The privately held AEC software firm offers annual insight into operations. Compared to 2013 Bentley has lost ground to Autodesk.
Bentley Systems today reported selected information from its 2014 revenue and operations results. Total 2014 revenue of $625 million is up 7% from 2013 revenues. Net income was not disclosed.
As a private company, Bentley is not required to release quarterly reports, but instead chooses to voluntarily announce annual result. So, we don’t get insights to specific markets such as infrastructure or networks, but only an overall result. Bentley’s numbers over the years, adjusted for common currencies, show it is on a steady growth clip of between 7% and 8%.
By comparison, its largest rival Autodesk reported AEC division revenue of $873 million for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2015. Both companies needed time to recover from meager sales during the recession, but it looks as if Autodesk is increasing its lead:
Bentley CEO Greg Bentley says 2014 revenue growth was particularly strong in the Middle East, South East Asia, “Greater China,” and India. Greg Bentley compared the size of each regional market with the number of Bentley employees (“colleagues” in Bentley parlance) in each region.
Bentley Systems is 95% owned by family members and employees, which allows it great flexibility in how it spends its revenue. According to the company, research and development (R&D) spending as a percentage of revenue continues to grow. Bentley is an aggressive acquirer of new technology, and considers its spending on acquisitions as part of its R&D.
Like its rival Autodesk—and like many other vendors of technical software—Bentley is moving its revenue model to subscriptions. It has multiple types of subscription accounts, its highest being Enterprise Licensing Subscriptions (ELS), which now contributes 26% of revenue. Overall, subscriptions contribute 76% of revenue.
Bentley will roll out its next-generation technology platform, Bentley Connect, starting in July. Bentley Systems infrequently updates its large portfolio, in keeping with the wishes of its enterprise-class customer base that craves product stability. For the third release in a row, Bentley is not changing the structure of its MicroStation file format, the foundational CAD tool upon which all of Bentley’s product line (well over 100, counting 2014 acquisitions) is built. The emphasis for Bentley Connect is on “leveraging the reach and computing power of the Microsoft Azure cloud, and supporting a hybrid environment that includes on-premise servers, desktop applications, and mobile apps.”
