Consultancy Survey 2005: Who is top of the boffins?

The 2005 edie.net and Environment Business Environmental Consultancy Survey has now been completed with another overwhelming response from 1557 individuals, 1194 (77%) of whom are edie users and 954 (61%) are readers of Environment Business.


Unlike other surveys, ours examines the views, opinions and expertise of both consultancy providers themselves and the end users of those consultancies. We feel this adds value as it shows what customers think about the consultancy providers and the state of the market, rather than an “official” line from one side or the other.

So, how do the views compare? Who does have the best reputation in the consultancy market? And, how does their reputation compare to their turnover?

Our survey examined what factors influence customers’ choice of consultant and where they would look to source them. Did you know that more people now look to online trade websites, such as edie.net, to find a consultant than to any other source including trade magazines, internet search engines or the mainstream press?

Is reputation in a specific field more important than size when choosing a consultancy or are customers more attracted by competitive pricing and a good relationship with the regulator?

What do consultants think will be the most important growth markets for their business and why? And, how does this compare with what customers said they would have an increasing consultancy use for?

The results show some interesting disparities between the two points of view, as well as some common areas of unity. The sector is still dominated by a handful of large players, but the market is becoming ever more diverse, and it is not always the biggest players who have the best reputation across all fields.

We divided the results up in to look at what the major growth markets for consultancies were; where consultancies source their customers, and more importantly where customers source consultants; who has the best reputation in the consultancy sector, and then sub-divided this to ask who had the best reputation in each individual sector.

So if you want to know what drives the market or which consultancy has the best reputation for contaminated land advice, please click on the following link: 2005 Consultancy Survey

David Hopkins

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