Bradford-based Yorkshire Water has won a prestigious international award for the way it handles its customers, beating off opposition from companies across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The firm clinched the coveted Gartner Customer Relation-ship Management (CRM) Excellence Award for its new Integrated Customer and Operations Management (ICOM) system.

The system combines state-of-the-art IT systems and leading-edge customer service and led to Yorkshire Water being shortlisted alongside motor giant Audi and Belgacom.

The award was presented to Yorkshire Water's IT director Alan Harrison at a two-day CRM summit in Paris.

The multi-million-pound ICOM project requires York-shire Water employees and colleagues at their customer contact centre Loop to work to five service principles.

Mr Harrison said: "This is an incredible achievement and shows how far we have come in the last few years in terms of the service we offer our customers. ICOM was an incredibly ambitious project and now we and our customers are beginning to see the benefits."

Gartner Research Director Ed Thompson said: "Yorkshire Water stood out because it explicitly started with the customer experience at the centre of the initiative, set clear measurable goals and ultimately demonstrated very impressive results on key metrics."