Political

Infrastructure and public-works stimulus in the US and Europe supports long-cycle engineering software demand, and Bentley is more exposed than many peers to this spend because its core user base is tied to civil and industrial asset owners.

Government digitization mandates and BIM adoption policies continue to favor design and asset-management software, which benefits Bentley versus peers with less infrastructure-specific product depth.

Public-sector budget scrutiny can delay project awards, but Bentley is relatively insulated versus pure project-services peers because software spend is a smaller share of total project cost.

Geopolitical fragmentation and localization requirements increase the value of compliant, regionally deployable software, and Bentley is better positioned than general-purpose peers with less specialized infrastructure workflows.

Economic

Higher interest rates and tighter capital budgets can slow new infrastructure starts, but Bentley is better positioned than cyclical engineering peers because its recurring software usage is tied to installed asset bases rather than only new builds.

Inflation in labor and materials increases the economic case for productivity software, which supports Bentley versus peers selling discretionary tools with weaker ROI linkage.

Large global backlogs in transportation, water, and energy infrastructure sustain demand for digital engineering tools, and Bentley benefits more than horizontal software peers because its exposure is concentrated in these capex-heavy end markets.

Currency volatility can pressure reported growth, but Bentley’s diversified international revenue base is broadly comparable to global software peers and less exposed than single-region vendors.

Social

Aging infrastructure and rising public expectations for reliability increase demand for asset-performance software, and Bentley is more directly aligned than peers focused on generic enterprise IT.

Workforce shortages in engineering and construction raise the value of automation and collaboration tools, which favors Bentley versus labor-intensive service providers and less specialized software peers.

Sustainability and resilience priorities are becoming mainstream among owners and regulators, and Bentley’s infrastructure focus gives it a stronger demand tailwind than peers outside critical infrastructure.

Customer preference for remote, collaborative project delivery remains supportive, and Bentley is relatively advantaged versus legacy desktop-centric peers that have been slower to adapt to distributed workflows.

Technological

The shift to digital twins, AI-assisted design, and connected asset operations structurally benefits Bentley because its product set is centered on infrastructure lifecycle software, giving it a clearer tailwind than broad horizontal peers.

Cloud migration and subscription delivery continue to favor vendors with integrated platforms, and Bentley is better positioned than on-premise legacy peers that face heavier transition friction.

Interoperability requirements across complex infrastructure ecosystems increase the value of open, workflow-based software, which supports Bentley versus point-solution competitors with narrower technical scope.

Rising cyber and data-governance expectations favor vendors with enterprise-grade platform controls, and Bentley’s infrastructure focus makes those capabilities more commercially relevant than for many smaller peers.

Legal

Stricter safety, documentation, and traceability requirements in infrastructure projects increase the need for compliant software, and Bentley benefits more than peers serving less regulated end markets.

Procurement rules in public infrastructure often reward established, standards-based platforms, which supports Bentley versus smaller niche vendors with weaker compliance credentials.

Data-sovereignty and cross-border software rules can complicate global deployment, but Bentley is relatively well positioned versus peers with less mature enterprise governance and localization capabilities.

Intellectual-property and licensing enforcement remain important in engineering software, and Bentley’s specialized workflow depth gives it a stronger legal moat than generic design tools.

Environmental

Decarbonization, water resilience, and climate-adaptation spending are expanding the addressable market for infrastructure software, and Bentley is more directly exposed than peers outside these themes.

Asset-efficiency and lifecycle-optimization priorities increase demand for software that reduces material use and downtime, which benefits Bentley versus peers with less sustainability-linked use cases.

Extreme-weather resilience planning is becoming a budget priority for governments and utilities, and Bentley’s infrastructure focus gives it a stronger external tailwind than generalist software vendors.

Environmental reporting and carbon-accounting requirements raise the value of digital asset data, which supports Bentley versus peers whose products are less tied to physical infrastructure records.

Overall Score

BSY has a strong external positioning versus peers because infrastructure digitization, resilience, and sustainability spending create durable multi-year tailwinds that outweigh macro and regulatory headwinds.

Score Driver: Structural Infrastructure Digitization And Climate-Resilience Spending Provide The Clearest Peer-Relative Tailwind.