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Bentley, AASHTO and Info Tech, Inc. Announce Collaboration to Integrate Civil Engineering Software, Electronic Bidding and Digital Plans

ST. LOUIS – September 17, 2002: Bentley Systems, Incorporated, and Info Tech, Inc. today announced two joint collaboration efforts for transportation agencies. These initiatives are particularly key to the over 40 state departments of transportation (DOTs) that deliver projects with Bentley’s MicroStation®-based solutions for civil design creation, content management and publishing and to the 39 DOTs that manage projects with AASHTOWare Trns•port suite.

The first collaboration effort is the development of an XML solution to streamline the delivery of design information from Bentley’s GEOPAK® and InRoads® roadway design solutions to the AASHTOWare Trns• port suite. The AASHTOWare Trns•port suite is cost estimating software developed by Info Tech for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The second collaboration effort integrates Bentley’s Digital InterPlot® and Info Tech’s Bid Express, enabling contractors to view and download electronic plan sets when they download bid information, and then print them to scale on a local output device.

"As part of our continuing mission to get project participants and their respective software solutions ‘working together,’ Bentley is pleased to join with AASHTO and Info Tech to streamline the engineering estimating and construction bidding processes," said Carey Mann, vice president of industry and product marketing at Bentley. "The interoperability between Bid Express and Digital InterPlot is a great example of how AEC content can be painlessly shared between design engineers and construction contractors to help them streamline their project work."

In the XML interface for design creation, Bentley’s civil engineering solutions, GEOPAK and InRoads, will pass quantities to Trns•port via Bentley's Quantity Manager, a standalone tool for managing quantity data automatically calculated as the design develops. The interface is two-way: Quantity Manager users will be able to reference Trns•port's master pay item list and funding sources. The ability to directly export quantity data to Trns•port software will help users save time and reduce the risk of error caused by manual entry.

"This interface represents an important step on our path toward improving the transportation project workflow," says Dean Bowman, director of development for Bentley Civil. "Transportation agencies and consulting companies now stand to reap the benefits of lifecycle information sharing between design and estimating departments."

The second initiative fosters the migration from inefficient paper distribution of review and bid plan sets to electronic deliverables. Electronic distribution saves time and reproduction costs associated with dissemination of plans. This in turn gives contractors more time to prepare and refine their bids. The Info Tech/Bentley team is uniquely qualified to deliver projects electronically while maintaining the integrity of traditional bidding processes.

"Easily viewable and printable designs are a great complement to the wide range of information and services now provided by Bid Express to contractors," said Tom Rothrock, senior vice president of Info Tech. "The combination of our Web-based services with Bentley’s solutions for design, engineering and operations is a natural fit."

Bentley’s Digital InterPlot is a scalable production plotting solution used to create engineering plot sets from DGN, DWG, and many standard raster file formats. Resulting plot sets can be printed directly to paper, or alternatively printed in digital form into an electronic storage repository. From there, users anywhere in the world who have a standard Web browser can easily find plots of interest to them and view them online or print them to an available Windows® printer. Bid Express, an Internet service owned by BidX.com, a subsidiary of Info Tech, provides a reliable Internet connection between a transportation agency (state or provincial DOT, city / county government, etc.) and its bidders, and a sealed depository for bids that is not accessible to any party prior to the public bid opening. Bid Express is currently used by eight state DOTs and is being piloted/implemented by an additional eight states. Bid Express also enables secure Internet bid submission and bid bond validation from the contractor to the agency using digital signature technology and public-private key infrastructure for security.

About AASHTO
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association based in Washington, D.C. and represents the highway and transportation departments in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Association represents all five transportation modes: air, highways, public transportation, rail and water. Its primary goal is to foster the development, operation and maintenance of an integrated national transportation system. AASHTOWare represents AASHTO's joint software development technical service program that offers member agencies an opportunity to pool their resources and produce complex software solutions at a greatly reduced cost of custom in-house development, while promoting a best practices approach to design. For more AASHTOWare information, visit us on the web at www.aashtoware.org.

About Info Tech
Info Tech, Inc. is based in Gainesville, Fla. and provides customer-oriented, highly technical consulting, software development, systems integration and network communications services focused on the transportation construction industry.BidX.com Inc., an Info Tech Inc. company, is based in Gainesville, Fla. BidX.com owns and operates the Bid Express Internet bidding service. The free bidding software downloaded from the Bid Express site – Expedite – was developed by Info Tech and is licensed through AASHTO. For more information about Info Tech or Bid Express, contact Joe Phelan, vice president of Sales and Marketing at 352-381-4400 or visit their websites at www.infotechFL.com and www.bidx.com.

About Bentley
Bentley Systems, Incorporated is a global provider of collaborative software solutions that enable users to create, manage and publish architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) content. As a part of those solutions, Bentley provides professional services including implementation, integration, customization and training. For more information, call 1-800-BENTLEY or visit us on the Web at www.bentley.com.

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Valerie Riley, APR
Info Tech, Inc.
(352) 381-4400
media contact info

Michelle Rudiman
Bentley Systems, Incorporated
(610) 458-2798

Bentley, the "B" logo, MicroStation and Digital InterPlot are registered trademarks; Bentley SELECT is a registered service mark of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or Bentley Software, Inc. AASHTOWare and Trns· port are registered trademarks of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Bid Express is a registered trademark of Info Tech, Inc. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

Easily viewable and printable designs are a great complement to the wide range of information and services now provided by Bid Express to contractors. The combination of our Web-based services with Bentley’s solutions for design, engineering and operations is a natural fit.

Dr. Thomas P. Rothrock
Senior Vice President
Info Tech, Inc.