Jaypee Business School

A constituent of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University

A-10, Sector 62, Noida (UP) India 201 307 www.jbs.ac.in

Corporate Internship Report

Internship Report submitted as a partial requirement for the award of the two year Master of Business Administration Program

Name: Chetna Monga MBA 2008-10 Telephone: +91-9910848610 E-mail: chetna.monga@yahoo.in

Corporate Internship Supervisor Name: Mr. Piyush Gupta Contact details: +91-9711335568 Mailing Address: piyush.gupta@routeguru.com

Faculty Supervisor: Dr.Jitendra Kumar Mishra +91-9911224731 jitendrakmishra@yahoo.co.uk

Start Date for Internship:1 June,2009 End Date for Internship: 28 July, 2009 Report Date: 31 July, 2009

Self Certification

I hereby certify that I, Chetna Monga have successfully completed my internship with RouteGuru in the month of June- July (01 June, 2009 to 28 July, 2009). This is also to certify that this report is an original product and no unfair means like copying etc have been used for its completion.

Name: Chetna Monga Signature: Date: 31 July 2009

Certificate

Acknowledgements

No task is a single person effort, same is with this project. Thus I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those people who helped me in accomplishing my project. I owe my project success to all faculty members, especially our Director Prof. Ravi Shanker, for providing me wonderful opportunity and guidance. I would like to extend my special gratitude to Dr. Jitender Mishra, my faculty supervisor for providing excellent supervision for the successful completion of this project. This project provided me a platform to increase my knowledge and empowered me with a better understanding of concepts in the real world scenario. And last but not the least special thanks to RouteGuru which accepted me in spite of my inexperience in the field and gave me the opportunity to work and learn with them. My special thanks are also to my Corporate Internship Supervisor Mr. Piyush Gupta, Co-founder, RouteGuru who guided and helped me in completing this project inspite of his/her busy schedule.

Table of contents

S. No.

Topic

Page Number

Corporate Internship Objectives

Corporate Internship- Abstract

Internship Organizations Profile vis-vis its competitors Industry Analysis

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Financial Analysis

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Detailed study on the Marketing, Operations and Finance & HR functions OR Details of the specific field based project assigned during the internship

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Project - Conclusion & Recommendations My Take Away Key Learnings

37

47

Annexure & References

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Jaypee Business School

Objectives of the Corporate Internship

The purpose of Corporate Internship for a minimum time of 8 weeks is to connect theory and practice, obtain knowledge & awareness of the functioning of various departments of the corporate and its environment which is utmost necessary for the success of the budding managers. The basic objectives of the summer internship programme for the MBA students are: 1. To understand the business and competitive environment in which the organization is operating. 2. To analyze and understand the financial position of the organization viz a viz competitors. 3. To study atleast one management department and its practices. 4. To facilitate our students in testing what they have learnt in the foundation courses in the first year. 5. To get a feel of corporate life and its functioning & understand various interaction styles.

2009

CORPORATE INTERNSHIP REPORT

Abstract RouteGuru is a location-based services company, focused on solving the common problems associated with finding, reaching and sharing locations. Based on active observation of consumer behavioral patterns in seeking and/or giving driving directions, RouteGuru pioneered the concept of Textual Landmark based Driving Directions - a patent pending technology.RouteGuru.com web application instantly caught the attention of industry. RouteGuru also introduced an On-The-Go (SMS) service to find RouteHints. This one-of-its-kind service allows users to request approximate distance, auto-fare and concise directions using a simple SMS. RouteGuru also pioneered an innovative solution for personalizing last-mile directions for a location and sharing it easily with friends. A patent is pending for this idea.RouteGuru is committed to solve the problems in LBS industry and invests heavily on R&D to find innovative solutions. RouteGuru brand belongs to Navolve Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an Indian company founded in February 2006 and headquartered at New Delhi. The company consists of a technical team; which is involved in the new product development. Being a startup, the company does not have a formal hierrihaial structure. However, this helps in the pouring of new ideas during the company meetings. Being an intern in a start-up, I was supposed to carry out the marketing activities for their new product My location, which is due to be launched. By developing new questionnaires and surveys, I tried to assess the potential for the new product. The idea is conceptualized on the principle 20% of the vicinity = 80% cost of the journey While travelling or reaching an unknown destination, it is easy to reach an area, sector or a landmark around that place. But we have often seen people seeking help from localities about the last mile directions. There are many companies in India, which offer Geographical Information Services like mapymyindia.com and Satnav. Currently, in the country the consumer use of GIS is not so penetrated and is widely used only by the defence forces and other central agencies. However, this is bound to change with the increasing use of technology by the consumers.

