Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The use of advanced technologies that enable people to transact business

remotely has proliferated. This is due to the realization of the intense need to

manage time and resources effectively and efficiently. The society has become so

fast-phased as far as technology is concerned that no organization wants to be left

behind, which is actually one of the factors for business survival [1], thus almost all

transactions need to be automated to cope up with information technology changes.

An example of the organization that must adhere to technological change is

the academe, and one of its most important transactions is the payment transaction

which can be done through cash or credit. Cash transaction is defined as a type of

action of conducting business wherein payment is settled immediately [2]. It is

considered as one of the most important transaction processes because the inflow of

cash determines the capacity of an organization to conduct all other important

transaction processes such as purchases of raw materials, transport, labor, and power

[3]. However, cash payment transactions are oftentimes the most troublesome to

implement in public universities and colleges because of the lack of resources such

as personnel, office, or a systematized, automated process. Some of the problems

encountered with manual payment transactions in most public universities and

colleges are the following: long queues in conducting cash payment transactions

which is the result of limited resources to accommodate the students; and

productivity of the cashiers office itself is compromised because during payment

schedules, which oftentimes last for a week, the cashiers office tends to prioritize

accepting cash payments the whole time to accommodate all the students, thus

failing to do other transactions such as releasing of cash, and banking which

resulted to untimely or delayed outputs.

Every organization especially the academe must use the power of technology

to cope with the challenges of the traditional processes in order to lessen, if not

totally eradicate the problems with the manual system of accepting cash as payment.

This is to enhance customer service, human productivity, and to level up the

organizations visibility in the global arena. Thus, the need to switch to cutting-edge

technologies to provide solutions to these problems have been established.

Therefore, the researcher proposes to develop the Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk

System for the academe.

Statement of Objectives

Generally, the study aims to develop the Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk

System for the academe.

Specifically, the study should provide a kiosk system that will be able to:

1. remotely collect cash payments with no human intervention;

2. accurately read payment amount and dispense temporary

receipt;
3. generate report; and
4. evaluate the systems software based on ISO 25010:2011

quality standards
 Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of the study provides the general view of the

entire system which shows its detailed composition in terms of the systems input

process output evaluation design.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Validate users credentials
Validate cash
Student/Employee number Read cash amount Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk SYSTEM
Password Compute the total amount inputted
Generate receipt
Cash in Philippine peso denomination
Generate report

EVALUATION

Figure 1. The Conceptual Framework of the Kiosk System

The Conceptual Framework of the kiosk system which is shown in Figure 1

elaborate the set of inputs which the system accepts, the processes that are

performed, the output, and the evaluation concepts.

The kiosk system accepts users credentials such as the student number or

employee number and password, and cash in Philippine peso denomination.

The processes that the kiosk system performs with the inputted data are the

validation of users credentials, the validation of the cash, reading of the cash

amount, the computation of the total amount inputted into the system, the generation
of receipt right after the payment transaction, and the report generation of all

payment transactions done per day.

The validation of users credentials involves security measures that checks

the student number and password supplied into the kiosk system. This process make

sure that only valid users has access to the system.

The validation of cash amount entered includes checking for the currency and

validating the authenticity of the cash inputted.

The process of reading the amount of the cash inputted includes proper and

accurate identification of how much is the actual value of the authenticated cash.

The kiosk system calculates the total amount of all cash entered by the valid

user into the device to make sure that every authenticated cash entered by each user

per transaction will be counted.

The kiosk system generates a receipt right after every cash payment

transaction that shows the transaction details.

The kiosk system also generates report as one of its essential processes that

shows all the transactions done on a particular day.

The system outputs the Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk which can be

tested and evaluated using a Black Box testing Strategy.

Significance of the Study

The system is seen to be of high value and importance to the following:

 Payers. The kiosk system will highly benefit the payers for they will no

longer wait in long queues to accommodate their cash payment transactions, thus

they will be able to save time and effort.

