iNeed
Romeo Balcitaa, Rommel Balcitaa, Lambert Famorcab, Aida Eliverac
a
Northern Philippines College for Maritme, Science and Technology,
b
Saint Luis University, Baguio City
c
University of the Cordilleras, Baguio City
Abstract - A mobile phone system application for busy
household having problems on consumption needs or has
no time to buy these needs like rice, LPG, drinking water
or even do the laundry. The application caters services to
fulfill its customers from the various sources of goods or
service during late hours or the scarcity of time in doing an
errand. This mobile based application features a
recommender feature that chooses the nearest service
provider or if not the available services provider that could
cater the service as fast as possible. The system could also
be used by any person like an able children or with
disabilities provided payments for the goods delivered are
ready or through online payment system. The prototype
system was experimented in a small area with rice retailer,
LPG outlet, water refilling station, small stores and a
laundry shop. The customers in the area are selected
employees, students and elders that are willing to
participate in giving or sharing their experiences,
assessment and feedbacks on the experiment. The 30
participants are within the proximity of the service
providers. Each service provider has a helper or errand
person to deliver or complete the service and accept
payments validated through the system’s online payment
confirmation feature. The system usability scale (SUS)
was used in the evaluation and showed an excellent level
rating based from the data gathered after the 5-day testing.
Keywords: mobile-based system, online service,
ordering system, online payment.
I. Introduction
Households consume products and services with
regularity and replenishing such consumptions need
reliable, fast, and cost-effective procedures. In Asian
countries like the Philippines, cooked rice is a staple food
that is always available on a table it is a necessity on every
dwelling place, food stalls and restaurants in the country
[1]. Including liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum
gas (LPG or LP gas) had become a necessity in every
household in Asian countries that is highly demanded for
cooking purposes [2]. On the other hand, the need for
drinking water canisters or bottles had also become a basic
necessity in every home or business establishments, where
widespread drinking water dispensers flourished that
almost every home has it [3].
With the pervasive use of technology to facilitate
communication and ordering of households to prospect
suppliers and providers of services, therefore programmers
design and develop application software that caters these
basic needs. As an example, Airservice Digital an ordering
system app use to deliver foods or drinks in place where
the customer is located using a mobile phone. The
customer could access a venue’s menu and make the
orders, it could also notify the customers location on where
the said order will be delivered [4]. Similarly, in an online
transaction customers place their items in a shopping cart,
once the customer approves, the items selected will be
forwarded into the supplier’s account then orders are
sorted out by the supplier of the merchandise for
packaging and delivery [5]. To facilitate a transaction
between customers and suppliers, a registration system is
mandatory to customers and suppliers to give assurance
and some basic information to be used as a reference to a
transaction. Merchandise supplier is governed by a
separate agreement of the organization to protect the
customers, suppliers and the third party [6].
Other necessities include transportation services
through online transport service created to ease the
difficulty of finding a ride from home to work or to a
destination through ride-sharing at the same time create
extra income to drivers like Grab, Owto, GoLAg, and
Hype in the Philippines [7], Lyft and Uber in New York
[8]. Now these transport services are becoming more and
more popular worldwide and so with other businesses
catering free deliveries of purchased goods through the
Internet service through their smart phones [9].
Mobile’s influences also the shopping behavior of its
users and there has been on the rise since the advent of the
smartphone, but recent data indicates consumers are
becoming more comfortable finalizing transactions on
their phones [10]. There are strong evidences that
consumers are shopping via mobile and using their mobile
phones in-store has been piling up for a while now. It may
also hint that retailers are not doing as much as they can to
effectively connect with shoppers [11]. Among these
online players are Lazada, Zalora, OLX, Shopee, Ebay,
CDR King [12].
In terms of payment of goods delivered, the couriers are
equipped with smartphones installed with online payment
apps designed by third party systems [13]. Couriers like
LBC, DHL, Black Arrow, JRS, and Fedex are some of the
active transport delivery of products sold online [14].
Other online services that had also become widespread and
effective in the internet are money transfers, payment
systems, and special delivery systems [15]. Though all
these service providers makes life more efficient in
achieving goals, the immediate necessity of common
household needs could not effectively deliver the
appropriate service. Busy household members who stands
as the bread winner to make life easier at home encounters
difficulties in some situations where hectic time, weather,
occupied, or sometimes lazy is involved, would resort to a
bigger problem [16]. The problems are often neglected
necessities at home and needs immediate action in order to
successfully resolve the problem.
A. Research Problem
In the event of an emergency like, to cook when the
LPG tank has just emptied, or you need to cook but only to
find out that container has no more rice, to fetch drinking
water but the water refilling bottle is empty, or needed a
dress but forgot to wash it earlier. Therefore there a need
of a technological solution that could be provided for busy
households in providing supplies and services during
uncertain times.
B. Significance of the Study
Profiling the users of the prototype iNeed system will
give us the necessary data we need for analysis. This study
aims to measure the performance of existing operation of
service providers versus iNeed application of their mobile
phones. And also aims to measure the efficiency of the
proposed iNeed application in households and service
providers.
