POWERGRAMS

PAG E 5 5 Southern Company property, said Latham. The concept is to build all-electric communities on company- owned land, offering data connections to the latest, greatest and fastest technologies. "The new places we would create and the state-of-the-art technology we would make available would bring positive visibility, prosperity and growth for the cities, towns and communities within Southern Company's footprint," said Latham, assistant to Hudson, vice president of Public Relations and Charitable Giving, who also served on the team. Latham said the idea emerged within External Affairs. "We're seeing scores of opportunities for growth and development throughout the state," Latham said. "It comes down to arranging your pieces on the board to stay four or five moves ahead of the market." An example in the proposal is Celebration, Fla., a self-contained town developed on swampland unused by the Disney Company that was transformed into what is labeled as the most significant new town in the United States since the 1920s. SOFTWARE TOOL FOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AT THE BUSINESS UNIT LEVEL Team: John Banger, Charles Ivey In an evolving industry, how can we manage projects more effectively? That question helped spur Banger and Ivey to develop their SO Prize idea. Since 1976, Banger has served in engineering and compliance roles at Plants Branch, Hammond, Miller and Gorgas. Over time, he noticed a gap in project tracking and in 1985 created a software program and process that helped him manage projects more consistently at the plant level. Building from this early concept, Banger and Ivey have created an updated version of the original software solution and process that they anticipate will transform the way the company views ideas, projects and budgets. "If you spend money on it, it's a project," said Banger. The software will enable stakeholders to collect project data in a consistent manner using a template that will be shared across the company. By using the same template and process, the solution will enable more efficient project management, reduce employee stress and produce more accurate budgets. "It's all about changing the way we view projects and it starts with the idea phase," said Banger. "By using this solution and process, we can capture ideas, develop them and track them as projects." Because the software will begin tracking each project at its inception, users will have access to all aspects of a project, which will enable employees to tweak the costs of future projects more accurately without having to start from scratch. Knowledge retention is another of the many benefits of the proposal. Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning will introduce the SO Prize Top 5 in a live Southern Today webcast from the Alabama Power Corporate Headquarters auditorium Tuesday, Oct. 7 at 9 a.m. The Top 20 SO Prize submissions announced last month are being expanded to give voters a more thorough explanation of how each idea would be implemented and how Southern Company would benefit. One of the Top 5 ideas will be selected by employee votes. The Top 5 voting period opened Sept. 8 and closes at midnight on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Employees can vote by visiting the SO Prize website on Southern Today. The other four Top 5 ideas will be chosen by a review panel of Fanning and: • Steve Specker, Southern Company board member and retired president and CEO of Electric Power Research Institute • Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president, research and development, EPRI • Tom Flaherty, senior partner with Strategy& in Dallas • Kim Greene, Southern Company chief operating officer • Mark Lantrip, SCS president and CEO • Chris Womack, Southern Company president of External Affairs • Chuck Darville, Southern Company vice president of Marketing and Program Management • Larry Monroe, Southern Company chief environmental officer • Greg Barker, Alabama Power senior vice president • Anne Kaiser, vice president of Georgia Power's Northwest Region. The SO Prize website has updated summaries of each of the Top 20 ideas to help familiarize employees with the specifics of each proposal. A printed brochure about the Top 20 is being distributed to all employees. The SO Prize competition received nearly 1,000 idea submissions in June. Forty percent of the Southern Company workforce has logged on to the SO Prize website, which recorded more than 14,000 votes and 5,000 comments in the run-up to the Top 20 announcement. For more information, visit the SO Prize website. Oni, Young, Hudson, Latham, Smoke, Sellers Banger, Ivey

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