RouteGuru PROFILE

RouteGuru is a location-based services company, focused on solving the common problems associated with finding, reaching and sharing locations. Based on active observation of consumer behavioral patterns in seeking and/or giving driving directions, RouteGuru pioneered the concept of Textual Landmark based Driving Directions - a patent pending technology. RouteGuru.com web application instantly caught the attention of industry. RouteGuru also introduced an On-The-Go (SMS) service to find RouteHints. This one-of-its-kind service allows users to request approximate distance, auto-fare and concise directions using a simple SMS. RouteGuru also pioneered an innovative solution for personalizing last-mile directions for a location and sharing it easily with friends. A patent is pending for this idea. RouteGuru is committed to solve the problems in LBS industry and invests heavily on R&D to find innovative solutions. RouteGuru brand belongs to Navolve Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an Indian company founded in February 2006 and headquartered at New Delhi.

Team Profile

Avinash Agrawal, Co-founder, CEO Avinash embodies RouteGurus product vision and strategy. He brings an exhaustive experience of 11 years in the technology industry. Before co-founding RouteGuru, he served as Product Manager at an innovative start-up, leading GIS software products positioned in enterprise market in telecom domain (2002-2006). Prior to that, he held product-engineering roles in renowned software product companies in the USA, Middle East and India. Avinash holds a B.Tech Degree from IIT Mumbai.

Piyush Gupta, Co-founder, CMO Piyush leads marketing and business development at RouteGuru. He brings wide experience in engineering, management and business skills. Previously, Piyush co-founded Stendek R&D, Kochi A product off-shoring startup; worked with Accenture R&D Labs, Bangalore and helped EDB (A product startup at Norway) in off-shoring product development and streamlining business processes. Piyush is also associated with Institute For The Future (California) as an LBS industry analyst and works closely with their research team, also leads various global initiatives from Asia. Piyush holds a B.Tech Degree from Cochin University of Science And Technology, Kochi.

Rajesh Ragavan, Co-founder, COO Rajesh brings 20 years of GIS cartography and data quality management experience, recent 9 years in India in GIS product companies with his work focusing in Indian urban areas, previously 7 years in United Nations and the earliest 3 years with Indian government agencies. Rajesh is often invited to advise government agencies in relation to GIS projects. He holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Cartography from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi (1989) and an M.A. in Cartography from Delhi University (1988).

The Industry analysis: Information Technology=> Geographical Information System

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Information Technology
The information technology (IT) industry has become of the most robust industries in the world. IT, more than any other industry or economic facet, has an increased productivity, particularly in the developed world, and therefore is a key driver of global economic growth. Economies of scale and insatiable demand from both consumers and enterprises characterize this rapidly growing sector. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) explains the information technology as encompassing all possible aspects of information systems based on computers. Both software development and the hardware involved in the IT industry include everything from computer systems, to the design, implementation, study and development of IT and management systems. Owing to its easy accessibility and the wide range of IT products available, the demand for IT services has increased substantially over the years. The IT sector has emerged as a major global source of both growth and employment. Features of the IT Industry at a Glance Economies of scale for the information technology industry are high. The marginal cost of each unit of additional software or hardware is insignificant compared to the value addition that results from it. Unlike other common industries, the IT industry is knowledge-based. Efficient utilization of skilled labor forces in the IT sector can help an economy achieve a rapid pace of economic growth. The IT industry helps many other sectors in the growth process of the economy including the services and manufacturing sectors. The IT industry can serve as a medium of e-governance, as it assures easy accessibility to information. The use of information technology in the service sector improves operational efficiency and adds to transparency. It also serves as a medium of skill formation. A wide variety of services come under the domain of the information technology industry. Some of these services are as follows:

Systems architecture Database design and development Networking Application development Testing Documentation Security services

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Geographical Information System (GIS)

A geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. A GIS helps you answer questions and solve problems by looking at your data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared. GIS technology can be integrated into any enterprise information system framework. Quotes to What is GIS? In the strictest sense, a GIS is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information, i.e. data identified according to their locations. Practitioners also regard the total GIS as including operating personnel and the data that go into the system. USGS A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen on earth. GIS technology integrates common database operations such as query and statistical analysis with the unique visualization and geographic analysis benefits offered by maps. ESRI GIS is an integrated system of computer hardware, software, and trained personnel linking topographic, demographic, utility, facility, image and other resource data that is geographically referenced. NASA GIS has already affected most of us in some way without us even realizing it. If youve ever using an Internet mapping program to find directions, congratulations, youve personally used GIS. The new supermarket chain on the corner was probably located using GIS to determine the most effective place to meet customer demand. The GIS community can be broadly divided into three categories - Doers, Users and Viewers. Doers are involved in data creation. This includes national mapping agencies like Survey of India (SOI), Geological Survey of India, National Bureau of Soil Survey &Landuse Planning, Forest Survey of India, and so forth. It also includes agencies involved in providing satellite data, bulk and custom processed, like the NRSA, Space Imaging, Earth Watch and so forth. Users make use of the GIS data from different sources through data integration, value-addition and data analysis.

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Viewers are the consumers or decision makers who need access to information for planning / management.

What can be done with GIS?

Map Where Things Are Mapping where things are lets you find places that have the features you're looking for, and to see where to take action. Find a featurePeople use maps to see where or what an individual feature is.

The map shows the agriculture pattern in Punjab, India Finding patternsLooking at the distribution of features on the map instead of just an individual feature, you can see patterns emerge. Map Quantities People map quantities, like where the most and least are, to find places that meet their criteria and take action, or to see the relationships between places. This gives an additional level of information beyond simply mapping the locations of features.

This is commonly adopted by companies to decide their target places according to market segmentation or deciding other marketing strategies. For example a company is launching a rich coffee brand and its target customer is high income group. It can easily identify it with the help of map quantities and decide marketing strategies according to concentration of their target customers in different regions. OR Public health officials might not only want to map physicians, but also map the numbers of physicians per 1,000 people in each census tract to see which 13

areas are adequately served, and which are not. Map Densities A density map lets you measure the number of features using a uniform areal unit, such as acres or square miles, so you can clearly see the distribution.

For instance the map given shows the registered HIV cases in India (state wise). Find What's Inside Use GIS to monitor what's happening and to take specific action by mapping what's inside a specific area. For example, a district attorney would monitor drugrelated arrests to find out if an arrest is within 1,000 feet of a school--if so, stiffer penalties apply. Real time example: Dr. Lal path labs recently opened their new lab in New Friends Colony, New Delhi by identifying a need of a recognised path lab amongst many hospitals in and around that area like ESCORTS, Bansals, G.B. Pant and few more.

Map Change Map the change in an area to anticipate future conditions, decide on a course of action, or to evaluate the results of an action or policy. 1. By mapping where and how things move over a period of time, you can gain insight into how they behave.. 2. Map change to anticipate future needs. For example, a police chief might study how crime patterns change from month to month to help decide where officers should be assigned 3. Map conditions before and after an action or event to see the impact. A retail analyst might map the change in store sales before and after a regional ad campaign to see where the ads were most effective.

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(Comparison drawn by a Yahoo Maps user)

GIS as Industry
As an industry, GIS is commonly perceived as a specialized niche of "information systems." It is seen as bounded, in a porous sense, by computer aided design (CAD), remote sensing, and relational database management systems (RDBMS). Not unlike these and other information systems, the commercial world of GIS is viewed as an ill-defined combination of hardware, software, data, and consulting. Companies that operate within the industry tend to supply products and/or support services in one or more of these areas. Many of the companies in the hardware, data, and consultant sectors are major players in the much wider information systems industry, although there are specialized niches within these sectors that deal primarily with the spatial data handling industries (e.g., digitizing and large-format scanning hardware). E.g.: SatNav Technologies, InfoTech, Rolta, Satyam etc in India However, the core of the industry, that which represents the purest primary GIS business (Dangermond 1991), is the multitude of GIS software vendors. Even here, however, many companies now engage in the provision of hardware, data, consulting, and support services (e.g., training). As an industry, then, GIS is best viewed as a loose consortium of interests that has come into existence almost entirely within the last decade, on the back of tremendous advances in computer processing and hardware technology. The industry growth rates for this period have probably been of the order of 25-35% per annum (Maguire 1991). The industry was predicted to project the growth at 35-40% during the next few years11 in 97-98 15

