Quelle: CIO, Asia

The key criterion that enterprises have traditionally used to evaluate and decide the types of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment and services they need is the near- to medium-term ROIROI. However, with changes in business practices that the Internet has ushered in, enterprises have had to start thinking more creatively. Given that many enterprises have allowed their partners, suppliers and customers to plug into parts of their IT infrastructure, the importance of putting in solutions that ensure uninterrupted flows of information from one entity to the other, has become critical. This means enterprises now have to think of solutions that ensure business continuity as well. Furthermore, the continually tightening noose of competition has been nudging companies to think more about solutions that enhance customer satisfaction, instead of focusing purely on the near- to medium-term ROI. Alles zu ROI auf CIO.de

Rescue Team

The extremes in climate, its isolation and sparse population made it fertile ground on which the imperial Russian government, and the Soviet regime that followed, spawned a network of penal colonies. The penal system was dismantled after the collapse of communism.

The island of Sakhalin, off the eastern coast of mainland Russia, however, has not fallen into a state of abandonment. It has found anew usefulness: huge reserves of oil have been discovered.

Two international consortia are drilling for oil in offshore fields close to Sakhalin's northeast coast. This means that there are a lot of expatriate workers in Sakhalin, many with families, who without doubt would have asked for the assurance that they would enjoy relatively easy access to a high-level of health care and medical support, as a condition for accepting to work here.

This is why the expertise of International SOS Pte. Ltd. has been tapped. It is the world's largest medical-assistance company and provider of remote-location medical services. International SOS employs 3,000 people in 66 countries - a third of whom are medical professionals - manning its alarm centres (call centres staffed with medically-trained professionals), offices, clinics and remote-site medical centres. Its clients comprise multinational companies, insurers and premium-level credit card holders.