In 2019, drawing on the resources of the Jiangnan Research Institute, the company established the Whole-Process Engineering Consulting Research Center — one of its first cross-disciplinary, cross-project-type engineering management research institutions dedicated to the field of whole-process engineering consulting services.

The Center focuses on theoretical research and practical innovation in whole-process engineering consulting. Guided by its core philosophy of "Focusing on Clients, Creating Value, Leading Development," it works across the full life cycle of a project — investment decision-making, survey and design, construction, and operation and maintenance — and conducts systematic research on service models, technical standards, management tools, and digital applications. It is committed to building a standardized, well-governed, and digital service system for whole-process engineering consulting, providing high-level intellectual support for the company's consulting business.

The Center has built an expert working system centered on chief experts from every discipline. Its work covers the full range of specialties — architecture, structure, water supply and drainage, HVAC, electrical, intelligent systems, curtain wall, interior fit-out, landscape architecture, geotechnical engineering, and foundation pit support — and brings together a group of nationally registered practitioners and senior industry technical experts. It operates a three-tier talent structure of "chief experts leading, expert group members collaborating, and young technical professionals cultivated as a pipeline." The Center now has more than 70 core researchers, deployed to the front lines of over 50 whole-process engineering consulting projects nationwide, forming a dual-engine operating model of "back-end R&D plus front-line practice." The Center spearheaded the development of the company's technical consulting management system for whole-process engineering consulting, standardizing technical consulting workflows, coordinating the allocation of expert resources, and setting technical review standards, while working in concert with the company's other specialized research centers to deliver technical consulting services. Since 2020, it has supported the completion of nearly 4,000 specialized reviews and consulting opinions, issuing more than 600 technical consulting and review opinions per year on average, and providing systematic technical assurance for optimizing project investment decisions, improving design quality, and controlling engineering risks.

The Center performs five core functions:

1. Research and Standards Development. It undertakes national, provincial and ministerial, and municipal construction research projects, conducting R&D on whole-process engineering consulting theory, performance evaluation, service capability enhancement, information databases, BIM technology, and prefabricated buildings, and contributing to the drafting of industry association standards and internal corporate standards. Among these, the Hangzhou municipal construction research project Development of a BIM-Based Evaluation System for Prefabricated Buildings has passed final acceptance, and the Zhejiang provincial construction research project Development of a Professional Information Database System for Whole-Process Engineering Consulting has been officially approved for funding. A number of its research results have reached advanced levels within the industry.

2. Technical Consulting and Technical Management. It provides whole-process engineering consulting projects with full-discipline technical consulting services, including design review, design optimization, technical route justification, and specialized technical assessment. Taking technical management as its lever, it continuously improves project investment returns, construction quality, and delivery efficiency. On major projects such as the Meishan Campus of Sichuan University, the Sanya Twin Centers, the Shuangpu Campus of the Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study (UCAS), and the Shenzhen Opera House, its scheme design optimization has saved owners over RMB 100 million in aggregate investment. Its technical consulting opinions have been widely adopted by design institutes, generating replicable and scalable demonstration cases for the industry.

3. Knowledge Transfer and Data Accumulation. It systematically collects and organizes technical consulting reports, review opinions, typical cases, and project management experience, and has built a professional information database for the field, driving the consolidation, transfer, and reuse of technical achievements. It has completed the Whole-Process Consulting 2.0 service standard system and rolled it out nationwide, and has completed evaluation and grading of technical consulting reports for more than 150 projects.

4. Talent Development and Exchange & Cooperation. Working with the Jiangnan Management Institute, it cultivates whole-process engineering consulting professionals, organizes internal technical training and project case reviews, and holds more than ten specialized lectures each year, reaching several thousand participants both online and offline. It takes an active part in the activities of industry platforms such as the China Engineering Consulting Association and the Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Consulting Association, and conducts joint postdoctoral training and collaborative research with Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University of Technology, and other universities. A number of the Center's experts have been appointed as review experts for industry associations and as external supervisors at universities.

5. Digital and Intelligent Innovation. It explores the application of large AI models, BIM, and database technologies in whole-process engineering consulting scenarios, developing professional information management tools for the field. Using digital means to overcome the industry's problem of homogeneous services, it strengthens the company's technical moat in whole-process engineering consulting. It has been deeply involved in the development of the company's professional consulting large AI model, contributing nearly 1,000 high-quality technical consulting reports as training data, and helping the company become the first to bring AI-based technical consulting services into practical application.

Looking ahead, the Whole-Process Engineering Consulting Research Center will follow the national direction of high-quality development in the engineering consulting industry, deepen its work in both the theory and the practice of whole-process engineering consulting, and — driven by digitalization and intelligent technologies, with technical management and technical consulting at its core — strive to build a first-class research platform in China's whole-process engineering consulting field. It will consolidate the technical foundation for Jiangnan Management's goal of becoming "a leading provider of whole-process engineering consulting services in China," and contribute professional strength to the professionalization, standardization, digitalization, and internationalization of the engineering consulting industry.