LBS/GIS service is considered as another killer service after SMS. It has a great market scale and a favourable profit potential; however, the real development is slow. Along with the perfect of industry chain, LBS/GIS market is expected to be larger and larger. The global LBS/ GIS market started to accelerate in 2005, and the revenue would have reached 11.7 billion USD by 2008.America was expected to occupy near 50% of the global LBS/GIS market share by 2007. In the two leading LBS/GIS country markets of Japan and Korea, the market will be more segmented and extend. In the European market, the LBS/GIS market development was not as good as most of consulting firms expected, however, along with the development of data services and 3G networks, LBS/GIS market has started to accelerate, the CAGR would be maintain at 60%-70% from 2005-2008. In China, operators will continue the investment on LBS/GIS services. In2004, due to the lack of the applications, low quality and consumer demand, the market scale was small. However, the market has gain a fast development in 2005 GIS/LBS market will double in 2009. Worldwide consumer location-based services (LBS) subscribers and revenue are on pace to double in 2009, according to Gartner, Inc. Despite an expected 4 per cent decrease in mobile device sales, LBS subscribers are forecast to grow from 41.0 million in 2008 to 95.7 million in 2009 while revenue is anticipated to increase from USD 998.3 million in 2008 to USD 2.2 billion in 2009. In North America and Western Europe, the share of users taking advantage of free services is approximately 10-15 per cent today and is expected to grow to 40-50 per cent in 2013. Gartner expects more compelling and useful applications and services to come to market in the next 12 to 18 months such as digital coupons to be redeemed in a nearby shop and points-of-interest search services. Smaller niche players will survive in local markets only when they have an established user base and unique offering that larger players cannot compete with. Other players will be acquisition targets for larger vendors.

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GIS IN INDIA
The GIS market is divided into four categories o o o o Software Hardware, Data sales Services

The market size is put at Rs 6,830 million in 2006-07. Rolta, India being 70% market share holder in Indian GIS MARKET Development of the geographic information market in the country has contributed to the creation of a new group of companies dealing in software, value-added data, and services. The initiatives by NRSA and Space Application Centre (SAC) in vendor development have been creditable. More than 100 companies mainly in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi are into this business. The GIS service industry is expanding at 10-15% per annum.

India is also fast emerging as a data conversion centre for GIS. The GIS companies from USA, Europe, Japan, and Australia have either started operating directly or are subletting work to Indian companies. This has created enormous employment opportunities in the sector, which is leading to proliferation of this technology

GIS a product
GIS is more readily defined as computer software, although so-called GIS "solutions," as sold by system vendors and consultants may frequently involve hardware, database design and capture, and training. As a software product, the term GIS has often been loosely interpreted or, less graciously, manipulated, so that cartographic and mapping packages are commonly marketed as GIS. These packages generally lack both the analytical functionality and the well-developed links to RDBMS of GIS and, if vector-based, rely on simple data structures that ignore topology (Maguire 1991).

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Finally, a recent trend in GIS software has been the production by GIS vendors of specialized software or software modules for use in specific application areas. This trend toward exploiting vertically integrated markets is partly a reflection of the maturing of GIS as an industry. Progressive application areas (such as forestry or municipal affairs), now use GIS across a broad range of inventory, analysis, and management functions and, consequently, across many different departments within the same organizations. However, this trend also reflects the fact that users are increasingly looking for tailor-made and streamlined solutions to their work that sidestep the need to learn a fullblown GIS. As smaller GIS vendors have responded to this demand in certain sectors, so competitive forces have forced the major GIS vendors to respond likewise. In terms of the perception of what constitutes GIS, however, users of these specialized systems will undoubtedly have a restricted view and one that is interpreted solely in their own application context. One result of this trend has been a further proliferation of alternative names for GIS: cadastral information system, market analysis information system, soil information system, spatial decision support system, and so on. Moreover GIS is important tool to visualize the marketplace by combining ones business information with data about its location. This information can then be displayed on a map, giving you a real-world perspective. By understanding details about the location of the business and the surrounding area, one can discover where is
o o o o o o

Your best clients are located Underserved customers reside The most profitable markets are hidden Competitive threats exist Suppliers are situated Employees and field workers are located

Sectors using Geographic Information Services in India:

