twin. Despite being interesting, it is not so simple to sell to ordinary users (As Revit seems to be doing) but under an alliance like this one in which Bentley approaches the field and Trimble has a spatial viewer.
  • 2 The work of Pointools, which led to the acquisition of a compatibility technology with almost any platform (including Revit) of data capture and that for now Bentley offers via Descartes, but has a potential beyond in the field of Engineering and remote sensing.
  • 3 The possibility, which cannot be ruled out, of thinking about who will give continuity to the work of a lifetime of three visionary brothers, who one day must retire to rest ... to live from their effort, sure that what cost a lot is good hands and survives stock market crises. What seems totally strange to us, since not long ago Trimble bought Tekkla for 500 millions of dollars, a clear competitor of technologies that now expects to work closely with Bentley.

So, the Be Inspired They will surely be full of the novelties that Bentley hopes to show this year: Descartes with more point cloud management and remote sensing applications, improved applications for iPad and now Android, the digital twin enhanced in practical applications and more engineering projects with a focus on smart infrastructures. Smoked, the way these friends like it.

In this of Companies that come and goIt's like an old fruit salad game and the missing chairs. When it comes to money and sustainability, anyone breaks their pride, so the news brings us positive expectations, but it also leaves us with perspectives without the vanishing points in sight:

Who are lonely?

In the East, SuperGeo, the ESRI of Asia, with the help of ZatocaConnect getting its first Spanish version, Topcon + Sokkia (with good positioning in America) plus a few Chinese giants that do not sound in this context yet but have invading nature look after. Ah, I forgot Mapinfo hidden in the thousands of things that Pitney Bowes does.

In the West, AutoDesk with a domain of the CAD market, very close to design software (Adobe) and hardware (Hewlet Packard and others). Approaching before AutoDesk can be strategic. And ESRI with an enviable positioning in GIS, in many countries very close to Trimble - GeoEye.

Bentley Systems Be Inspired

All of them with important position in their fields, although with regard to what the previous mergers represent, especially when it comes to sustainability in the crisis of the stock markets as vulnerable as evidenced by a hurricane.

What else to expect from Trimble - Bentley?

Honestly I'm not sure, but in a week I'll know with some precision.

What we are totally sure is that users of both technologies will win. And if there are results of the agreement, in which we see the things of both companies walking in parallel, without bad looks or purchase intentions, we would be facing an interesting -And novel- benchmarking model for the benefit of interoperability and users.

 

Golgi Alvarez

Writer, researcher, specialist in Land Management Models. He has participated in the conceptualization and implementation of models such as: National Property Administration System SINAP in Honduras, Management Model of Joint Municipalities in Honduras, Integrated Cadastre-Registry Management Model in Nicaragua, Territory Administration System SAT in Colombia . Editor of the Geofumadas knowledge blog since 2007 and creator of the AulaGEO Academy that includes more than 100 courses on GIS - CAD - BIM - Digital Twins topics.

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