The digital plant: comprehensive solutions for the distributed enterprise

Time to market and completing a project on time have become the top priorities for owners, who are insisting on better integration between concept and engineering.

Although distributed engineering is not new, the manner in which it is being done today is. Bentley is leading the way by delivering solutions and services that support a distributed enterprise through its development of DigitalPlant and the following eight key IT imperatives:

• Comprehensive set of engineering tools
• Interoperability and openness
  
• Scalable, expandable
  
• Globally distributed workflows
  
• Management of change
  
• Evolving/adaptable information model
  
• Ease of deployment
  
• Re-use and repeatability

Bentley's DigitalPlant solutions have been deployed around the world in projects large and small:

COMPREHENSIVE SET OF ENGINEERING TOOLS

Bentley has a comprehensive set of engineering tools covering the widest range of disciplines, with integrated 2D and 3D functionality and integrated engineering analysis, across all phases of the lifecycle from front-end engineering design (FEED) to operations and maintenance, and incorporating world-class visualization technologies so everyone can access and use the information.

INTEROPERABILITY OF OPENNESS

Unlike our competitors, Bentley's architecture is built for the modern distributed world, exploiting the services-orientated architecture of Microsoft's .NET so data is served through applications to users. We support open, industry – standard data models so that no data is locked into proprietary formats. This open architecture enables easier sharing

SCALABLE AND EXPANDABLE

Our tools can work stand alone or in a shared project environment, and scale and adapt as your business grows.

• Productivity tools for the single user working, for example, on a P&ID, on piping layout or analyzing pipe stresses
• Cost-effective design, engineering, and management tools for a small office of engineers collaborating locally
  
• A managed project environment that can synchronize project work being carried out across multiple offices
  
• A full lifecycle solution that tracks and manages both engineering files and components across the life of the plant and manages handover to operations

EVOLVING ADAPTABLE INFORMATION MODEL

Bentley's open architecture exposes information in our applications through the published ISO15926 information model. The success of this model has come about due to its flexibility and extensibility, allowing users to adapt the model to suit their own business requirements. Bentley has built its architecture based on this adaptable information model, and we provide easy-to-use tools to manage and change it as it continues to evolve. An adaptable business model requires an adaptable information model.

AN ADAPTABLE INFORMATION MODEL – WHEN NEEDED

At the start of a project…

• Who can say what information will be needed when the facility goes into production in one to five years time?

During a project…

• Technology enhancements with new information
  
• External factors causing big engineering changes
  

Commissioning and operations

• Who knows what new regulations and information requirements may be demanded at any time?

In short, an adaptable business model requires an adaptable information model.
At the heart of the DigitalPlant portfolio is ProjectWise, which comprises an integrated set of collaboration servers that enable project teams, their information, and their tools to work as one. ProjectWise provides managed access to engineering content within the workgroup, across a distributed organization, or among collaborating organizations throughout the world.

MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE

The key to enabling a distributed enterprise is the management of change across projects, departments, and entire enterprises to ensure information is always complete, consistent, and correct.

ProjectWise manages change at all levels:

• Of individual files or work packages, controlling who can do what and tracking what has been done
  
• Of shared files or work packages, highlighting what has changed from version to version and tracking workflows
  
• Of work packages between teams, highlighting who is working on what and then reconciling changes across multiple inputs, assessing the impact before committing the change

EASE OF DEPLOYMENT

Bentley's unparalleled services provide users fast answers, quality training, unique licensing options, and targeted customization, so our software can be easily deployed anywhere in the world.

REPEATABILITY AND REUSE

With engineering resources so limited, a key business imperative is the ability to capture and re-use engineering knowledge. The open architecture of Bentley's DigitalPlant solutions, and our support for legacy data formats, enables our users to access and use data stored in legacy systems and third party systems such as PDS and PDMS. At Bentley we believe that users never have to throw away any engineering content that they have invested so much in.