Business consultancy project

7.2.3. Data collection process

Throughout the research process both primary and secondary data was collected.

Secondary data collection methods are highly significant for the research. These methods include the investigation of the public data and statistics, academic articles, analytical reports, books, journals, and research papers on the topic related to the purpose of the project. Therefore, the experience of other researchers and the evidence that they retrieved was also incorporated, while, observation of attitude of company management and shareholders plays a significant role and is an integral part of the complete

practical consultancy report. As secondary sources, the mobile telecom industry reports and financial market regulators, main world payment organizations and regulators of payment markets such as W orld Bank, Visa and Master Cards, world leading mobile operators providing mobile financial services have been reviewed.
Using secondary sources is one of the important directions in analyzing payments market, the behavior of customers and their preferences because it is crucial in determining future returns.
Primary data collection was conducted in forms of internal quantitative data measurements, interviews and questionnaires. By evaluation of primary numerical data and interviewing the top management of the company, sector specialists, government authorities, and other relevant stakeholders, the comprehensive understanding of the current state of the economy and the probability of the project’s success, information have been obtained.
Moreover, the secondary data was collected from the local and foreign communication and financial markets. It included some internal information from the company and interviews with the banking experts, authorized persons of the various telecom companies in the local market. Due to the researcher’s long- term involvement into telecommunication business (more than 15 years) and good relationships with a lot of partners both from local and foreign markets, the process of obtaining information was fostered and beneficial for the research.
Consequently, academic tools like SWOT analysis, Porter’s five forces, and PEST were implemented to review the external and internal conditions and factors of telecommunication, finance and MFS areas, affecting the decision related to the implementation of the new product by Azercell. In addition, being the tools of industry and market analyses, they are valuable to analyze the recent trends in the telecom industry and to make competitive benchmarking, as Azercell needs to evaluate its position in comparison with competitors, to identify industry leadership performance targets of competitors planning to provide this new service to their customers. For instance, analyzing current situation in the market, problems, tendencies, and trends which can be influential for development online payments in Azerbaijan by using an empirical research has been the essential part of the research. Therefore, current research provides information about online payments industry in Azerbaijan, including:

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  Current analysis of mobile financial services and future predictions for national market
  
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  Review of the methods used by state authorities to stimulate the improvements in e-commerce market in the country
  
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  Depiction of the latest trends in MFS around the globe, which can be used for implementation in company project
  

6.