A REPORT ON

MARKET STUDY AND EXPLORATION OF

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY IN GUWAHATI

OF STELLAR DATA RECOVERY

A summer internship report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for awarding

the degree in post graduate diploma in business management, Assam Institute of

Management.

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Academics Guide Organizational Guide

Mrs. Karabi Goswami Mr. Soumyadeep Sarkar

Assistant Professor Regional Manager-East

Assam Institute of Management Stellar Data Recovery

Submitted by

Upal Jyoti Baruah

Assam Institute of Management

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled “MARKET STUDY AND

EXPLORATION OF BUSSINESS OPPORTUNITY IN GUWAHATI OF STELLAR

DATA RECOVERY” submitted by me for the Summer internship during the Post

Graduate Program to Assam Institute of Management, I also declare that the content

of this report is based on the information collected by me during these days from

different primary and secondary used.

This training is done to get exposure to industry. This project is used only for

educational purpose and it will never be published in any magazine, newspaper or

any research paper.

Name: __________________

Date: ___________________

Signature: ________________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This report has been possible due to the help and support of a lot of people. First of

all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mrs. Karabi Goswami, my

academic guide of Assam Institute of Management, under whose guidance I carried

out my project. I am extremely grateful to him for his guidance, constant support and

patience throughout the project. This project would not have been successful without

her help.

I would also like to thank my organizational guide Mr. Soumyadeep Sarkar, Regional

Manager-East, Stellar Data Recovery, for providing me an opportunity to work with

the Organization and for guiding me throughout.

I would like to thank the respondents of the survey who offered their opinions and

suggestions and sometimes critical views throughout the survey and helped me to

update myself constantly.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TITLE:

Market Study and exploration of business opportunity in Guwahati.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Reaching out to local corporate, Govt. SME sectors to understand what they

do in data loss situation and then spread awareness about data recovery and how

Stellar can help them to recover their lost data.

2. Exploring partnership opportunities for local representation of Stellar

3. Facilitate digital enquiries concerning to this region

INSTITUTE

Assam Institute of Management, Guwahati

INSTITUTIONAL GUIDE:

Ms. Karabi Goswami

LOCATION

Guwahati

METHODOLOGY

A descriptive study was done of different organisations present in Guwahati

through the method of interview schedule. It is a quantitative research.

SOURCES OF DATA

1. PRIMARY DATA: Personal Visits

Interview schedule

2. SECONDARY DATA: Websites of different organisations

SAMPLE SIZE: 71 organizations

MAJOR FINDINGS

1. 64% of the organizations faced at least 1 situation where they lost data in

their entire lifetime.

2. 65% of the organizations which faced data loss situation had contacted any

other organization to try to recover it.

3. 45% of the corporate do not have a provision for backing up their data

regularly. As such there is high market potential for data recovery services.

4. 90% of the organizations do not know about Stellar Data Recovery in

Guwahati.

5. 83% mentioned that they require a guaranteed and reliable data recovery

service in Guwahati.

RECOMENDATIONS

1. There needs to be an office or any other establishment of Stellar Data

Recovery in Guwahati.

2. It will be easier for market penetration if the charges are lowered and also if

the initial charge is based on amount of data and not on number of items.

3. Partnership with an already establish computer service centre will be very

helpful for Stellar Data Recovery.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

NO DESCRIBTION PAGE NO.

1 Introduction 01

About Guwahati- An industrial prospective 01

About the organisation 02

Data recovery process 03

2 Objective, Scope & Limitation 05

Objective 05

Scope 05

Limitation 05

3 Research Methodology 06

Objective 1 06

Identifying potential clients 06

Fixing appointment and meeting 08

Experience of organisations in data loss situation 08

Awareness of Stellar Data Recovery 10

Questions 10

Objective 2 11

Objective 3 11

4 Findings and Interpretations 12

5 Recommendations 17

Conclusion 18

List of organisations visited Annexure I

List of organisations suitable for partnership in Guwahati Annexure II

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Data has always been one of the most essential requisites for the smooth functioning

of any organization. Information is never wasted. As such in the modern world it has

become very much important to store data. To overcome this challenge many

companies all around the world have worked and created storage devices with

capacities beyond imagination a few years ago. However as all other things, these

storage devices also have life. Thus came the requirement to backup these

information in case the storage device could not live up to the expectation. However

creating another copy of these high amount and very frequently updated data is a

huge problem. Safe storage of this duplicate copy is also another problem. Thus

comes the part of recovering lost data.

