York Science Park residents reach national award finals

Two businesses based on York Science Park are celebrating after reaching the final stages of two prestigious national industry awards.

Atkinsons, a chartered accountancy practice, was named runner up in the Small Firm category of the Accounting Web Practice Excellence Programme 2013, and was the only Finalist based in the North of England.

The Award is the culmination of the Practice Excellence Programme which comprises an in-depth client satisfaction survey and report monitored by Accounting Web judges.

Questions range from whether the company provides value for money, whether they understand clients’ objectives to whether they are flexible and respond to clients’ needs and how they communicate overall.

Atkinsons scored an average of 9.5 out of 10 across all the survey questions and 99% of clients said they would recommend them to a colleague.

The Award was announced at a special ceremony in London last Thursday (3 October). Peter Atkinson, director of Atkinsons commented: “Our company ethos is to help clients by delivering an exceptional level of service so we are delighted to have been named runners up in this category, which is entirely based on customer feedback. To have achieved this on a national scale is particularly pleasing and we are hugely proud of our team.”

Elsewhere, TouchRight Software, who moved onto York Science Park in the Spring, has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Innovation category of the 2012/13 Landlord & Letting Awards. The awards are the premier nationwide private rented sector awards in the UK and are designed to recognise and reward the best in the industry.

TouchRight entered their recently launched web and mobile application which uses the latest technology to help letting agents carry out property inspections more efficiently and make property inspectors more productive.

The winners are due to be announced at a Gala Dinner being held at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry during the Landlord and Letting Show on Wednesday 27th November, 2013.

Terry Lightfoot, director of TouchRight Software commented: “We are absolutely thrilled to be a Finalist in these Awards so soon after we have launched our new software, which is already proving hugely popular in the property sector. We are now looking forward to the ceremony in November and hope we take home a winner’s trophy.”

Tracey Smith, managing director of York Science Park, said: “It’s fantastic news for Atkinsons and TouchRight Software to have achieved such national recognition by being named Finalists in these Awards and perfectly reflects the environment of excellence and innovation that we strive to provide for our resident businesses on York Science Park.

Entering Awards such as these is great for businesses as it helps to both raise their profiles and position them as leaders in their respective fields, and we would encourage others to follow their lead.“