C. Objectives
The objectives of this study are, profiling selected busy
people in a household, determine the effectiveness of
traditional solution versus the proposed iNeed application
on their smartphones, and to determine the ideal amount of
charges to be implemented as an income generation of the
system for support, maintenance and expenses. And to
develop an app and store front for supplier to conveniently
provide supplies and services.
D. Study Framework
Similar to online shopping system, customers pick their
orders online to be delivered next to their doorstep after a
few days and will pay the items through the method of
payment set by the seller. Within the proximity of the
service providers, the household orders in the iNeed app
the most common goods or services, to be delivered to the
household place in just a few or several minutes.
The study will focus on the four (4) performance
indicators in order to compare and analyze the service
provided by a conventional method and the iNeed
application, see figure 1.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
1. Convenience refers to the household’s solution to
acquire items or goods or services during emergency
times. This also determines the expenses in travelling,
speed or time spent to the goal, safety of household to buy
and the availability of products or service to get.
2. Effectiveness refers to the transport method used to
acquire the goods or services, including expenses, time and
speed of travel, the safety of on errand, and the availability
of the service provider.
3. Economic value refers to the utilization of financial
resources like payments, other expenses, effort or
incentives, including safety and availability of payment
methods.
4. Reliability refers to the items or service availability
at any time. Including justified additional expenses during
the trip and the safety of household.
Figure 1. Study Framework and Key Performance Indicators
Conventional method vs iNeed app.
II. Methodology
In this study, the researcher aims to obtain data in an
area where there are services on buying rice, water, LPG
and laundry, included are the various household like busy
people that often comes home late at night. The
performance indicators obtained from a daily journal of
needs and a validation survey will be used for comparison.
The daily journal will be required for the common
household people, busy people with hectic schedule, and
for stay-in household personnel. There are 20 participant
households including student, able children at home, or
home maids for the duration of 1 week. This will allow
enough time to gather more evidence from the participants
to evaluate and make the comparison to the traditional
setting. This also applies to a rice retailer, LPG seller,
water refilling station, and a laundry shop.
The researcher’s presents an app called “I Need”. The
project needs three components the customer, the
application and the stores. The store needs to subscribe in
order to gain account in the application, and the
requirement for every store needs to have a delivery
service.
Key partners include Laundry shops, LPG distributors,
Mineral water refilling stations and rice retailers. These
key partners will be required to avail of subscription
packages for their services and products to be included in
the app. Each key partner will be given an access to their Method CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed
own web space to monitor and regulate orders. KPI ISA ISA Exp. Exp. Res. Res. Safety Safety Avail. Avail.
Convenience
The system monitors every customers’ needs and able
Highly Agree 36.4 31.8 13.6 27.3 13.6 50.0 18.2 4.5
to make suggestions and or recommendations that serves
Agree 22.70 40.9 4.5 22.7 31.8 54.5 50.0 50.0 45.5 45.5
as a recommender system. Therefore, the recommender Neutral 50.00 22.7 40.9 45.5 27.3 18.2 22.7 18.2 50.0
feature monitors customer patterns on a daily, weekly or Disagree 27.30 31.8 27.3 13.6 13.6
monthly basis to make suggestions of what to do or buy Highly Disagree 22.7 4.5
before it runs out or too late. Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
In case of problems, the system has a central
TABLE 2. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF CONVENIENCE
monitoring office to answer queries, feedbacks and resolve
problems from both the service supplier and its customers. In table 3, the effectiveness of to the transport method
An office is required to monitor transactions, stores and used to acquire goods or services, many of the participants
customer activities to make sure that both parties are had turned into using iNeed application, stating from the
satisfied with the service. A complaint management results that households will be at ease, chooses to make
system is featured to handle complaints both from the additional payments when necessary just not to waste their
customer and/or suppliers, the office either sends time and effort, safety of the household with the many
notifications, calls, or chat to answer queries or to resolve dangers on the streets specially at night. There are times
conflicts. when the store or shop has closed already or lack of the
The statistical data produced is processed from SPSS item, then the effort is meaningless. There are also dangers
using descriptive frequency analysis using mode to unknown to happen and the safety of making the errand is
determine individual differences of the variables in KPI for simply unacceptable. But with the iNeed app a
both the conventional method and iNeed application, see recommender feature handles the scheduling and
Table 1 for variable guide used in the results. notification of items that are needed and is prepared for an
anytime order and delivery.
Code Description
ISA Item or service acquisition like getting a household need or service.
Exp. Expenses refers to any sum of amount that is used during the way that Method CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed
includes snacks, fares, the item to buy and other amounts. KPI ISA ISA Exp. Exp. Res. Res. Safety Safety Avail. Avail.
Res. Refers to the resources used like time and effort of a person. Effectiveness
Safety Refers to measure safety of the customer in buying a household need or Highly Agree 9.1 13.6 18.2 4.5 9.1 9.1 13.6 13.6 31.8
service.
Agree 22.7 45.5 18.2 40.9 18.2 54.5 9.1 45.5 31.8 31.8
Avail. Availability of products or service to get urgently.
