Bentley Systems #BeInspired 2010 Event Opens with Congratulations to “Resilient” Users of Infrastructure Solutions

The economic climate from 2008 through mid-2010 has been challenging to some sectors of the world where infrastructure projects were put on hold. This is reflected in the success of those companies providing engineering and design software like Autodesk who sustained a decline and stock price (the company has since recovered nicely) and the Bentley Systems whose revenue declined in 2009 to levels seen in 2007, or about $50 Million. Greg Bentley, in his opening presentation at the BeInspired conference, said however that he believes that 2010 will show a rebound in his revenue run rate. Currently, Bentley shows a revenue balance of 61% international users versus 39% in the United States.

Bentley also showed a number of metrics to demonstrate the number of hours in which MicroStation was in use. MicroStation utilization hours measured approximately 23 hours per week per license (see example image from Asia at right). As such, though the global economy may be weak, productivity was decidedly increasing. On the investment front, Bentley made a major investment in SITEOPS , engineering software for site design which the company says is a glimpse into the future of SaaS for civil modeling.

Bhupinder Singh, Bentley’s senior vice president for software, discussed a number of initiatives for the company during the past year that resulted in product improvements including:

• Bentley update service – a web service that will give you notification when updates are available. Users can even set up filters whereby they will be notified on the subset of products in which they are interested to receive updates.
• Luxology is now embedded completely into MicroStation for civil visualization, an announcement that was made last May.
• Point Clouds are now a native data type inside of Bentley products
• In SELECTseries 3, to be released in 2011, users will be able to detect clashes between geometry and point cloud data.
• Integrated Structural Modeling (ISM) is a model synchronization solution that provides federation, consensus modeling and collaboration services. ISM was released one year ago and Singh said he as seen in increase in its use by engineering firms.
• Multidiscipline optimization (MDO) is a solution for determining cost benefit of alternative solutions for design structural designs versus the applications under consideration from multiple disciplines such as design, construction, energy analysis, etc. This methodology is used to help balance cost when weighing multiple design options. MDO is a non-deterministic methodology whereby there may be more than one answer to a given problem.

In general, Bentley is trying to layout a framework for instituting business intelligence (BI) for the engineering community that they call “information modeling.” Whereby the enterprise geospatial community may think in terms of integrating location technology into enterprise BI solutions, Bentley’s focus on design engineering translates that concept into deriving information by visualizing design improvements and reaping better return on assets (ROA). They seem to be more in tune with performance metrics rather than qualitative assessment for utilizing technology to help their clients demonstrate this ROA.

The BeInspired 2010 conference is an annual event for Bentley’s most innovative clients and awards are issued to selected nominees from those who have submitted entrees. In addition, over 60 members of the press are here for this event. I am serving as a juror for the "Visualization and Project Collaboration" category.

[Full disclosure: Bentley is supporting this trip with travel expenses]

Agencies Charged with the U.S. Federal Response in Times of Crisis [#GITA 2010]

During the second day of the GITA 2010 conference, a panel was convened to review the agencies responsible for providing data and coordinating response by the U.S. government in the event of a national emergency. The panel was led by Justin Serin of Booz Allen Hamilton who provided a foundation for the discussion by focusing on domestic infrastructure data gathering and sharing efforts. Sherin is one of the leads for the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation Level Data (HIFLD) Working Group. HIFLD is an inter-agency coordination committee to share best practices so that there are no redundant efforts. They support policy and standards, standards implementation in support of operations and help with integration efforts across the agency’s membership in support of field operations.

According to Sherin, HIFLD is the result of requests coming from the National States Geographic Information Council to help the states acquire data and information at little or no cost through federal funding efforts.

In support of this request, the Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) was established and is led by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide satellite imagery and elevation data. The HSIP Gold program has data that are available to all federal organizations and now available to be viewed by all states and cities so long as they are getting the service from federal server. The NGA has acquired license agreements to make this all possible.

