AVEVA World Magazine 2012|Issue 20345 years of continuous growthWhen I sat down to write this introduction I looked back at the previous issue of AVEVA World Magazine. It may only have been six months ago but already that seems like the distant past, so fast have been our recent technology advances.But six months is no time at all compared to the 45 years of continuous growth that the company celebrated this summer. 45 years! That's twice the age of some of our younger colleagues, for whom the IT revolution of the 1960s must seem like prehistory. We no longer have any colleagues who were with us from the very start in 1967, but many have been here for most of AVEVA's extraordinary history; a depth of experience that few companies in this industry can match.Meanwhile, AVEVA customers also continue to succeed and grow, particularly in the BRIC countries, which are industrialising at an exhilarating rate. It is pleasing to see our software being used to transform low-tech mining and minerals production into sophisticated, large-scale operations to meet growing world demand. As a result, we have established a Centre of Excellence in Mining and Minerals to support our growing customer community in Latin America. Russia, too, is rapidly regaining its true industrial capability and we hope to bring you many more impressive customer success stories from this region.In June we held some modest anniversary celebrations in our offices around the world. I was, however, astonished to learn from a director of one of our most prestigious customers that this year they are actually celebrating 25 years of working with AVEVA. To me, this endorses one of the principal reasons for AVEVA's continuing success: we truly are regarded as a partner by our customers. But of course, businesses don't build partnerships, people do. This magazine regularly describes outstanding results achieved by our colleagues working closely with our customers.The other reason for AVEVA's success is our continual delivery of ever more powerful technologies that provide significant business value to our customers. In the last issue we described how a careful balance between in-house development and selected technology acquisitions has expanded our offerings in 3D laser scanning solutions; now we have acquired the leading solution in structural engineering and look forward to bringing you future news of how this technology will progressively expand the scope of AVEVA Plant and AVEVA Marine. A similar combination of acquisition, product development and working closely with customers has also created the brand-new AVEVA Electrical, which has exceeded sales expectations from the day it was released. On the information engineering front, our technologists have been equally busy laying the foundations of what is rapidly becoming the most powerful solution for Enterprise Resource Management. We have already combined the best engineering and design technologies in the plant and marine sectors. Now we are doing the same for resource management technologies.But in all this fast-paced development we haven't overlooked our core strength in 3D plant design. Our next-generation solution is now well advanced and you can gain an idea of its potential in this issue.Just reading these articles leaves me out of breath; I hope you too will share my excitement.Richard LongdonChief ExecutiveAVEVA Group plc'This endorses one of the principal reasons for AVEVA's continuing success: we truly are regarded as a partner by our customers...'

04AVEVA World Magazine 2012|Issue 2AVEVA acquires bocadGreater structural detailing capability gives further depth to AVEVA's 3D plant and marine solutionsIn the previous edition of AVEVA World Magazine we introduced you to AVEVA's acquisition of Z+F UK and now, in this issue, AVEVA is proud to provide an overview of another acquisition. On 22 May, 2012, AVEVA completed the acquisition of the bocad group of companies, bringing a world-class structural detailing solution to AVEVA.bocad is a software company which develops and markets the world's best and most capable structural detailing solution. The company's origin is similar to AVEVA's, with its strong historical links with academia. In the late 1970s, four PhD students and post-doctorates from the University of Bochum were researching structural steel design software. This research led them, in 1980, to create and launch the first release of bocad 3D. The product was an immediate success and the sales grew fast, and so bocad Software was born. Since then, the solution has gone from strength to strength, growing in capability through the addition of glazing, timber, concrete and steel cutting modules. Moreover, the software has seen significant adoption across many industries, having been used in power, oil & gas, offshore and AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) projects.'Tighter integration between piping design and structural steel detailing will allow engineers and fabricators to work in a dynamic environment for clash detection and management of change. This will provide a major improvement in quality and efficiency...'Les ElbyVP Business Strategy, AVEVAThe museum, Le Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, was designed and is being constructed using structural design software from bocad. Courtesy of SMB Constructions Métalliques.