Health Care use GIS for marketing, promotion, research and development like outbreak of an epidemic, identifying the source and tracking the reasons for occurrence of a particular disease or providing aid to people according to the area like organising awareness campaigns according to the demographics of a particular area. Central and State Governments use GIS for development in economy, reforms for the legislation, administration registration for the voters, emergency management Logistics use GIS for scheduling, routing, dispatch, tracking, and operations in the warehouse Agriculture use GIS for the analysis of production, pollution control, targeted agrarian production Telecommunications department use GIS wireless engineering, routing of communication network, customer support, target oriented marketing, construction management

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Gas and Electric companies use GIS for engineering planning and designing, customer service, distribution system management, marketing, power generation and management of load, meter reading, billing and collection Petroleum Industry uses GIS for exploration, distribution, and retail Environmental management use GIS natural resource management, water quality, waste management, groundwater modelling, Public Safety units use GIS as a constitutional part of emergency response systems formulated for man-made and future disasters Forest Department use GIS for the mapping of flora and fauna and many more

GIs a technology
GIS transcends disciplinary boundaries and has found wide acceptability across a range of application areas, including land use management, traffic routing/assignment, political redistricting, resource management, and environmental modelling. The widespread use of GIS has much to do with the acceptance of the map as a means of communication, in addition to developments in graphic computing. These developments have enabled the map medium to be presented, manipulated, and analyzed in a new form and with unparalleled flexibility. GIS allows us to approach spatial data handling with much improved efficiency in implementing traditional methods and techniques. Indian GIS Policy For a long time many felt a need for a major change in the Indian map policy, which was recently obliged. Survey of India, the premium authority which possesses the onus of defining and maintaining a map policy, has recently introduced bifurcated map policies for civilian as well as defence applications. Defence Series Maps (DSMs) - These will be the topographical maps on various scales (with heights,

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contours and full content without dilution of accuracy). These will mainly cater to defence and national security requirements. This series of maps (in analogue or digital form) for the entire country will be classified, as appropriate, and the Ministry of Defence will formulate the guidelines regarding their use. Open Series Maps (OSMs) - OSMs will be brought out exclusively by Survey of India (SOI), primarily for supporting development activities in the country. Each of these OSMs (in both hard copy and digital form) are "Unrestricted" after obtaining a one-time clearance of the Ministry of Defence. SOI will ensure that no civil and military Vulnerable Areas and Vulnerable Points (VA's/VP's) are shown on OSMs. Government being a risk-averter does not trusts companies to pass on their database, due to privacy issues. Amongst private sector, companies like SatNav, MapMyIndia are the companies who have collecting databases for the corporate according to their needs from quite a long time. After so much ground work these companies have rich data collection to sell. The data with these corporations is more than what government has. This was something unbelievable for other companies in corporate. So in order to prove their credibility, these companies launched different products to sell the same data. Like MapMyIndia launched a gadget ranging from Rs.16000-20000. This gadget is fixed with the wind shield of the car. The gadget can be used for navigation e.g. knowing directions, identifying local services like hotels, ATMs etc. Moreover, this gadget is integrated with GPS (Global Positioning System) technology. The gadget not only helps in navigation but also tracks the exact position of the user. This is just an example of one of the many applications and uses of consumer GIS

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The map policy has received a mixed response, as some feel a necessity for further clarity on the policy, The new map policy, in its present form, is grossly inadequate in meeting the growing needs of industry and infrastructure development and hoped that the government would rework on it.

The GIS in India works on bulk data transitions and digital computation, creation of digital ground survey maps to site mapping, analysis and providing custom made presentations based on survey data of an area. The dimensions of maps differ for each sector, resource, element and function. With the gathering and transformation of the collected data, it is translated that into knowledge. This in turn helps the information seekers to, proper planning of the future, manage their resources efficiently, and make critical business decisions to expand the territories of business. Hyderabad city in Andhra Pradesh, India is becoming the GIS Capital of India. It tops the position in accommodating GIS companies due to states IT policy. After Hyderabad, it is a close race between New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The impression is that the investments in GIS in the above three cities are much better than any other city in India

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SWOT ANALYSIS OF GIS IN INDIA