As far as the competition for recovering data is concerned, there has not been much

development. Although data loss situation occurs in many organizations as well as

individuals, they are either recovered using free software themselves or are given to

local technicians for recovering them who use software to recover some portion of

the lost data.

About Guwahati - An Industrial prospective

Assam has never been one of the most industrially developed places in India.

However, as far as the north-east of India is concerned, it is the hub of all activities.

Known as the Gateway of the East, Guwahati has a population of more than 10

Lakh. Apart from that it hosts a huge number of population who work in this city. It

has three Industrial Areas, two Software Technology Parks and one Export

Promotion Industrial Park. The GDP of Guwahati was estimated to be about $1

million in 2010. The service sector has a large contribution in this amount. Guwahati

serves as the hub of trade and commerce for the entire North-East. The construction

industry has been booming in this region in the recent past. Guwahati is well

connected by air, rail and road and as such has become the point which connects the

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north eastern part of India which the country. This has resulted in huge economic

development for the city.

About the organization

Stellar Information Private Limited is into the business of Data Recovery. Data

Recovery means recovering the data that are stored in damaged data storage devices

or recovering data from files that gets corrupted due to natural disasters, virus

attacks, user errors or software errors, So that the data can be retrieved and used

again. Data Recovery is a professional service that is being provided by a very

limited number of companies and Stellar Data Recovery is the leader among them.

Data can be stored in various methods; it can be stored in printed paper which is

grouped into files or folders as in old government offices. Or it can be stored in

digital format by means of excel, word, or PDF documents.

Advantage of storing data in digital format is that it requires very less shelf space,

very low cost when compared to paper and printing cost, it can be retrieved easily,

and it can be easily send from one place to another. The only requirement is a digital

data storage device and a computer so as to work with the digital document.

Nowadays companies that are stores data in conventional printed documents and

files have very much gone extinct as price of Data storage device have drastically

come down in past decade. The amount of data being stored in the Data storage

devices has gone up exponentially and so is the value of the data being stored.

Data storage Devices are of various types they are: Hard disk (Internal/External),

CD/DVD, Pen Drives, Magnetic Tapes, Cloud servers. With Hard disk, CD/DVD,

Pen Drives being the most common type of digital data storage devices in use. These

digital data storage devices are delicate in nature and require very much care while

working. People who work with these devices are often ignorant about it and hence

chances for these devices to get damaged are very high. Once a Data storage device

gets damaged retrieving the data which is stored in it is a tiresome job and it requires

specialized people along with desired tools and controlled external environment

depending on the type of damage that the device has.

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Here is where Stellar Data Recovery or Stellar Information Technology Private

Limited is of great importance. Stellar Data Recovery has specialized workforce with

a wide range of desired tools, both software and hardware along with a world class

laboratory to provide the controlled environment.

Stellar has 1,00,000 satisfied customers spread across more than 150 countries

including USA, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Australia, U.A.E and Japan. It

has establishments in 16 locations in India. Stellar is an ISO 9001:2000 certified

company and is known for its quality. The Quality Policy is as follows: “Achieving

total customer satisfaction by delivering data security and safety through quality

products, services, solutions and training. Aiming for the continuous improvement in

our services and products through structured employee training programs and

involvement of our business partners.”

The products of Stellar Data Recovery support most major operating systems like

Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Novell. Digital Media Recovery, and E-mail

recovery are additional data recovery software that they provide. Apart from this the

company also provides data protection, data backup, and data eraser software.

Data recovery process

Stellar respects customers’ valuable time and has evolved a strict documented

process as per ISO 9001:2000 norms to ensure confidentiality, consistency &

transparency each and every time. Stellar uses Read-Only processes on your crashed

media so that your media status is not changed irrespective of the recovery process

outcome. Customers are required to fill - in a media assessment form and provide it

along with the media at Stellar Data Recovery labs.

