General Motors Selects Bentley as Partner for Innovative Virtual Factory Initiative

EXTON, Pa.--March 25, 2004--

Pilot Successful, First Major Implementation on GM's Lansing Delta Township Project

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, today announced that General Motors Worldwide Facilities Group (WFG) has selected Bentley as its technology partner for its innovative virtual factory initiative.

General Motors has been preparing for virtual facility capabilities - based on 3D and building information modeling (BIM) - for several years. A GM benchmark study and pilot project proved that Bentley BIM could save the manufacturer millions of dollars by cutting out redundant design processes and improving interference detection. GM's virtual factory initiative will implement BIM on all new greenfields and major existing brownfield sites. These solutions and the virtual factory initiative are part of GM Worldwide Facilities Group's strategic goal of cutting building project costs by 25 percent by 2005 and reducing design cycle time.

General Motors is already using BIM on several projects. WFG has implemented a comprehensive BIM solution that streamlines project implementation and reduces change orders in the field. The first major implementation of the virtual factory initiative will be at the new Lansing Delta Township project in Michigan.

"The Lansing Delta Township project is a great opportunity to showcase our ability to design in 3D and capitalize on our objectives of compressing the design/build schedule and reducing construction costs," said Laird Landis, who is managing virtual factory efforts for GM Worldwide Facilities Group. WFG is responsible for more than $4 billion of construction annually. "We have partnered with a strong software corporation that responds to our needs and is aligned with our goals for a successful project," Landis said.

General Motors has developed 3D graphical standards to assist suppliers in 3D facility design. All suppliers completing GM design work will use Bentley BIM applications, including Bentley Architecture, Bentley Structural, Bentley HVAC, Bentley PlantSpace, and Bentley Digital InterPlot.

"Many large organizations are consolidating their processes and supporting software around standards, so they can do more with less," said Brad Workman, vice president, Bentley Building. "In this case, Bentley's BIM solution has the depth and breadth of a comprehensive offering that fits into GM's standardized environment for facilities."

GM's Lansing Delta Township manufacturing facility consists of 350 million square feet of facility design, one square mile of earth to be sculptured, and more than four miles of new asphalt paving. This project, with an estimated construction cost of $250 million, will provide GM with a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. The objective is to provide full design/build services for a body shop, general assembly and administration building. The complex will also include conveyors, utilities, pedestrian walkways, an automatic storage retrieval system, and site work.

A superset of CAD, BIM captures essential building concepts and information beyond drawings and provides a managed environment for building projects and operations. Bentley's BIM solution encompasses 20 enabling BIM technologies, is based on proven and scalable MicroStation, and offers a unique ramp to BIM so users can run mixed projects and realize BIM via evolution versus revolution.

For more information about building information modeling, visit www.bentley.com/bim.

About Bentley

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, provides software for the lifecycle of the world's infrastructure. The company's comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2003 revenues reaching $260 million, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators.

For more information, visit www.bentley.com.

Bentley, the "B" logo, MicroStation and PlantSpace are registered trademarks and Architecture, Digital InterPlot, HVAC and Structural are trademarks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or Bentley Software, Inc. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.