Strength
Good geographic information acquisition infrastructure India has a good institutional infrastructure for geographic data collection. There is a network of institutions collecting information on every conceivable socially and scientifically relevant subject. The Survey of India and the Indian Remote Sensing Satellites are the most important generators of geographical data. Moderate estimate of the total budget of the listed organizations in the table is more than Rs 2,000 crores per year, which is comparable to spending done by Australia or US, if we take the operating costs in these countries are nearly seven times that of India. Growing popularity of GIS Applications The technological developments in computer hardware and software contributed greatly to the growth of GIS market in the country, with the market really taking off with the development of powerful hardware availability. The market for GIS applications is witnessing demand for route planning and reducing costs related to delay in transit. Further, GIS also helps companies to plan the most efficient route for movement of goods covering several nodes and routes. In addition, organizations have begun to use discrete event simulation in congestion management and transport incident management, driving the demand for GIS. Integration with other management tools GIS can serve as an aid to many other emerging and existing management practises like it can be of great use in CRM (customer relationship management) in having more clear idea and records of the customer and hence to serve him more efficiently or Supply Chain Management where GIS integrated with GPS can solve many real time problems of the economy.

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Tools and applications for direct marketing using GIS

Weaknesses
Privacy Issues With extensive use of personal information for demographic analysis, issues arise concerning the proper use of such information. One other area being mobile-based tracking, where issues related to individual privacy and the misuse of personal information can be of a concern. Also, increasing satellite imagery resolution can be seen as a threat for personal as well as national security, especially in the absence of global policy.

Sustained Growth With increasing introduction of new companies using geospatial technology, the GIS industry needs to sustain its growth, so that small to medium-sized companies can compete equally. This is sometimes referred to as the "squeeze-syndrome." High-end companies try to squeeze the low-end companies to make more profit.

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Opportunities
Demand Drivers Todays decision makers need Geospatial information, based on updated and readily available data and maps to make effective decisions for decisive action. Digital maps provide speedy access, analysis and management of spatially referenced information. Therefore, Geospatial and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are no longer tools only for technology specialists, but are critical for decision making at all levels of management.

Improved Efficiency India has a well-developed software industry and skilled and well-trained software engineers. The GIS software industry can be used to reduce the cost of public service and increase efficiency. Like municipalities in Hyderabad and Vijaywada have been investing in GIS for vehicle tracking. This technology will be not only improve the efficiency of working systems but also helps in cost saving.

Threats
If we dont do it, someone else will do it There is an urgency to act for the simple reason that if we do not start providing services someone else will do it. For example, Microsoft has launched MapPoint, a desktop map visualization and analysis Software this includes US demographic data population, household sizes, household income, and median population by age. This is followed by UK, Europe, and Asia including India. MapPoint for Asia (including India) may be in the market, provided the government does not come in the way. The revenue which SOI or any other agency may have earned, will then be earned by someone else. Reduced international and global competitiveness India does lose its global competitiveness by not making available core datasets to the public. Like electricity, water, clean air, good human resource, information is also a vital factor for attracting investments, increasing tourism, boosting trade and improving quality of life of the masses. So instead of finding trivial reasons to hide the data, understand numerous reasons to share data.

There are lots of real time problems which can be solved with the help GIS. GIS in not at all new to the world but the newly found market is the general consumer. In other words, shifting from B2B model to B2C model. The end customer is smarter and wants information is a smarter way. Moreover the data is same all over the world and the needs are wide in range. But the data is not available in open architecture. Corporations have been investing a lot to reap the benefits of the 24

technology. This happened because of governments being cautious. Hence lot of investment spent on data collection are said to be useless. But as the data users have increased tremendously per unit cost has also reduced drastically. Hence with growing use and advancements in the way World Wide Web is used, GIS is another revolution in the ways end consumer uses technology.

The future of GIS

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DETAILS OF THE SPECIFIC FIELD BASED PROJECT ASSIGNED DURING THE INTERNSHIP
PROJECT ANALYSIS

Project: Marketing of the product My Location

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Marketing of the product My Location What is My Location? My location is an application designed and owned by RouteGuru. This is a navigation tool which allows the user to upload personalized directions of his location on RouteGuru online map. This can be done simply by just joining into RouteGuru site. The user gets 3 options of uploading the location
I. II. My Home My Work Others

III.

The user of the service can upload directions to any of the above destinations from a landmark nearby. The guest can use this survey by just messaging the user name to the service provider. In a short span of time he will receive the directions uploaded by the host on the site. The information will be received in a form SMS on the mobile of the guest.

