Next Thursday we will be attending the Barnsley Conference and will proudly be able to display the framed certificate that we received for being Highly Commended in the Innovation and Technology category of the Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce Awards hosted at Magna last Friday night.  We were disappointed not to have gone one better and won, but must express our sincere congratulations to S3 ID who were winners of this section on the night.

Though disappointed at not winning, on the night we were delighted to have been in the running, and eventually to have received the Commendation.  The evening was really well presented and organised by the Chamber of Commerce, and everyone seemed to enjoy a special night in a wonderful setting.  The table we sat at was especially successful, with two parties being winners and the other two being ‘Highly Commended’.

It was extremely pleasing for our continuous efforts to improve the benefits and services for our clients to receive local recognition.  It was noticeable that we were the only accountants that appeared amongst the nominees for any of the awards.  The words “proactive”, “innovative” and “different” proliferate on the websites of many accountants, but to what extent are such claims valid if they simply use the same software to produce more or less the same things for their clients.  At DEB Chartered Accountants we believe that to be proactive requires additional activity, over and above simply going through the motions;  being innovative involves a degree of creativity rather than simply using products that are  widely available to all accountants; and being different means being able to provide something that others cannot.  At DEB Chartered Accountants we feel we have a long way to go, but at least we have set off on the journey.  We are excited at the possibilities that our current developments will provide when completed, and are delighted that we have received recognition from the first local award that we have entered.

Coming second has become something of a habit.  We have come second no less than four times in the Innovation and Technology category in the 2020 Innovation Awards.  2020 Innovation operates both nationally and internationally and is the UK’s largest Accountants membership organisation.  Despite being runners-up on these occasions, we did however manage to win their award for Innovation in Technology in 2008.  We believe that no other accounting firm in the country has such a record of success in the 2020 Innovation Awards.  The term “Second by all accounts” was the headline used by the reporter in the Barnsley Chronicle on the last occasion that we came second.  We hope that our application next year can go one better.

DEB Chartered Accountants strive to continually improve the services we can offer. We feel that this is an objective that all successful firms should work towards, and in this regard, would like to again express our congratulations to the winners of all the awards on Friday evening, all the nominees, and all those that entered applications. If you look at our previous blog post Congratulations to Awards Nominees you will see we have encouraged any businesses, who believe that they provide “excellence” to their customers, to join our group on Linked-in called “Excellence in Yorkshire Business”.  The objective of this group is to share ideas to enable us all to benefit from new and innovative ideas that in turn can be applied to our own businesses.  We would be delighted to receive your applications and look forward to welcoming you to the group.

If you are attending the Barnsley Conference on Thursday please take the opportunity to come to our stand and say hello.  We would be delighted to meet you.