Organization/Academe. The kiosk system will be able to help build up their

business value by upgrading business image through enhanced customer service and

advanced technological development.

Cashiers Office. The kiosk system will do the cash collection transaction in

lieu of the Cashiers office, so, it will allow the cashiers office to do other equally

important tasks for the organization or academe. Thus, the kiosks system allows the

cashiers office to tap their full productivity potential.

Future researchers. The study Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk System

offers more room for improvement as far as technological development is

concerned, thus this study gives future researchers more research concepts that they

can work on with.

Scope and Limitations

The study is conducted at the Iloilo Science and Technology University

(ISAT U), La Paz, Iloilo. It involves a device which is a kiosk that is able to accept

cash as payment for the students tuition and miscellaneous fees with no human

intervention.

The kiosk is able to accept the Philippine peso bills 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and

1000 denominations, and the Philippine coins 1, 5 and 10 denominations. The kiosk
also checks the authenticity of the inputted cash, which automatically rejects any

fake, unreadable, deformed, or old Philippine peso banknotes.

The kiosk system dispense a receipt for the authorized user right after each

completed transaction that shows the details of the transactions. Moreover, the kiosk

is able to dispense a summary report of all transactions done per day for the system

administrator which contains the details of the payers and the amount that must be

credited from each payers account, and it can be reset back to its original state

which prepares the system for the next day transactions.

In this study, kiosk system is designed for the use of ISAT U, La Paz campus,

thus the design of the server and databases conform to that of the said university.

However, the system design is maintainable which can be changed to conform other

academes database structure.

The kiosk system does not automatically update students account balances

for it does not tap to the main server of ISAT U, but the design of the system allows

integration.

The valid users of the system will be the students of ISAT U whose student

numbers and password are pre stored in the server. The kiosk system does provide

any users information such as personal data, registration information, or grades;

and thus, it cannot be used for inquiries.

The kiosk can be situated anywhere within the university premises for it is

controlled by a dedicated server via a local area network (LAN).

The server, which run on a Windows 7 Operating System, is designed to hold

a number of kiosks, however, it was not established during the course of the study
the maximum number of kiosks the server can hold. The study was only able to test

1 server is to 1 kiosk ratio.

The kiosk system does not calculate and dispense change.

Definition of Terms

Some terminologies that were used in this study are operationally and

conceptually defined for clearer understanding. These are the following:

Cash. The money or its equivalent paid for goods or services at the time of

purchase or delivery [4].

In this study, Cash refers to the money that the students pay for their tuition

fees and miscellaneous fees.

Philippine peso. This is the basic unit of money in the Philippines [5].

In this study, Philippine peso refers to the currency that the kiosk system can

only accept.

Denomination. This is the face value of a banknote, coin, or postage stamp

[6].

In the study, Denomination refers to the classification of the Philippine peso

banknotes such as 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, or 1000 peso bills, and 1, 5, or 10 peso

coins.

Receipt. This refers to a piece of paper which proves that money or goods

have been received [7].

Receipt, in this study, is a paper that contains the details of the transaction

done by each user which served as the users proof of payment.

 Report. A document containing information organized in a narrative,

graphic, or tabular form, prepared on ad hoc, periodic, recurring, regular, or as

required basis. Reports may refer to specific periods, events, occurrences, or

subjects, and may be communicated or presented in oral or written form [8].

In this study, report refers to a written form that contains all the needed

details of all transactions including their statuses which were done within the day.

Kiosk. It is a small stand-alone device providing information and services on

a computer screen [9].

In this study, a kiosk refers to a remote device that accepts cash as payment

from authorized users.

Interactive. (Of a computer program or system) interacting with a human

user, often in a conversational way, to obtain data or commands and to give

immediate results or updated information [10].

In this study, interactive describes the behavior of the kiosk system that

accepts input from human users in order to provide services.

Interactive Cash Collection Kiosk System. This is the output of the system

on which the developer has created in aid to cash collection transaction performed

by the Cashiers Office.