Outstation customers need to follow the instructions on how to pack their media

&send it to nearest Stellar Data Recovery Lab. Once the media is received, the

crashed media is assigned a unique job reference id, which would be helpful for the

customer in future correspondence.

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Evaluation of the Media at Stellar Data Recovery Labs: Once media for data

recovery along with necessary details reach lab, specialists will analyze the nature

and amount of corruption/damage, its probable cause, assessing and working out the

fastest data recovery process.

The Evaluation of media will be done by data recovery specialists. In Post

Evaluation stellar submits the following details:

1. An estimate of the percentage of data recovery possible.

2. The time involved in the data recovery process.

3. The Cost estimate for data recovery job.

The Evaluation report along with the quotation is sent across to the customer

through- email/telephone/fax

Based on the Evaluation report provided by the Data Recovery specialists, customer

can give his consent whether stellar should proceed with the Data Recovery job or

not. Once the customer agrees to the above, he/she needs to send across a work

order. Data Recovery specialists would start the recovery process and ensure that the

recovery of data is done as per customer satisfaction.

Once the Data recovery process is complete, the customer care executive/coordinator

sends the Directory Listing in a text file on E-mail. Alternatively he/she may also

verify their Data the Stellar Lab and register written acceptance by E-mail/Fax. The

Data is delivered on a Free DVD or on hard disk supplied by customer.

Stellar understand that circumstances and need for a recovery is different each time.

To suit customer needs Stellar has introduced a number of service options. The

service plans are categorized into Off-site (In-Lab) and On-site (Customer’s

Premises) and offer a wide range of service deliverables.

Stellar offers Standard & Priority Service plans for both Off-site (In – Lab) and On-

site (Customer premises) data Recovery Services.

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CHAPTER 2

OBJECTIVE, SCOPE & LIMITATION

Objective:

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Reaching out to local corporates, Govt. SME sectors to understand what

they do in data loss situation and then spread awareness about data

recovery and how Stellar can help them to recover their lost data.

2. Exploring partnership opportunities for local representation of Stellar.

3. Facilitate in enquiries concerning to Guwahati.

Scope:

The extent of geographical area has been limited to Guwahati city. The primary

reason being that Guwahati has the largest number of corporates compared to rest of

the towns and cities of Assam. As far as type of organization is concerned, this study

covers all type of organization which is computerized to any extend.

Limitations:

1. Organizations using large number of computers is very limited in this

region.

2. Meeting the person related to IT was very difficult as many organizations

have outsourced their IT division.

3. Many organizations have a centralized IT division located in their head

office or regional office.

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study was conducted mainly using primary data collected during interviews with

different companies. The exploration of business opportunity for Stellar was limited

because of the low density of corporates in this region. The sample size for this study

is 71. The research methodology in this study is Interview Method.

The Interview method is very helpful in getting an insight into the prospective

client’s mind. Also it was important to create awareness of Stellar as an effective and

better way of recovering data compared to the already existing means. Feedback of

the clients about data loss situation and data recovery could be also being taken in

the method.

OBJECTIVE 1

The purpose of this study is to figure out opportunities and future threats lying in the

market for Stellar Information Technology Private Limited and try to promote the

company and enhance its awareness in the market. The field work in this study

includes:

1. Identifying potential clients

Potential clients were first identified by various sources including

personal contact, Google Maps, Yellow Pages and also using Register

Of Companies, Shillong to find companies registered with them in

this region.

The organizations were divided into Government organizations,

Private/Public Limited and Proprietorship business. They were further

sub-divided into their line of business such as Construction, Finance,

Services etc.

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Category Description

Government

The organizations categorized as Government are

owned by either the state government or the central

government.

Public Limited

There are a considerable number of Public Limited

organizations with their registered office in another

part of the country having branch offices in Guwahati.

Also there are Public Limited organizations operating

from Guwahati. These fall in this category.

Private Limited All Private Limited organizations fall in this category

Proprietorship These are mostly one man run business enterprise or

with a small number of employees

Category Description

Construction

Organizations dealing in Real Estate, Architect or

building materials. It includes cement making

organizations.

Education Educational institutes of different levels.

Finance Financial institutes, insurance companies etc.