Neutral 18.2 40.9 31.8 36.4 31.8 9.1 31.8 40.9 18.2 36.4
Disagree 40.0 27.3 22.7 27.3 22.7 36.4 31.8
TABLE 1. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS GUIDE
Highly Disagree 9.1 4.5 18.2 4.5 13.6 4.5
Total 99 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
The system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire will be
given to the participants at the end of the week, it will be TABLE 3. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF EFFECTIVENESS
gathers and analyzed to evaluate the usability of the
system. Together with some open-minded questions that In table 4, a significant difference in iNeed application
will serve as the basis in improving or enhancing the iNeed means that although there are increased or additional
application. payments and other expenses, most of the participants has
achieved high scores on the variables. This also shows
III. Results and Discussions higher possibility of the success on the iNeed application I
The tables in this study are the summary of the KPIs other areas. Participants are feel more secured and making
that shows significant differences of the variables. In terms sure that service providers will always deliver in time,
of household convenience in table 2, acquiring items or giving most of the burden to the service providers.
services in emergency times indicates the household and
suppliers is in favor with what the iNeed app has offered. Method CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed
This determines the expenses in travelling, time and effort KPI ISA ISA Exp. Exp. Res. Res. Safety Safety Avail. Avail.
spent to achieve goals, safety and security of the household Economic
value
to buy or get a service and the availability of products or Highly Agree 13.6 27.3 22.7 36.4 9.1 27.3 4.5 4.5 27.3
service to get. The conventional method when compared Agree 45.5 54.5 31.8 40.9 27.3 54.5 22.7 45.5 40.9 50.0
with iNeed application showed significant differences in Neutral 18.2 18.2 22.7 22.7 36.4 18.2 50.0 50.0 31.8 22.7
all the variables, almost all of the participants in the study Disagree 18.2 22.7 22.7 27.3 22.7
are convinced and rely on the iNeed application. At the Highly Disagree 4.5 4.5
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
end of the beta testing, it also showed a significant number
that stayed neutral, where these participants likes to go out TABLE 4. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC VALUE
at night with an excuse to buy something.

In table 5, there is also a significant difference on the
reliability of items or service availability at any time. It
also indicates a reliable justification and acceptance of
additional expenses during trips. Based on the data it is
said to be reliable enough to be safe for households and
service providers with improved relationship between
buyers and sellers in the community.
Method CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed CM iNeed
KPI ISA ISA Exp. Exp. Res. Res. Safety Safety Avail. Avail.
Reliability
Highly Agree 18.2 31.8 9.1 36.4 45.5 9.1 13.6 13.6
Agree 54.5 36.4 50.0 13.6 13.6 36.3 9.1 45.5 40.0
Neutral 18.2 31.8 31.8 36.4 40.9 18.2 36.4 40.9 18.2
Disagree 9.1 9.1 27.3 9.1 31.8 27.3
Highly Disagree 22.7 13.6
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 99
TABLE 5. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF RELIABILITY
This research uses System Usability Scale (SUS) that
provides quick-and-dirty usability test. Considering the
correctness of data and rapid feedback gathering, this type
of test is the appropriate one. The location of the study has
total of 24 respondents. With a margin of error of 5, the
confidence level is 88 under z-score of 1.25 from the
obtained sample size of 24 respondents with 20 households
and 4 service providers. From their mean score multiplied
by 2.5 and 100 gives the percentage, by averaging the
respondents’ scores it resulted to 78 percent, indicating
that the system falls under acceptable range, falls under
grade the scale of C and having an adjective rating of
excellent, see figure 2.
Figure 2. SUS Interpretation Model
IV. Conclusions
The following conclusions are made based on the findings
of this study:
• iNeed and other related online store applications lessens
the issues of solving simple but complicated problem,
which makes it convenient versus the traditional solution.
• Current service providers do not perform the instant
delivery of goods or service to the needs of the household
urgently.
• The proposed system is ideal to busy households, using
phones to solve their needs during late hours.
• Service providers personnel are utilized creating more
income and incentives to their earnings.
• The system is best implemented on a limited perimeter or
area to make sure that deliveries will not be expensive and
an additional burden to households.
• Only the common service or goods are to be serviced by
providers to ensure effective use of the system, other
goods can be added on the delivery provided that the
household is willing to add additional fees.
V. Recommendations
The following recommendations are made to utilize
the towards improving transport services provided by
TNCs as well as in aid of regulations and policy making
36.4
for these modes:
40.9
22.7
• iNeed like any other online shopping center can now be a
part of a public service provider for rice, LPG, drinking
water and laundry to busy households within their
100 proximity.
• Households are serviced within the proximity of service
providers to ensure effective implementation and service.
• Further studies on additional service providers goods on
small items is needed to get the impact of justified cost of
goods plus the delivery fee.
• For the revenue, a subscription fee of P5,000.00 a year
and a product percentage of 5% per transaction. An
advertisement is also charged for new products and or a
discretion of shop owners.
• As much as possible the service provider must have an
errand person to make the deliveries to households and
from shop or stall.
• In order to ensure sustainability and advantages over
iNeed app should maintain and monitor its clients behavior
on system to ensure continued use or loyalty of both
parties.
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