Bentley Systems - SIEMENS: a strategy designed for the Internet of things

Bentley Systems was born as a family business, at that time of the 80 years when technological innovation took advantage of those principles that underpin the American nation, where unlike other countries: vision, hard work and doing the right thing are almost guarantees of success.

In countries with a Hispanic context, a high percentage of family businesses do not survive a third generation: the father founds the company and breaks his back working 16 hours a day, the children study what the parents decide to get involved and support the effort that they saw their parents; the grandsons They waste Enjoy the benefits and decide to invest the resources in another discipline.

I have pondered this on several occasions, each time Gregg Bentley speaks with his eyes, rather than his words, at the close of the conference how significant it is to see people inspired by the efforts of four brothers just out of college. For the past 4 years, colleagues covering Be Inspired have spoken in the corridors of possibilities, having seen Trimble, Microsoft, Siemens and TopCon being co-participants in the innovation. But I have always come to the conclusion that a CEO who turned an operating system with graphics management into a technology on which the geo-engineering of the closest companies to the Top 500 of infrastructures is designed and operated, must have a more idea great than going public and retiring to enjoy your effort.

We are already seeing the example with SIEMENS, with which we have collaborated for several years. The shares are for sale under extremely exceptional condition; Bentley will only do this with those companies that are willing to replace their tools with software for which they have had enough time and goodwill to show that it is just what you need. We now understand that several of Bentley's acquisitions in recent years were part of that preparation for what SEIMENS was going to need.

The win-win relationship is extremely interesting. The money that SIEMENS would invest in the development and maintenance of the software will be invested in the adoption of Bentley Systems tools, which will produce profits within a risky actions model. For its part, Bentley Systems is achieving a client that is 232 times bigger (in annual profits), with participation in different sectors of Geo-engineering.

We did not expect less; the immediate business is based on the constant investment that SIEMENS makes in technology that Bentley Systems makes with a level of vision focused on the Internet of things (IoT) and the challenges of BIM level 3. It is definitely a disruptive model; a company that was born in 1984, with 150 times fewer employees, is capable of making chemistry with one that has existed since 1,847 with operations in 200 countries in the industrial, energy, health, infrastructure and city sectors. One manufactures and operates services, the other develops the tools it needs.

If we continue with this model, we can see in a few years a percentage lower than the 50% of Bentley Systems distributed in at least those big categories: the modeling, of which we have seen the presence of Trimble and Topcon, Microsoft for the data infrastructure with Azure and SIEMENS for the operation of this technology in the devices that reach homes and industry.

In short, Bentley's strategy to stop being a company controlled by a group of brothers can be seen in the way its executive staff has been constituted. His plan is to stay in charge for a while longer, while they hand over the participation of shares to companies that really have interests of participation beyond the economic.

On the Internet of things, this is not the only strategy. On the other side, the giant built around HEXAGON, which was gradually acquiring tools that include the entire AECO cycle. The Bentley model is different, with some tweezers because although SIEMENS has a wide sector, for now the collaboration is in the management of infrastructures in the electricity sector; nothing prevents them from going to other sectors later. It will be necessary to see the reaction of HEXAGON that was late to rail management, with Bentley's strategy to transform the UK system and then acquire the entire company that operates most of Europe's train systems.

It will also be necessary to see what happens with AutoDesk, which generates doubts with the resignation of its CEO and a good part of its main executives during the past month. Although AutoDesk is part of another emporium, being a public company means that any action that puts its participation at risk can cause its shares to fall; hence the strategic partners that make up its IoT vision ecosystem.