HSIP Freedom is a subset of HSIP Gold and contains 190 layers available. It is available online within Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) portal. Information about HSIP Freedom can be requested from the help desk.

Jennifer McCarron, the Homeland Security deputy branch chief, data management branch of the infrastructure information collection division, discussed the next generation of the Integrated Common Analytical Viewer (iCAV), a secure, web-based geospatial visualization tool.

DHS is trying to reduce the number of redundant geospatial systems and build only certain specific, but functional support systems on a SOA architecture including ACAMS (automated critical asset Management System), iCAV (Integrated Common Analytical Viewer), DHS Earth (a Google Earth-based viewer), VCAT (voluntary chemical assessment tool), IST (Infrastructure Survey Tool), and RSAT (Risk Self-Assessment Tool).

Tod Spangler, of the Department of Defense’s (DoD), Critical Infrastructure Office, Office of the Asst. Sec. of Defense, Homeland Defense & Americas Office, discussed the Defense Critical Infrastructure Program (DCIP). DCIP looks at the risk of critical assets to perform DoD missions. It determines which assets, public or commercial (power lines, water Infrastructure, etc.) may be at risk and subject to vulnerabilities. His office provides situational awareness of risks around the globe, as well, for military installations and other assets.  The DoD manages the Defense Industrial Base CIP Mission Assurance Assessments where by the National Guard Bureau Assessment Team conducts on-site assessments of Defense Industrial Base (DIB) facilities.

DoD has their own visualization tools (imagery & maps) which support risk management and resource allocation decisions:
• TRITON
• Knowledge Display Aggregation System (KDAS)
• Strategic Mission Assurance Data System (SMADS)

All are ESRI based systems. Why so many systems? Spangler says it is to meet specific needs within the organization. Spangler thinks there cannot be just one system

Spangler was followed by Joe Toland, Geospatial Unit Leader, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Incident Management Team. "Who we are…is kind of a big question," said Toland. "We are a management agency." FEMA helps with geospatial staffing and support of operational issues and to bring in experts from other agencies when needed.

Rounding out the panel discussions was Ivan DeLoatch, Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) executive director. "The challenge is that (geospatial data) is relevant in just about everything we do," said DeLoatch."Coordination [among agencies] is very challenging and to be successful you have to have very senior level participation and buy-in."

DeLoatch commented on the efforts to sustain a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). He said that it is still a vision that member agencies can still rally behind and that it is useful to revisit the mission. "NSDI has evolved quite a bit," said DeLoatch. "The technology is moving quickly."

He sees that with the current administration that there is a call for more transparency and that the administration is very interested in using geospatial information for programs such as the Place-based Policy, and tracking stimulus money (Data.gov; Recovery.gov). DeLoatch said that the key challenge is spending $80 billion in IT and need to spend money more efficiently. Finally, he mentioned a new, forthcoming initiative to build a "Geocloud sandbox"  to understand how to use cloud architectures and share data

Podcast: Is the 511 National Traffic Phone Number Worth $1.2B?

A Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) ruling expected in February will force states to implement a “511″ traffic information hotline. The cost? Some $1.2 billion - and states are not pleased. Those in balmy areas wonder why they need detailed weather information; those with rarely used rural roads are equally frustrated. Do we, in 2010, need a “dial in” traffic number?

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Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Learon Dalby, NSGIC Board Member

Adena Schutzberg, executive editor, interviewed National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) former president Learon Dalby about the 2009 NSGIC annual conference and the organization’s advocacy agenda for the coming year. Among the topics explored: authoritative data, social media, the broadband mapping stimulus, NSDI, oversight, and Data for the Nation. This is another in a series of interviews with geospatial insiders and outsiders.

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Podcast: Why not code the real world?

While much money is spent noting attributes of physical objects on paper maps or in electronic files, only for them to be of limited use in the field, why do we not simply code more real world object with key information? In Akron fire hydrants are coded with their water pressure by their colored domes. Even as we put all this information into databases, should we also think more about simply it putting it right where it’s needed?


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