Page 27 - BENTLEY SYSTEMS PR REPORT - MARCH 2024

Bentley also believes strongly that the words we use to describe our relationships shape
the way we think about them:

I flinch if I hear the word ‘customer.’ I don't allow people to say customer because
customer connotes a transaction. I say account or user, which connotes the person
working with the software. I think the word customer is not a compliment. But user or
account is someone we have a longitudinal relationship with over the long term.

He also uses the term colleague rather than employee. But here he is a bit more lenient
in what each person says because he wants them to feel like the company has earned
this trust:

I say I can't have a rule about this. That's not fair. Our colleagues have to feel that they
are our colleagues, and if they do, they'll use the term. Hopefully, they don't feel like
employees and don't use that term, but it's not because I mandate it. But customer, I
feel when people say customer, they mean customer, and it doesn't have the right
connotation.

Bentley also reshaped his view of his company’s role when Crossrail’s CEO, Andrew
Wolstenholme, said he needed a partner, not a vendor:

I believe he meant people who tell us what's going to work and what's not going to work,
don't hide from us what the challenges are, and so forth. I think that does pertain to
colleagues and accounts as well. In forty years, I've come to believe you have to be
forthright if you want somebody's trust.

Building trust in data

Wolstenholme had said that they knew things would change a lot throughout the
Crossrail project and he could not be selecting software at the start that he would be
using at the end. Rather, they were looking for an organization that would continue to
adapt, invent, and be honest. So, Bentley set up a Crossrail Construction Academy to
train all new contractors across its supply chain on its data infrastructure. Bentley
explained:

The whole point of Crossrail’s strategy was to show them how important the data is by
where it's going to go and how it's going to be useful in the whole construction progress,
the whole project delivery, and then the operations of what became the Elizabeth line so
that they will sit up straighter and see how important it is that they give us clean data of
high quality. Not because the contract says to do it, but here is why. I didn't use the term
digital twins at the time, but we would say today, ‘You're creating a digital twin for a
brand new railway and here's why your data is important.’

Bentley was also very thoughtful in how the company brought teams in for training:

https://diginomica.com/legacy-built-40-years-trust-learnings-greg-bentley-he-steps-down-ceo-
bentley-systems