Adsk+Bentley Love Affair to Save (almost) $16 Billion-with-a-B

They say two can live as cheaply as one, but now a press release claims that two can live $16 billion more cheaply than one. Says the introduction to the joint press release from San Rafael and Exton:

This exchange [between Autodesk and Bentley] will improve data quality and benefit their customers, while saving almost $16 billion a year according to a government study.

In the body of the press release, however, we find it reads it a bit different.

A 2004 study by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology found that users bear direct costs of almost $16 billion annually from time wasted due to inadequate AEC software interoperability.

That's a different story. And I love the use of the "almost" qualifier. Makes the hugely-rounded-off number sound much more accurate. The unimaginable $16B number does have the benefit of putting into its place that study from a couple of weeks ago that claims that interruptions from email cost the economy "hundreds of millions of dollars." A mere pittance.

Today, the fad is to recite statistics in terms of automobiles. Saving $16 billion is like taking 530,000 cars off the road.

Comments

[Tony Tanzillo]

Are we to presume the study takes into account data interoperability roadblocks Autodesk has placed on the entire industry, or just Bently, or perhaps only ODA members?

This agreement between the two biggest players, appears to serve the purpose of hindering all of their competitors, which leads me puzzled as to why it is getting applause from so-called interoperability proponents.

Data interoperability is not a one way street or an exclusive, members-only charter.

[ralphg]

To me, it appears that interoperability proponents are the big losers, as they will no longer be needed to bridge the gap between Autodesk and Bentley software.

(History: Autodesk originally set up IFCs to deal with the problem introduced by AutoCAD Release 13's ability to create ARX-defined objects, making DWG files incompatible with themselves. Autodesk eventually spun off IFCs to the IAI, who have not fully solved the problem over the intervening years. Autodesk then came up with Object Enablers to solve the proxy-object-generated interoperability problem among its own apps.)

OEs were mentioned in the tele-conference.

[Tony Tanzillo]

I believe this is the source of the data:

http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/publications/gcrs/04867.pdf