Food Products related to food industry

Healthcare Hospitals, Healthcare products

Media TV channels, radio channels, photo studios

Miscellaneous products Organizations producing raw materials

Miscellaneous services Securities, trading business etc.

Technological products Computer service centers

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2. Fixing appointment and meeting person responsible for IT.

Contact was made to understand their availability of any IT related

person. Then an appointment was fixed with them.

The main problem was the unavailability of IT person in many

organizations. Also many have a centralized IT department in their

head or regional office.

3. Learn about their experience in data loss situation.

The primary questions were whether they have faced a data loss

situation. If “Yes”, how do they handle the situation. The number of

computers used in the organization was also noted. Whether they

have a provision for backing up their data was also asked. Since

Stellar does not have much presence in Guwahati, does the

organization require such a service in Guwahati was asked. Finally

their suggestions and queries were answered. The following questions

were asked.

a. The number of computers the organization possesses was noted.

The more number of computers the more is the probability that

a hard disk will crash. The respondents were classified into the

following categories

Less than 10 computers

10-20 computers

20-50 computers

More than 50 computers

b. There can be organizations which have already faced data loss

situation in the past. Effort was made to find out the frequency

of data loss situation faced by the organizations. Response was

grouped in the following manner:

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Category Indication

Not Yet Never faced a situation of data loss

Rarely Has faced once or twice in their existence

Frequently Has faced situation of data loss a number of times

Very frequently Faces situation of data loss quite frequently

c. If the respondents said that they have faced a situation where

they lost data, effort was made to understand their action in

this regard. The observations made can be categorized in the

following manner

Category Indication

Local service

center or

technician is

approached

Organizations which approach a local service

center or technician to either recover or

entirely change the storage device.

They have in

house facility

They have an IT team in their organization

who does the work of data recovery

Use software There are many software including free or

paid.

Do not try to

recover

A few organization do not try to recover

because they already have a backed up copy of

the data or do not know of the facility that data

could be recovered.

Approach

Stellar

Organizations which were a client of Stellar

were also approached.

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d. Organizations may have a provision for data backup. Whether

they perform regular back up was asked. No other information

on back up was asked as it is out of the scope of the study.

The responses was objective and was classified as Yes or

No

4. Awareness of Stellar Data Recovery

The services offered by Stellar and clients’ advantage of it over other

already existing facilities like local technicians and software were

ascertained. Finally how Stellar can be contacted and how the process

of data recovery works were explained. An effort was made to

understand if the respondent already knew about Stellar. It was group

as Yes or No .

5. Finally, a question was asked for their view on whether they require the data

recovery service by Stellar in Guwahati, It was also an objective question and

was classified as Yes or No .

The companies visited during this study and their responses are attached as

Annexure I.

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OBJECTIVE 2

The second objective was to explore partnership opportunity for local representation

of Stellar. For this objective I visited a number of service centers where local

technicians do data recovery using free or paid software. I believe they would be the

best partners of local representation since they are already known in the market.

Many organizations responded that they go to such service centers when they face

data loss situation. A list of such probable partners is enclosed.

OBJECTIVE 3

Another objective was to facilitate in the digital enquiries concerning this region. I

studied to process of collecting hard drives and then couriering it to Kolkatta. I

studied the frequently asked questions about Stellar. However in the period of my

study no such enquiry was made.

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CHAPTER 3

FINDINGS

&

INTERPRETATIONS

1. Sample size: 72 organizations 2. Frequency on the basis of type

Government 8

Public Limited 19

Private Limited 27

Proprietorship 17

3. Frequency on the basis of product or services offered

Miscellaneous services

24%

Construction 22%

Media 20%

Finance 10%

Technological products

10%

Food 4%

Education 4%

Healthcare 3%

Miscellaneous products

3%

Construction 15

Education 4

Finance 7

Food 3

Healthcare 2

Media 14

Miscellaneous products 3

Miscellaneous services 17

Technological products 7

Government 9%

Public Limited 27%

Private Limited

39%

Proprietorship 25%

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4. The number of computers in the organization

Less than 10 14

10-20 18

20-50 18

More than 50 15

5. The frequency of data loss situation faced by different organizations

Not Yet 25

Rarely 29

Frequently 12

Very frequently 05

64% of the organizations faced at least 1 situation where they lost

data in their entire lifetime.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Less than 10 10-20 20-50 More then 50

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Not Yet Rarely Frequently Veryfrequently

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6. Action taken by organizations in data loss situation

Local service center or technician is approached 14

They have in house facility 16

Use software 8

Do not try to recover 8

(Either due to unavailability or already backed up)

Approach Stellar 1

The organizations that responded that they face requirement for data

recovery very frequently were all computer service centers. 65% of the

organizations which faced data loss situation had contacted any other

organization to try to recover it.

