Anne-Marie Walters, Bentley’s global marketing director, Plant, shared with us her predictions for that industry for 2012:

“Process  Industry Owners demanding data handover in ISO 15926 format for
operations – Owners for many years have been demanding their projects be done in some 3D plant design system to deliver the benefits of 3D modeling for their projects and generate their isometrics drawings.

Typically they have then had to receive their P&IDs and datasheets as dumb drawings and deliverables and entered data manually into their maintenance and operations systems, not seeing the benefits of improved data handover into operations.   Today, however, I am seeing an increasing trend to request a data handover for operations in ISO 15926 format as owners in the process industry are gaining confidence in both their EPC contractors’ ability to deliver data (rather than traditional drawings) and in the ISO 15926 format as a format that contains all the information they need for operations.

Focus on managing change across the project lifecycle and dashboards tracking progress – with so many ways to collaborate electronically there has been an explosion in dashboards that track the progress of every aspect of the project and with that the growing focus on how change is managed across all
participants.  From the initial requirements set out by the owner, through the multi-discipline engineering phases into procurement, fabrication and construction, tracking progress and managing change across the multitude of systems and applications has everyone talking about Information Management.   Especially I see the traditional PLM vendors from the manufacturing sector making overtures into the AEC industry believing this industry to be behind the curve.  But don’t underestimate the complexity of the projects and the unique
understanding that infrastructure professionals have in the world of AEC
that enables the software vendors, lead by Bentley, to offer pragmatic solutions for information management at an affordable cost.”