Southern Company Announces First Annual IT Vendor Award Winners

ATLANTA, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southern Company today announced the
winners of its first annual information technology vendor awards. Created to
recognize exceptional collaboration and account management performance, the
awards were presented at the company's IT Shared Success event, an annual
meeting where Southern Company's top technology vendors learn about the
company's challenges and technology needs.

The first annual "Shared Success" award was given to Accenture for exceptional
support and sharing best practices. Over the past year, Accenture has brought
subject matter experts to Southern Company to conduct "behind the meter"
business opportunities and data management information sessions. Accenture
also helped reorganize the company's application department and assisted in
rewriting its online customer care application to make it more extendable and
open to other applications across the company.

"Accenture has tremendous knowledge about the electric utility business and
they are inside many major corporations across the country," said Becky
Blalock, senior vice president and CIO of Southern Company. "One of the things
that I love about them is that they bring a lot of the best practices they
find in other companies to Southern Company."

In all, 25 companies were nominated for the Shared Success award. The Southern
Company IT vendor management team reviewed the nominations and selected
finalists based on the following characteristics:

-- Commitment: perseveres, shares the vision with enthusiasm, dependable;
-- Competency: excellence in quality, timely delivery, brings in
expertise
where needed;
-- Contribution: meets demanding standards, flexible, responsive,
creative
collaboration; and

-- Customer Satisfaction: teamwork, trustworthy, continuity in actions,
finding alternatives while giving high quality of service.

This year's finalists included Accenture, Capricorn Systems, CCCi, CTS and
Dell. Southern Company's IT executive team reviewed the finalists and chose
Accenture based on their collaborative efforts and exceptional partnership.

Dell's Jackie McKinley received the first annual "Account Manager of the Year"
award. McKinley, having served on the Southern Company account for nearly two
years, was recognized for continuously going above and beyond to contribute to
Southern Company's success. She inherited the Southern Company account shortly
after a new Southern Company contract was given to one of her competitors.
Even so, she continued to provide excellent support.

"Jackie has just been remarkable over the past 18 months," said Blalock.
"Above and beyond supporting the hardware we have installed, Jackie has worked
with Southern Company to pair Dell Solution Experts with Southern Company
personnel to engineer solutions to our business problems."

With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating
capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy
company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity,
Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing
competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless
communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer
service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the
national average. Southern Company is consistently listed among the top U.S.
electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Visit our Web site at www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company

Media: Southern Company Media Relations, +1-404-506-5333, +1-866-506-5333,
media@southerncompany.com