History

IB&T's innovative software solution card_1 has been used in planning offices, town planning departments, municipalities, at universities and by engineers for over 40 years. If you have always wanted to know what the abbreviation IB&T stands for, when sewer planning became possible with card_1 or which partners were added along the way, you have come to the right place. Take a journey through the history of IB&T with the timeline below. Have fun!

1985

card_1 introduced at the 69th German
Day of Geodesyin Düsseldorf

Surveying,
Road Design

1988

Harry Basedow (BEng) and Thomas Tornow (BBA) found
the limited company Ingenieurbüro Basedow & Tornow

1990

Partnership with Interaktive Grafik Milde GmbH,
Base Map, Land Acquisition

1991

Rail Design, Rail Surveying

1992

card_1 presented at the
CeBIT trade fair in Hannover

1994

Partnership with Pecher Software GmbH,
Calculation core components sewer

Sewer Design

1995

Company relocates to the newly-built head office
in Norderstedt, near Hamburg, Germany

2000

The German Federal Railways certify
card_1 network adjustment

Takeover of GEO DIGITAL GmbH

Partnership with A+S Consult GmbH,
3D Visualisation

2002

OKSTRA-compliant
data exchange

2005

Takeover of
RZI Software GmbH

2009

Partnership with tandler.com GmbH,
Drainage

2013

Partnership with aRES Datensysteme,
Water Management

2015

IB&T celebrates the 30th anniversary of the
software solution card_1.

2016

New RZI application Cost Calculation AKVS/elKe
for cost planning and calculation

Enters the world of BIM
(Building Information Modelling)

2017

Partnerships for AVA and BIM: G&W Software AG,
BECHMANN GmbH and ceapoint aec technologies GmbH

Uwe Hüttner (BArch) appointed new Managing Director
of IB&T Ingenieurbüro Basedow & Tornow GmbH

Responsible for the company's fortunes - on the right, owner and managing director Harry Basedow and managing director Uwe Hüttner.

2018

IB&T becomes a founding member of the buildingSMART
Deutschland e.V. specialist group BIM Traffic Routes. Managing
Director Uwe Hüttner becomes spokesman for the specialist group

Company renamed IB&T Software GmbH from 9 July 2018

2019

Smart infra-modelling technology introduced
at the infraTagen and trade fairs

Cooperation agreements with STRABAG SE, Bickhardt Bau AG,
EIBS GmbH, VIC GmbH and KREBS+Kiefer Ingenieure GmbH.
Continued development of card_1 in line with BIM.

2020

Partnership with Thinkproject Deutschland GmbH,
reseller for DESITE BIM

First publication of the buildingSMART Deutschland e.V. specialist group
BIM Traffic Routes. The volume entitled"BIM - Classes of Traffic Routes"
contains a catalogue of all the necessary object classes and groups for
BIM modelling in the field of traffic routes.

2021

card_1 receives the BIMSWARM certificate as the first certified product in the category "CAD-BIM Modelling Traffic Routes".

Cooperation agreement with Mailänder Consult GmbH. The aim is to strengthen rail infrastructure design in card_1

New partnership with Bluebeam GmbH.

2022

card_1 Version 10.0 released

2023

card_1 e-learning portal launched

IB&T founder and shareholder Harry Basedow (BEng) steps down
as Managing Director at his own request but continues to contribute
his specialist knowledge to the company as a consultant going forward.
He is succeeded by Bernard Brown (MA BEng).

2024

New sales partnership for SPBIM4DESITE, a solution
that covers a wide range of functions for various BIM use cases.

The careers portal goes live. Here, interested candidates
can find the current job openings at IB&T Software GmbH.

Release of card_1 version 10.1

2025

Introducing IB&T Software GmbH: The new corporate video
presents the company and its employees.

At the infraTage, held in June 2025 in various cities across Germany,
IB&T Software GmbH celebrates the 40th anniversary of the card_1
software solution together with its customers and partners.

2026

IB&T Software GmbH expands its brand presence with an umbrella brand strategy. The new umbrella brand logo brings together the entire portfolio and all brands of the IB&T Group.

Technical cooperation with Arcadis Germany B.V. & Co. KG and SIGNON Deutschland GmbH to implement a BIM-compliant workflow for railway planning.

In August 2026, IB&T subsidiary RZI Software GmbH acquires aRES Datensysteme, its long-standing partner and expert in water management. The aRES specialist solutions remain available in cseTools, in the Wasserwirtschaft Pro modules of RZI Tiefbau, and in card_1.

Would you like more details?

Have we piqued your interest? Would like to dive a little deeper into the world of IB&T? Then please read our history, presented in a series of short texts on the various events and milestones we have experienced and achieved since 1985.

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