Bentley MANAGEservices address project collaboration and work sharing

Brian Robins, director of business development for managed services at Bentley Systems, talked recently with AECCafe Voice about Bentley MANAGEservices, their solution to provision, manage, monitor, and support Bentley software solutions for architecture, engineering, and construction. “Managed services were quite popular in the 80s and 90s and then got overlooked,” said Robins. “Now they are coming to the forefront again, for several reasons.”

Users are briefed on how to get the most out of their software investment.

1) Customers want more specialized IT functions.

2) Vendors are moving toward cloud services and managed services are a way to take a step toward cloud services. They also augment cloud services in that services are offered around the software.

“At Bentley we’ve been seeing more requests that center in three areas, the first is project collaboration and work sharing on a global basis,” said Robins.  “The requirements are to get up and running asap, accelerating or shortening project schedules and the need to be operationally ready anywhere in the globe. Big engineering procurement companies, that  need to stand up a project or a joint venture in a remote part of world, might not have IT resoruces close at hand, and operating out of home base may not be feasilble because of network latencies etc. Working with Bentley is a very good alternative for these EPCs. They can get up and running within days.”

Robins said the second area they’re seeing a lot of interest is in transportation asset management. “We offer operational software and management software. Government agencies don’t want to be worried about technology, they just want service.”

Bentley users attend an informative discussion on industry trends.

The third area is provisioning the design portfolio over the web, with different techniques, pixel streaming, and cloud paging.  “The requirement is ‘manage it for me.’  AEC firms want the design portfolio configured with the design standards with the reference data and the managed workspace, and do it over the cloud and surrounded by managed services,” said Robins.

The need to address the legacy systems in infrastructure is really important, as it is a need to support workflows on premises and in the cloud for the next few years.  Also firms need to be able to scale up from on premises to cloud seamlessly without an impact on users.

Customers are looking for a customized solution, not a “one-size-fits-all.” In the past outsourcing ahs  been about reducing costs and making incremental improvements. Because companies need to stand up projects in remote areas, they need organizational agility, the ability to get up and running quickly, and have operational readiness and agility.

According to press materials, Bentley MANAGEservices means that users always have the most up-to-date versions of the software, which allows them to take advantage of innovations as soon as they are released. With one services provider guaranteeing predefined service levels, users do not have to worry about managing multiple vendor relationships or triaging system outages.

Bentley MANAGEservices represents a proven way to manage the risks associated with provisioning software – in a budget-friendly, predictable commercial model.

Key features of Bentley MANAGEservices include:

• Best-in-class cloud-computing infrastructure with 24/7 monitoring and management
• Service quality is assured by predefined KPIs and SLAs
• Certified engineers and technicians include managed services experts with an extensive track record of providing end-to-end solutions
• Secure storage that is flexible yet guarantees data integrity
• Comprehensive back-up procedures and data retention policies and regular restores ensure that all data is recoverable
• Managed firewalls protect networks and applications allowing authorized access, but preventing unwanted intruders
• Load balancers provide secure access to multiple dedicated servers, ensuring that any demand can be met
• Proven disaster recovery and business continuity plans are rehearsed annually

Tags: AEC, Bentley MANAGEservices, Bentley Systems, Cloud, EPCs

Categories: AEC, architecture, Bentley Systems, BIM, building information modeling, engineering, infrastructure, integrated project delivery, plant design

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