Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007 - (Page 25)

The CSE Giants 100 expand BIM expertise and develop new methods of project delivery to meet the challenges ahead. BY SCOTT SIDDENS, Senior Editor, and PATRICK LYNCH, Editorial Intern I n comparing last year’s CSE Giants Report with our 2007 ranking, two things are striking: First, combined total revenue for all of these 100 firms is a sizable chunk of the economy. Second, growth in revenue compared to the prior year attests to the strength of the AEC industry and the good health of MEP engineering. According to last year’s Giants 100 Report, financial statistics show a positive increase in both total revenue and total MEP design revenue for the top firms. Total MEP design revenue for the Giants 100 in 2006 was $2.7 billion, and the 2007 MEP design revenue increased to a total of $3.4 billion—an increase of $740.5 million in one year and an increase of $866.3 million from 2005 totals. The total revenue for the Giants in 2006 was $10.7 billion, whereas the total revenue for the Giants 100 in 2007 is $12.8 billion, an increase of $2.1 billion. URS Corporation, San Francisco, ranked atop this year’s Giants 100, contributed more than 33% to the 2007 total revenue with more than $4.2 billion in yearly earnings. This year marks the 30th anniversary of CSE’s Giants 100 Report. And this year, as in the past, it was a challenge to rank many diverse engineering firms on the basis of their MEP design revenues, because the firms vary on their percentage of MEP design. Due to increasing merger and acquisition activity in the AEC industry, and the resulting increase in design-build delivery systems and firm diversification, it has become even more difficult to identify what percentage of a firm’s revenue can be attributed purely to MEP design. Diversifying services One trend over the past half decade that emerges from the Giants 100 survey is that these firms seem to be increasingly looking beyond their traditional design billings in order to grow their businesses, usually by offering a variety of consulting services: commissioning and retro-commissioning, operation and maintenance, and consulting on specific facility issues such as arc flash hazard and energy efficiency. Now that the sustainability movement has gone mainstream, many of the Giants 100 firms report that this last item— energy efficiency consulting—has become a major source of income. And with new business offerings come new challenges: “Many clients are looking to us for recommendations on energy A C E F H L P Colleges/Universities Data/Telecom Centers Education (K-12) Entertainment Government/Justice/Correctional Facilities Healthcare Hotels/Convention Centers Manufacturing and Warehousing Manufacturing - High Tech/Pharmaceutical Office R&D/Laboratories Retail Sports Facilities Transportation Other 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Number of Responses Figure 1: Top markets for Giants, based on total number of responses per category Consulting-Specifying Engineer • AUGUST, 2007 25

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007

Contents M/E Roundtable Giants 100 Pullout Poster Giants Stand Tall: CSE Giants 100 Report Electrical Design for Tall Buildings HVAC and Fire Safety for Elevator Systems How to Beat the Codes GAS Technology Supplement Recovering Waste Heat from Boilers New Applications for Tankless Water Heating Systmes Techniques Improve for Powder Coating MDF New Tools Available for Heat Treating Steel Direct Drive Engines

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - August 2007

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