The document provides a report on conducting a market study and exploring business opportunities for Stellar Data Recovery in Guwahati, India. The objectives of the study were to raise awareness of Stellar's data recovery services, explore partnership opportunities, and facilitate inquiries in the Guwahati region. The methodology involved identifying and interviewing 71 organizations in Guwahati across various sectors to understand their experiences with data loss, data backup practices, and need for reliable data recovery services. Key findings from the interviews revealed that 64% of organizations had experienced data loss at least once, 65% had sought external help for recovery, and 45% did not regularly backup their data. The report recommends that Stellar establish an office or other presence

1. 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

2. 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: ________________

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 1 | P a g e
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

8. 2 | P a g e
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.

9. 3 | P a g e
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.

10. 4 | P a g e
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.

11. 5 | P a g e
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.

12. 6 | P a g e
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.

13. 7 | P a g e
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

14. 8 | P a g e
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:

15. 9 | P a g e
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.

16. 10 | P a g e
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.

17. 11 | P a g e
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.

18. 12 | P a g e
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%

19. 13 | P a g e
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 Very
frequently

20. 14 | P a g e
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 service
centre or
technician is
approached
They have in
house facility
Use software Do not try to
recover (either due
to unavailability or
already backed up)
Approach Stellar
Organizat
ions
having
facility for
back up
55%
Organizat
ions not
having
facility for
back up
45%
Organizations having 38
facility for back up
Organizations not 31
having facility for back up

21. 15 | P a g e
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%
Require
d
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.