The objective of RouteGuru for making my location as the next commercialized product was to solve the last mile direction problems in the city. Product Idea Product Attributes Crowd sourcing Last-Mile data My Location Share Location and Doorstep Directions over web/mobile Developing countries. India to start with. Product Markets

The idea is conceptualized on the principle 20% of the vicinity = 80% cost of the journey While travelling or reaching an unknown destination, it is easy to reach an area, sector or a landmark around that place. But we have often seen people seeking help from localities about the last mile directions. According to the company a person pays maximum cost at this time. Cost may be in terms of time (wasted in halting and asking for directions), Mobile phone (while coordinating on phone with the host) Efforts (in terms of stopping and starting again), fuel efficiency, Mental cost (frustration due to not getting the right place or not being able to reach in time. The above given are enough costs for a person to chose this product.

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The application made by the company solves this problem by allowing the user to upload his last mile directions on the RouteGuru maps. When a guest requires the directions, he can use On-The-Go (SMS) service to find RouteHints.

Idea Generation
For the integration of several technologies, company requires to identify the sources of information for active flow of useful ideas. This is critical as they should correspond to strategic guidelines of the company The potential sources of information: a. R&D b. Marketing and sales (people who are in direct touch with your customers) c. Production and Engineering d. Customer or technical services (ones who are the part of the company and the users as well) e. Information from the customers (market, lead users, intermediaries, suppliers, competitors, government, researchers, foreign sources, exhibitions) f. Information from technological world.

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Products ability to Avoiding large competition

Potential market size for the product 1 0.9 70% 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 40% 0.1 0

96% Fitness with distributors

Fit with engineering knowhow 95%

Estimated development cost 88%

The Screening Map

According to the screening map the company has huge market for this application (primary survey done, report given below) Fitness with distributors: The service will be available on internet i.e. on the website of the company and via a Value Added Service (VAS) provider. It is very easy for VAS provider to integrate this application in his services and earn big when the service goes popular. Hence fitness with distributors is high. Estimated development cost. The company has in house investment of around 10 lakhs in the project. Fitness with engineering know how The company perfectly fits in the technological requirements for the application. Avoiding large competition. The product scores less on this parameter. This is because , the company being a start up has to compete with existing players in the market like google maps, MapMyIndia and upcoming BigMaps. The company can avoid the competition if the company is able to maintain its product differentiation. 29

Strength Pioneer, one of its kind Great concept User friendly Easy availability of the product Free to use (high end gadgets not needed) Customization possible Cost saving (saves the time and efforts of both host and guest) Identification on World Wide Web. Indian brand ownership. Easy availability of regional information. Made by industry experts. Solves real time problems. Opportunities Huge Market for GIS applications Can serve as marketing tool especially to SMEs Can be a good source of information ( in terms of nearby ATM, hotels, hospitals, events like auctions etc) Useful tool for tourists. Integrated with GPS, can lead to more useful products and applications Reference from the similar products popular in western countries. Crowd sourcing highly valuable Last-Mile data. Relaxation in rigorous legal implications

Weaknesses Latest data collection Regular data updates on the site. High initial investment by the company. Introductory rates for special SMS.

Threats Competition from big players like MapMyIndia, upcoming Big Maps. Success of the product is highly dependent on popularity and wide acceptability of it.

SWOT ANALYSIS MY LOCATION

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Treasure Hunt
Treasure hunt is an online game prepared in lieu to market My Location. This online game constitutes of 10 questions. The questions are about real time places in Delhi and NCR. The questions are designed in a way that they describe a place, hot spot, hang-out point, or any famous destination in Delhi/NCR region. The player has to identify the names of the places with the help of the clues given in the question. For instance you get chilled here for two reasons:- The place is Big Chillz, A restaurant in East of Kailash, New Delhi Explanation: 1St reason being, the restaurant has chill in its own name. 2nd reason that it is in east of Kailash which is high mountain with extremely low temperatures The idea behind launching this game along with the product My Location the popularity and viral spreading of the game will help in promoting the product itself. Moreover it increases the traffic on the companys website. Another approach of the company to make this game was to increase its B-2-B network. The marketing department of the company has planned to go and network with the businesses that are mentioned in the game in the mode of questions. The businesses will have a vested interest in the company. They get a free marketing tool for themselves. The people solving the treasure hunt have involuntary awareness about the hot spot in the city. Moreover it can be easily identified on the online city map. For the customers, incentive to take this hunt would be To tickle his/her brain cells. The company assumes that as it is a quiz, it would certainly generate a competition among people to solve it and to flaunt on the fact that who knows the city better? Along with that, the winner of the game or the one who solves the mystery will be rewarded in terms of the coupons/vouchers etc sponsored by the owners of the places mentioned in the game.

