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Davis Langdon & Everest
The company has focused on training, motivating and retaining staff in the past year. This commitment culminated in Investor In People accreditation in 1999. Innovations have included a multidisciplinary adjudication service and benchmarking studies in specialist sectors such as sports facilities. On the National Energy Centre at Milton Keynes, the practice managed a build cost of £900/m2, representing a 20% reduction in the average for fitted-out headquarters offices. The firm's combination of new services and continued investment in staff has brought financial benefits: fee income increased 18% to £32.5m and operating profit leaped 30% to £6.6m in 1999. In addition, the effect of mergers announced on 1 May last year increase turnover a further 15% and profit 25%.

Turner & Townsend
Last year saw a total reorganisation of the way Turner & Townsend functions. The firm's experience of teambuilding on projects and partnering – 60% of its workload is carried out under such arrangements – led to the introduction of new ways of working in-house. Commitment to value engineering on the Wellcome Trust Centre at Oxford University ensured that the project's cost targets stayed at £1600/m2. In 1999, the company reported fee income up 9.3% to £9.7m and operating profit up 70% to £2.7m.

AYH
A concentrated investment in IT has contributed to another good year for AYH. In a move to seek continuous improvement in services to clients, the firm has enhanced its integrated cost estimating and project reporting systems. And commitment to IT is not confined to the office, but extends to the client base, which includes Microsoft, Vodafone, Nortel Networks and Computer Associates. In 1999, the firm reported a fee income of £12.3m, up 12.3% on the previous year, with operating profit rising 17.2% to £1.4m. The project that demonstrates the firm's progress this year is the Lloyd's Register of Shipping headquarters in the City of London. The project highlights in particular AYH's skills in the cost management of large-scale, technically complex urban developments.

Has produced a very relevant series of cost models which are followed by a considerable number of people in the industry

Staff development is clearly taken seriously, with a large number of staff encouraged to undertake further qualifications

They have some relevant targets within their environmental policy to try to reduce waste and energy