FD at the heart of ecommerce boom
FINANCE directors are at the heart of the decisions that dictate the fortunes of their businesses and specialist ecommerce agency Chapter Eight is reaping the rewards from a bold investment.
The firm took the decision several years ago to invest in the security around its online retail platform and it has become a critical element of its business.
Chapter Eight finance director Sue Laverick said: “It was a big decision for us at the time. We started on this journey four years ago when this wasn’t such a big issue and we did ask ourselves whether we were doing the right thing but it is now business critical.
“We work with security levels on credit card data at bank levels and this is a very big plus for what we do. The last two pieces of business we have won were purely on the basis of our payment systems.”
Having stolen a march on their competitors, the challenge for Chapter Eight is to stay ahead.
“The focus now is about the speed of websites and helping clients to recognise that the faster their website and the faster you can get through the ordering process the better their conversion rate will be.”
Mrs Laverick’s role in Chapter Eight’s success was recognised with the “Best finance director of an SME” award at the 2011 Yorkshire Finance Director of the Year Awards.
“I don’t come to work to win award but it is nice recognition, particularly for the people I work with,” she said. “Life is tough these days and they are working very hard and its nice to know people think they are doing a good job.”
Nominations are now being accepted for this year’s Yorkshire Finance Director of the Year Awards which are sponsored by Ernst & Young, Sewell Recruitment Group and Squire Sanders.
The awards categories are:
Best FD of a Ltd company (under £50m turnover)
Best FD of a Ltd company (over £50m turnover)
Best FD of a plc
Young FD of the Year (up to 40 years of age)
Best FD of a private equity-backed business
Outstanding achievement award
Best Public Sector FD of the Year
For further information on the awards, categories and tickets, visit www.fdawards.co.uk.
