Information processing system, information processing method, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11662968-B2
Application number	US-202217585568-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2022
Priority date	Jan 28, 2021
Publication date	May 30, 2023
Grant date	May 30, 2023

Abstract

An information processing system includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to: accept a job requesting print output of print data from an information terminal; determine one or more printing companies having a printing machine that can execute a job, among a plurality of printing companies, based on a state of a printing machine held by each one of the plurality of printing companies and a content of the job; and transmit information of the one or more printing companies determined, to the information terminal to display the information on the information terminal.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An information processing system, comprising processing circuitry configured to:
accept a job requesting print output of print data from an information terminal;
determine one or more printing companies having a printing machine that can execute the job, among a plurality of printing companies, based on a state of a printing machine held by each one of the plurality of printing companies and a content of the job; and
transmit information of the one or more printing companies determined, to the information terminal to display the information on the information terminal,
wherein the one or more printing companies are companies that charge a fee to a customer associated with the information terminal for executing the job requesting the print output.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
confirm a printing company selected by the information terminal, among the one or more printing companies determined, as a printing company that executes the job; and
distribute the job to a print controller of the printing company confirmed.

3. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
acquire statistical information from each printing machine held by each of the plurality of printing companies, the statistical information being related to operation and maintenance of each printing machine; and
determine the one or more printing companies having a printing machine that can execute the job, among the plurality of printing machines, based on the statistical information acquired.

4. The information processing system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the statistical information includes any one of an operation rate of a printing machine held by each of the plurality of printing companies, a maintenance status indicating whether maintenance has been performed on the printing machine held by each of the plurality of printing companies, and a preparation efficiency indicating a length of preparation time with respect to a printing time of a job executed on the printing machine held by each of the plurality of printing companies.

5. The information processing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the one or more printing companies having the printing machine that can execute the job, among the plurality of printing companies, based on characteristic information indicating characteristics of the plurality of printing companies.

6. The information processing system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to notify the information terminal of information indicating a progress state of the job accepted, in response to a request from the information terminal.

7. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to accept the job from the information terminal via an application programming interface (API), and
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to transmit information of the one or more printing companies determined, to the information terminal as a response to the API.

8. The information processing system according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage device,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
receive, from the information terminal, an evaluation value for a printing company having been requested to execute a job in the past;
calculate a new evaluation value based on the evaluation value received and a current evaluation value of the printing company having been requested; and
store the new evaluation value in the storage device in association with the printing company having been requested.

9. The information processing system according to claim 8 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to include the evaluation value corresponding to the one or more printing companies in the information of the one or more printing companies determined and transmit the information to the information terminal.

10. An information processing method, comprising:
receiving a job requesting print output of print data from an information terminal;
determining one or more printing companies having a printing machine that can execute the job, among a plurality of printing companies, based on a state of a printing machine held by each one of the plurality of printing companies and a content of the job; and
transmitting information of the one or more printing companies determined by the determining, to the information terminal, to display the information on the information terminal,
wherein the one or more printing companies are companies that charge a fee to a customer associated with the information terminal for executing the job requesting the print output.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to execute:
receiving a job requesting print output of print data from an information terminal;
determining one or more printing companies having a printing machine that can execute the job, among a plurality of printing companies, based on a state of a printing machine held by each one of the plurality of printing companies and a content of the job; and
transmitting information of the one or more printing companies determined by the determining, to the information terminal, to display the information on the information terminal,
wherein the one or more printing companies are companies that charge a fee to a customer associated with the information terminal for executing the job requesting the print output.

12. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes a name of the printing company.

13. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes an ID of the printing company which is different from a name of the printing company.

14. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes a name of the printing company, and an ID of the printing company which is different from the name of the printing company.

15. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes information of at least two printing companies.

16. The method according to claim 10 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes a name of the printing company.

17. The method according to claim 10 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes an ID of the printing company which is different from a name of the printing company.

18. The method according to claim 10 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes a name of the printing company, and an ID of the printing company which is different from the name of the printing company.

19. The method according to claim 10 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes information of at least two printing companies.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein:
the information of the one or more printing companies includes an ID of the printing company which is different from a name of the printing com

Assignees

• Matsushima Hiroyuki
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Matsushima Hiroyuki

Classifications

• G06Q10/0631

  Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations · CPC title

• G06F3/1272 Primary

  Digital storefront, e.g. e-ordering, web2print, submitting a job from a remote submission screen · CPC title

• G06F3/1217 Primary

  achieving reduced idle time at the output device or increased asset utilization · CPC title

• G06F3/1267

  Job repository, e.g. non-scheduled jobs, delay printing · CPC title

• G06F3/1282

  High volume printer device · CPC title