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What does RouteGuru get? This is kind of two way marketing. Even RouteGuru gets an identification by patnering with these outlets. They have access to the customers of those businesses also. Hence more visibility.

The picture is of flower shop having logo of google maps.(mutual benefit)

Moreover its is critcal for companies future startegies. The company can grow by providing more value added services on maps like food joints, exhibition halls, auctions, special offers availed by stores etc. If it forms a good network with these businesses, they can form a long term relationship with the company.

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Stand down analysis (jargon)

It is the analysis of the external environment. It helps the company to organize and plan company policies and integrate them with other elements of the companys marketing strategy.

The objective of the analysis (annexure I) To study:

How Brand affects consumer perception and usage patterns?

How Quality of content affects the consumer understanding of the product?

Revenue model for different companies in the industry.

Competitors:
MapMyIndia Google maps Microsoft maps Yahoo Maps SatNav (technology company) etc.

Methodology:
Identifying the different sources of online marketing by the competitors and quantifying the data in form of excel sheets. The websites and other sources of information are: YouTube Flicker Blogs Forums Twitter

Conclusion
1. Brand name works in the GIS space This can be well said because amongst the navigation applications provided by all the above named companies, Google rules the market. The brand value earned by Google in the other online businesses complements Google Maps as well.

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2. Quality of content is if prime importance From the observations, Google gives importance to its target customer i.e. is the general internet user. Hence the content is simple and easy to understand. On the other hand Yahoo Maps talks in technical terms which are difficult for a user to understand and thus making him lose interest in the product. In case of MapMyIndia there is negligible no. of ads from companys side. But they are all news coverage happened at the time of launch. But in case is Bing maps (Microsoft) the product quality is good (even better than Google maps) but due to lack of promotional activities the product is not so popular 3. Creation and Projection of the content in the simplest manners for the user to understand The concept is important as is very evident from the Google videos Google maps have large variety of content showcasing their features. Every medium talks about a new aspect or the same aspect in a different way. 4. Web cast and animated content rules the roost here The most popular and the most viewed videos are animated and most importantly have humor touch. 5. Interactive videos should be the next level of step here - let users interact with the videos by linking it to other videos, which is possible on YouTube. This feature is provided by the site itself. On the other hand via mediums like flicker, customer can post his comments with what he witnessed in the form of pictures. Companies have been very active on sites like YouTube, Flicker , social networking sites like Twitter. But the blogs that are popular are site and subject specific. Digital/media marketing is important source of interaction with the consumers. Web 2.0 and now web 3.0 has made consumer more powerful and responsive than before. It satisfies most important feature of digital marketing i.e. participative marketing. Marketing strategies are planned after taking into account the conclusion of the Stand Down Analysis 34

Market survey:
Objective To study the internet habits of consumer for obtaining local/regional information and the mediums they prefer for the information. Target: Internet users Sample size:100 Methodology Primary Data: A questionnaire Habits of Internet Users was designed and circulated. It was an online survey. No. of Question: 10 (Annexure II) Survey links (uploaded on 2 sites for convenience)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=jVy_2f814Xmwl7LMg2_2bGZ1Vg_3d_3d http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=NJMMK_9d31eaf

Result a. Average 80% people prefer internet for regional information mostly. b. c. The kind of information they mostly look for is bookings like movies, travel, hotels with 26% and very closely followed by 24% for maps and navigation and 21% for job opportunities. d. Amongst those 24% users of maps and navigation 74% of them use it mostly every time. e. The other most popular way of acquiring local information except online maps is friends/ associates with 46% f. Followed by 21% print media and TV channels each g. People want relevant information and avoid subscribing for alert services. h. This is because they get lot of unwanted material.(comments box in survey) i. 67% of them chose their alert services subscription very cautiously and 30% of them do not want to chose it.

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BCG MATRIX

According to BCG map, My Location as a product can be put in the first quadrant i.e. is question mark This is because the consumer GIS industry is popular in western countries but a new tool in India. My Location is application of the same industry. The industry is growing tremendously. The applications are new but have huge potential and a promising future. Hence the success of this product highly depends on acceptability and popularity of the product by the consumer. Therefore it fits in the first quadrant i.e. Question Mark.

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