8. Provision for back up of data in the organization

45% (31 out of 71) of the corporate do not have a provision for backing up their data

regularly. As such there is high market potential for data recovery services.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Local servicecentre or

technician isapproached

They have inhouse facility

Use software Do not try torecover (either dueto unavailability oralready backed up)

Approach Stellar

Organizations

having facility for back up

55%

Organizations not having

facility for back up

45%

Organizations having 38

facility for back up

Organizations not 31 having facility for back up

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9. Frequency of organizations already knowing about Stellar Data Recovery

10. Their view on requirement of data recovery service by Stellar in Guwahati

The market share of Stellar Data Recovery is very low however 83% (57 out

of 71) mentioned that they require a guaranteed and reliable data recovery

service in Guwahati. This shows the amount of market in Guwahati.

11. Public Limited companies which has a branch office in Guwahati 45% (10 out

of 22) responded that they do not require data recovery service as they are

centrally managed by the IT department from their head or regional office.

12. One Way Anova test shows there is a significant relationship (Sig. = 0.48)

between the number of computers used and the frequency of data loss.

According, to probability too, the more the number of computers the more is the

probability of one crashing.

Yes 90%

No 10%

Required

83%

Not required

17%

Yes 07

No 64

Required 57

Not required 12

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SWOT ANNALYSIS

Strength:

1. The biggest strength of Stellar is its reputation as a Multi-National

organization with years of experience in this field.

2. Secrecy of data recovered is very important for the client. Stellar has

goodwill in this.

3. Stellar has the infrastructure to recover 100% data.

4. Stellar has facilities such as recovering from RAID which lack in its

competitors.

5. Stellar has the ability to recover data not only from Logical damage but also

from Physical damage.

Weakness:

1. Stellar has not yet established an office in Guwahati.

2. The charges of Stellar are comparatively high.

3. A considerable amount of time is required if a client based in Guwahati wants

to recover data. This is because of the unviability of infrastructure in this

region.

Opportunity:

1. Guwahati is a growing market.

2. A considerable number of corporates have recently established in this region.

4. Guwahati is also the center for affairs for the entire north east part of India.

Threats:

1. The wide availability of pirated software used for data recovery is a threat.

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CHAPTER 4

RECOMMENDATIONS

From the data collected and experience from interview with persons from different

organizations, the following recommendations may be offered to Stellar Data

Recovery to establish a market in Guwahati.

1. Data recovery for which money needs to be paid will only be possible if

the data is of high value. As such, duplicity of the data given for recovery

is not expected. As such there needs to be an office or establishment to

prove that the data has been taken good care of.

2. Since Guwahati in a new market, market penetration is not very difficult

because of the unavailability of reputed competitors. However because of

the availability of plug and play software many local technicians have

tried to do data recovery in a very minimal cost. As such if the charges of

Stellar is reduced or is based on amount of data and not item based in

would be easier to penetrate this market.

3. It was seen that many organization especially those organizations that

have only a branch office in Guwahati and a regional office in some other

part does not have an IT division in the branch office. As such contact of

these organizations will not be much beneficial as they are directed by the

regional office.

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CONCLUSION

From this study I came to the conclusion that although Guwahati does not have as

high number of corporate compared to metro cities yet there is a requirement for data

recovery service because of the unavailability of such in this region. Also investing

here gives the additional advantage of getting easy access to other parts of North-

East. If Stellar enters into a partnership of an already establish computer service

center marketing will also be not very difficult since they already have a market.

However Guwahati being a very price sensitive market, charges needs to be thought

of. It can be concluded that there is a good opportunity for Stellar to establish its

presence in Guwahati.