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

Web site: http://www.southerncompany.com/