Global software and digital twin provider, Bentley Systems has acquired GroupBC.
GroupBC is a software as a service (SaaS) provider that has been widely adopted in the UK infrastructure sector. GroupBC’s common data environment (CDE) solutions including BC Projects and BC Enterprise+ are used for information management in construction and asset estates. Teams can collaborate, manage, and share documents, data, and spatial information on the central, secure cloud-based platform.
Developed in the UK, these CDEs have been adopted as best practices there, and subsequently globally, with the UK standard for construction project information management adopted by the global standard ISO 19650.
“Our many UK users, projects, and owners in common with GroupBC will gain a lot from our joining forces to advance CDEs through digital twins,” said Simon Horlsey, UK regional executive for Bentley Systems. “I have been tasked by Bentley management to help the UK to continue to lead the world in going digital for infrastructure advancement, and our new offerings and colleagues from GroupBC bring essential momentum as we pool resources to meet our market’s expanded ‘infrastructure revolution’ requirements.”
As contemporary systems, Bentley’s ProjectWise and GroupBC’s information management software will improve the collaborative BIM available to infrastructure construction projects across the entire lifecycle.
Additionally, Bentley will use its iTwin Services to connect GroupBC CDEs and ProjectWise CDEs to fully enable 4D mixed reality and analytics visibility across previously disparate CDEs for construction and engineering.
Chief technology officer for Bentley Systems, Keith Bentley, spelt out how this would improve services for customers.
“With the help of our new GroupBC colleagues, we will now be able to better serve engineers, contractors, and owners by bringing together their collective IT (information management), OT (operational technologies including reality modeling), and ET (engineering models),” he said.