In this episode of Bentley Talks, Matt Sheridan, senior director of solutions engineering, explains how Bentley works with customers to identify their biggest pain points—and elevate solutions from individual tools to end-to-end business processes.
Sheridan shares how connecting products through platforms like Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, ProjectWise, and related workflows allows teams to solve problems that ripple across departments, not just within them. The result: clearer value, stronger partnerships, and better outcomes for engineering organizations under pressure to deliver more projects, remain compliant, and grow profitably.
Recorded at the Bentley Tech Summit in Berlin, the conversation also reflects on the shift from product-focused discussions to industry- and process-driven collaboration—and why building trust across teams is just as important as technology.
Below is the transcript of the conversation.
Tomas Kellner: In your engineering solutions workshop, you talked about processes that resolve users’ pain points. Tell me about that.
Matt Sheridan: One of the things that we know is our customers have challenges. They’re trying to achieve outcomes. They want to build more projects. They want to get more revenue. They want to be more profitable. They must be compliant. But there are challenges to getting there. And those are pains for our customers. And if we can work with our customers to identify those pains that are really preventing them from getting to those outcomes and show them how Bentley products can alleviate those pains, then we’re going to be more than just a vendor. We’re going to start working with them as a partner to help improve their business.
TK: I love that focus on solutions. Tell me more.
Matt: Bentley, in its history, has developed a lot of products organically and also acquired a bunch of products. They all have strengths. But now, as we’re putting them together with Bentley Infrastructure Cloud Connect and Project Wise, we’re able to take that information and bring it higher into processes that are in the business. And now we’re solving even some greater pain points. So, we’re going from just single products now to higher processes that are really going to provide value to our customers.
TK: How do you convert solutions into value?
Matt: Well, there’s value in some product level. And then there’s greater value or expanded value on the process level. And what’s interesting is that a lot of our customers don’t even understand how bad the pain is impacting their business. They don’t really truly understand the value that we can bring to them. So, it might be a single pain point in one department, but it ripples through many other departments. And if we can get in and work with them and show them that it’s not only your group, but many groups, then we’re showing even greater value to the customer, and that’s going to make them more attracted to Bentley to help them solve those problems.
When you are working to help a business get better, and you’re working with individuals in those businesses, and people like to buy with people and have relationships with people, so if we can help them achieve their outcomes, we’re actually helping those folks achieve their goals, their KPIs, what they’re trying to do in their daily lives. And now suddenly we’re past a vendor, and we’re becoming more of a trusted partner… even an advisor to these folks on how to improve their own business. Then once they trust us, they’re going to want to come back to us for the next challenge and the next process. And they’re going to want to use Bentley products even more in the future as they develop more projects and expand their business.
TK: What is your takeaway from the last three days in Berlin?
Matt: First of all, it’s about the team. It’s about being One Bentley, but it’s also about our teams coming together. I can’t tell you how important it is to know the people that you’re working with, because then you help, you collaborate. You answer questions more. If our teams can come together and really get to know each other, that’s a fantastic outcome. And that’s happening here, as we see in all the great meetings. And the second thing is, we are starting to learn as we develop these Bentley Tech summits. This is the second one. The first one was more product-focused and we had some great feedback. This one, we focused on tracks in industries to really talk more about that collaboration. That’s an improvement from last year. And that’s a big takeaway from this year.
