JLL crowns innovation champions in 15th annual Da Vinci awards

CHICAGO, April 5, 2018 — JLL has selected two winners in its 15^th annual Americas Da Vinci Awards, an innovation program designed to source and reward employees' top ideas and deliver new solutions to JLL clients. One of the winning solutions, JLL InSite, enables workplace and space planning, 3D walk-through visualization and budgeting, while the other winner, Flexible Lease Essentials, provides flexible, scalable lease administration and critical date management services.

The Da Vinci awards were started to encourage innovation around commercial real estate, which is a key expense for many companies.

"The Da Vinci program is critical for JLL because it's designed to create new ways to drive value for our clients," said Greg O'Brien, CEO, Americas. "One of our ambitions as a company is to nurture a culture of continuous innovation, and the Da Vinci Awards are an outstanding example of that drive." 

Seven finalists presented Tuesday to a judging panel featuring senior JLL Americas leaders. Other finalist projects focused on space utilization technology, on-site engineering assurance and the aggregation of occupancy benchmarking data.

The Da Vinci program delivers value not only for JLL's clients, but also for the firm and its people as well. The top innovators are celebrated and recognized, and winning ideas help address client needs. Since 2003, JLL can attribute more than $800 million in direct revenue to Da Vinci award-winning ideas. Da Vinci solutions also currently produce $200 million annually in client savings.

Interest and engagement in the program has increased consistently over its history, with JLL receiving more than 120 submissions within the Americas region this year. Since the first Da Vinci Awards in 2004, winning projects have gone on to receive patents, improve safety, achieve efficiency and differentiate JLL's capabilities and offerings for its clients. For example, 2017 Da Vinci winner Dave Crowell developed a now-patented design for an electrical panel that is unique in the industry and could save approximately 500 lives each year.

The Da Vinci awards are part of JLL's Innovation & Product Development platform, which facilitates continuous innovation to develop new solutions for JLL clients and share best practices to drive productivity and delivery excellence. Other JLL innovation initiatives include our JLL Spark division, partnerships with academic institutions and innovative client relationships.

About JLL

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. A Fortune 500 company, JLL helps real estate owners, occupiers and investors achieve their business ambitions. In 2017, JLL had revenue of $7.9 billion; managed 4.6 billion square feet, or 423 million square meters; and completed investment sales, acquisitions and finance transactions of approximately $170 billion. At the end of 2017, JLL had nearly 300 corporate offices, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of 82,000. As of December 31, 2017, LaSalle had $58.1 billion of real estate assets under management. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated.