Information processing system

Abstract

To provide an information processing system that can present an appropriate fee plan for a plurality of image forming apparatuses.SOLUTION: Image formation information indicating the details of image formation is transmitted to a plan recommendation server 300 from a printer 100A belonging to a group A and a printer 100B belonging to a group B. The plan recommendation server 300 holds a condition for every group, and adds up, as a monthly value, the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies a condition for the group A, and the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies a condition for the group B. The plan recommendation server 300 acquires the priority of a fee plan recommended for each group on the basis of, for example, an add-up result of 12 months of the number of times of image formation, and displays the acquired priority on a display of a PC 200.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing system. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, for example, different fee plans in which fees are charged according to the consumption of consumables may be applied to each of multiple image forming devices in one system. Patent Document 1 is an example of such a system, in which, when image formation is performed, an estimate of the fee charged for each image forming device (the printer in Patent Document 1) according to the amount of printing is calculated, and an image forming device with a low fee charged is selected based on the estimate. In Patent Document 1, the fee plan (the charging system in Patent Document 1) can be changed to prevent the selection of image forming devices from concentrating on a specific device. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2001-43053 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Even if it is possible to change the fee plan as in Patent Document 1, it is not easy for a user to know how to set the appropriate fee plan for each of the multiple image forming apparatuses in the system.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system capable of presenting an appropriate fee plan for a plurality of image forming apparatuses. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The information processing system of the present invention is an information processing system comprising a plurality of image forming devices that perform image formation on a medium, a device for notifying a user of information, and a computer, wherein each of the plurality of image forming devices is set with one of a plurality of fee plans in which the way in which fees vary with respect to the consumption of consumables used in the image formation differs from one another, and each of the image forming devices belongs to one of a plurality of groups according to device characteristics, and the image forming devices transmit image formation information indicating the content of the image formation to the computer, and the computer executes an aggregation process for at least one of the plurality of groups, which aggregates the number of condition satisfactions, which is the number of image formations in which the image formation information from the image forming devices satisfies the condition set for the one group, as a value per predetermined unit period, and a plan notification process for causing the notification device to notify plan recommendation information indicating the priority of the fee plan recommended for the one group based on the aggregation results of the aggregation process performed over an aggregation period consisting of a plurality of consecutive predetermined unit periods. Effect of the Invention

[0007] Information corresponding to the priority of the rate plan is notified for the image forming apparatus in at least one group in the system. This information is based on the counted result of the number of times of image formation. Therefore, the user can easily set or change the rate plan of the image forming apparatus by referring to the plan recommendation information based on the tendency of the image formation in the past. For example, the number of image forming apparatuses set with the rate plan having a high priority can be increased.

[0008] In addition, in the present invention, the above tallying is performed for image formation that satisfies the conditions set for the group within a group according to the device characteristics. Therefore, unlike a case where all image formations for all image forming devices in the system are simply tallied, tallying is performed for image formations suitable for image forming devices belonging to a specific group. Then, plan recommendation information based on the tallying result is notified. Therefore, appropriate plan recommendation information for the specific group is easily notified. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer in FIG. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the PC in FIG. [Figure 4] 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a plan recommendation server in FIG. 1. [Diagram 5] 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing executed by the plan recommendation server of FIG. 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] A printer system 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

[0011] As shown in Fig. 1, the printer system 1 (corresponding to the "information processing system" of the present invention) has printers 100A and 100B, a PC 200, a plan recommendation server 300, and a fee management server 900. The printers 100A and 100B and the PC 200 are communicatively connected to each other via a network N1 such as a LAN (Local Area Network). The printers 100A and 100B and the PC 200, the plan recommendation server 300, and the fee management server 900 are communicatively connected to each other via the network N1 and a network N2 such as the Internet.

[0012] The printers 100A and 100B are classified into two groups with different device characteristics. The printer 100A is classified into group A, and the printer 100B is classified into group B. The difference between group A and group B will be described later.

[0013] As shown in Fig. 2, each of the printers 100A and 100B has an image forming unit 110 and a control unit 120. The image forming unit 110 has a paper storage unit 111 capable of storing multiple sheets of printing paper (corresponding to the "consumables" of the present invention), an ink cartridge 112 that stores ink, and an inkjet head 113. The image forming unit 110 forms an image on the printing paper by ejecting ink stored in the ink cartridge 112 from the inkjet head 113 onto the printing paper supplied from the paper storage unit 111 under the control of the control unit 120.

[0014] The control unit 120 includes hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a storage unit configured with a read only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM), and an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The ROM stores program data and the like executed by the CPU and the ASIC. The RAM stores image formation instruction data (described below) and data used when the CPU executes a program. The CPU and the ASIC, which are hardware, execute various processes, such as a process for controlling the operation of the image forming unit 110, in accordance with the program data and other data, which are software stored in the ROM and the RAM.

[0015] For example, the control unit 120 executes image formation processing based on image formation instruction data received from the PC 200. The image formation processing is processing for controlling the image forming unit 110 so as to form an image indicated by the image formation instruction data on a sheet of paper. The image formation instruction data is data for instructing the content of the image formation to be performed by the image forming unit 110. The image formation instruction data includes data indicating the content of the image to be formed on the printing paper, as well as data indicating the setting contents for various setting items. The setting items include the number of printing papers used per image formation and the type of image related to the image formation. The type of image indicates, for example, the difference between a photograph and a document (corresponding to the "first type" and "second type" of the present invention). The control unit 120 controls the image forming unit 110 so as to perform image formation with the setting contents indicated by the image formation instruction data. At this time, the control unit 120 counts the number of printing papers consumed in the above image formation. The counting result is transmitted to the fee management server 900.

[0016] Group A to which printer 100A belongs and group B to which printer 100B belongs have different execution speeds of image formation processing as device characteristics. There are two factors that cause the difference in execution speed of image formation processing. The first factor is the difference in the time from when the printer receives image formation instruction data until the image forming unit 110 starts the operation of forming an image on the first printing paper, that is, the time until the so-called first print. Hereinafter, a printer with this time shorter than other printers is referred to as a "printer with a fast first print". The second factor is the difference in the speed at which the image forming unit 110 forms an image per sheet of printing paper after the image formation operation starts. Hereinafter, a printer with this speed faster than other printers is referred to as a "printer with fast printing after the start of the first print". In addition, group A and group B have different suitability for the type of image (photo or document) as device characteristics. In this embodiment, group A has a faster first print than group B and is suitable for photo image formation, and group B has a faster printing after the start of the first print than group A and is suitable for document image formation. As an example, group A may be a group of inkjet printers and group B may be a group of laser printers.

[0017] In this embodiment, fee plans P and Q (corresponding to the "first plan" and "second plan" of the present invention) are set for the use of printers 100A and 100B. In both fee plans, ink cartridges 112 required for image formation are provided by the business entity that set the fee plan, and a fee is charged according to the number of sheets of printing paper consumed in forming an image. Either fee plan P or Q is set for each of printers 100A and 100B. The business entity that set the fee plan uses a fee management server 900 to manage and operate fee plans P and Q based on the counting results of the number of sheets of printing paper consumed sent from printers 100A and 100B.

[0018] The fee plan P is a plan in which a fixed normal fee (corresponding to the "first fee" of the present invention) is set per predetermined service period. In the fee plan P, an upper limit (corresponding to the "threshold" of the present invention) is set for the number of sheets of printing paper consumed within the service period. An excess fee (corresponding to the "second fee" of the present invention) is set for consumption of printing paper exceeding this upper limit. The excess fee in this embodiment is a fixed amount. The excess fee may be a pay-per-use fee according to the number of sheets printed in excess of the upper limit. The fee plan Q is a plan in which a fee is charged in proportion to the consumption of printing paper. The fee plan Q may be increased in any manner as long as the fee increases continuously with the increase in the consumption of printing paper. For example, the fee may increase initially as the consumption increases, but when the consumption reaches a certain amount, the fee becomes temporarily constant with respect to the increase in consumption, and when the consumption increases further, the fee may increase again.

[0019] 3, PC 200 (corresponding to the "notification device" of the present invention) is composed of a computer such as a desktop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer, and has a display 210 that displays characters and images, an input device that accepts various user inputs, etc. Various applications are installed on PC 200, and image formation instruction data is sent to printer 100A or 100B according to the processing by these applications.

[0020] However, it is not always clear to the user which rate plan is appropriate for each of the multiple printers in the printer system 1. In view of this, the present embodiment has the following configuration to present the user with recommended plan information, making it easier for the user to set or change a rate plan.

[0021] First, printers 100A and 100B each transmit image formation information indicating the content of image formation by each image formation process to plan recommendation server 300. Image formation information is information indicating the number of print papers and the type of image indicated by each image formation instruction data. Image formation information may be transmitted for each image formation process, or may be transmitted collectively for multiple image formation processes. Table 1 is an example of image formation information relating to multiple image formation processes. Each of No. 1 to 10 is image formation information. The processing date indicates the month and day when the image formation process was performed. The number of prints is the number of print papers used. The type of image indicates whether it is a photo or a document.

[0022] [Table 1]

[0023] The plan recommendation server 300 is a computer that generates plan recommendation information based on image formation information transmitted from the printers 100A and 100B. The plan recommendation server 300 is equipped with hardware such as a memory unit 310 composed of a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM. The memory unit 310 stores image formation information group 310A and group information 310B, and stores data used when the CPU executes a program. The image formation information group 310A is an accumulation of image formation information transmitted from the printers 100A and 100B. The group information 310B indicates the number of printers for each group. The CPU, which is hardware, executes various processes according to the program data, which is software stored in the memory unit 310, and other data. As a result, a group-by-group counting unit 320 and a recommended plan determination unit 330 are constructed as part of the plan recommendation server 300.

[0024] The group counting unit 320 counts the image formation information group 310A of the storage unit 310 for each unit period according to the conditions set for each of the groups A and B. Specifically, the conditions are as follows. In this embodiment, the above conditions are made up of Condition 1 and Condition 2 in Table 2 set for each group. Condition 1 is related to the number of print sheets used in one image formation (hereinafter referred to as the "number of prints"), and for group A, the number of prints is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value, and for group B, the number of prints is greater than a predetermined reference value. This corresponds to the fact that a relatively small number of prints is suitable for group A, which has a fast first print, and a relatively large number of prints is suitable for group B, which has a fast print after the start of the first print. In this embodiment, as shown in Table 2, the predetermined reference value is set to 10. Condition 2 is related to the type of image, and for group A, the type of image is a photo, and for group B, the type of image is a document. This corresponds to the fact that group A is suitable for photo image formation, and group B is suitable for document image formation.

[0025] [Table 2]

[0026] The group counting section 320 counts the number of times per unit period of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the condition 1 or condition 2 (corresponding to the "condition-satisfied number" of the present invention) for each group. The unit period according to the present embodiment is a one-month period for each of January, February, March, and so on. For example, in the image formation information of Table 1, the items that satisfy the condition 1 related to group A are five items No. 1 to 5 in January and three items No. 7, 8, and 10 in February. Also, in the image formation information of Table 1, the items that satisfy the condition 1 related to group B are zero items in January and two items No. 6 and 9 in February. The counting results are as shown in Table 3 below.

[0027] [Table 3]

[0028] Also, for example, in the image formation information in Table 1, the items that satisfy condition 2 related to group A are two items in January, No. 1 and 5, and three items in February, No. 6, 8, and 10. Also, in the image formation information in Table 1, the items that satisfy condition 2 related to group B are three items in January, No. 2 to 4, and two items in February, No. 7 and 9. The tabulation results are shown in Table 4 below.

[0029] [Table 4]

[0030] Furthermore, the group counting section 320 combines the counting results based on condition 1 and the counting results based on condition 2 for multiple consecutive unit periods. Specifically, the counting results of Table 3 for 12 months are added together with the counting results of Table 4. The result is as shown in Table 5. The counting results may be combined by adding together a value obtained by multiplying the counting results of group A by a weight and a value obtained by multiplying the counting results of group B by a weight. The weights are set to values ​​according to the importance of groups A and B.

[0031] [Table 5]

[0032] Next, the recommended plan determination unit 330 derives the minimum and average values ​​for each group in the total of the 12-month counting results based on conditions 1 and 2 acquired by the group counting unit 320. The minimum and average values ​​for each group obtained from Table 5 are as shown in Table 6.

[0033] [Table 6]

[0034] The recommended plan determination unit 330 then calculates the priority of the rate plan P for each group based on the following formula 1 using the minimum value and average value shown as an example in Table 6. The number of printers in formula 1 is the number of printers belonging to each group, and is acquired by referring to the group information in the storage unit 310. The minimum value and the average value are closer to each other as the degree of fluctuation of the values ​​in Table 5 is smaller. Therefore, the value of (minimum value) / (average value) is closer to 1 as the degree of fluctuation of the values ​​in Table 5 is smaller, and the value is smaller as the degree of fluctuation of the values ​​in Table 5 is larger. Since the smaller the degree of fluctuation is, the more suitable it is for the rate plan P, the higher the priority of the rate plan P is, as the value on the right side of formula 1 is larger, that is, the closer it is to the number of printers. The priority acquired by formula 1 is treated as the number of printers to which the rate plan P should be set, by truncating the decimal point. The decimal point may not be truncated, but may be rounded up or down.

[0035] (Formula 1) (priority of rate plan P) = (number of printers) * (minimum value) / (average value)

[0036] For example, assume that the number of printers to which each rate plan is set in each of group A and group B is as shown in Table 7 below. In this case, the priority of group A based on formula 1 is 5*4 / 6.75=approximately 2.96. Therefore, the number of printers to which rate plan P should be set is 2 (corresponding to the "first number" of the present invention). The remaining printers are printers to which rate plan Q should be set, and the number of printers is 3 (corresponding to the "second number" of the present invention). Similarly, the priority of group B based on formula 1 is 3*2 / 5=1.2. Therefore, the number of printers to which rate plan P should be set is 1 (corresponding to the "first number" of the present invention). The remaining printers are printers to which rate plan Q should be set, and the number of printers is 2 (corresponding to the "second number" of the present invention).

[0037] [Table 7]

[0038] As a result of the above, the number of printers in each group to which each rate plan should be set is as shown in Table 8 below. The recommended plan determination unit 330 sets the information in Table 8 as plan recommendation information. This plan recommendation information is information that reflects the priority calculated using Formula 1. In other words, the higher the priority based on Formula 1, the greater the ratio of the number of printers to which rate plan P should be set to the total number of printers in each group in the plan recommendation information. As described above, the priority is a value that corresponds to the degree of fluctuation in the values ​​in Table 5, so the plan recommendation information has content that corresponds to the degree of fluctuation in the values ​​in Table 5.

[0039] The plan recommendation information acquired in this manner is transmitted to PC 200 and displayed on display 210 of PC 200. For example, the plan recommendation information is displayed on display 210 in the format of Table 8. By referring to the plan recommendation information displayed on display 210, the user can easily understand which rate plan to set for which printer in printer system 1. Note that the plan recommendation information may be transmitted to printer 100A or 100B, and displayed on a display provided in printer 100A or 100B. In this case, printer 100A or 100B corresponds to the "notification device" of the present invention.

[0040] [Table 8]

[0041] Hereinafter, a series of processing steps performed by the plan recommendation server 300 from when the image formation information is acquired from the printers 100A and 100B until the plan recommendation information is notified will be described with reference to FIG. 5. First, the plan recommendation server 300 acquires the image formation information from the printers 100A and 100B (S1). The acquired information is stored in the storage unit 310 as an image formation information group 310A (see Table 1). Next, the group-specific counting unit 320 of the plan recommendation server 300 counts the image formation information group 310A (S2). As described above, the counting is performed by counting the number of times per unit period of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the condition set for the group (see Table 2) for each group. Next, the group-specific counting unit 320 combines the counting results of S2 for multiple conditions (S3). Specifically, as described above, the counting results based on condition 1 (see Table 3) and the counting results based on condition 2 (see Table 4) are added together (see Table 5). The processes in S2 and S3 correspond to the "tallying process" of the present invention.

[0042] Next, the recommended plan determination unit 330 of the plan recommendation server 300 derives the minimum and average values ​​(see Table 6) of the aggregation results combined in S3 for each group (S4). Next, the recommended plan determination unit 330 generates recommended plan information (see Table 8) based on the minimum and average values ​​derived in S4 (S5). The recommended plan information is derived by rounding down the decimal points of the priority of the rate plan P calculated based on the formula 1. Next, the plan recommendation information generated in S5 is sent to the PC 200 and displayed on the display 210, thereby notifying the user of the plan recommendation information (S6). The process of acquiring the plan recommendation information in S4 to S6 corresponds to the "acquisition process" of the present invention. Also, the process of notifying the PC 200 of the plan recommendation information acquired by the plan recommendation server 300 in S4 to S6 corresponds to the "plan notification process" of the present invention.

[0043] According to the present embodiment described above, in each of group A and group B in the printer system 1, plan recommendation information indicating the priority of each rate plan is notified to the printers belonging to the group. As described above, this information is based on the counting result of the number of image formations. Therefore, by referring to the plan recommendation information based on the past image formation trends, the user can easily set or change the rate plan P or rate plan Q for the printers belonging to each group. For example, the number of printers set to the rate plan with the higher priority out of rate plans P and Q can be increased.

[0044] In this embodiment, the printers in the printer system 1 are classified into group A and group B, which are set according to device characteristics such as the execution speed of the image formation process and suitability for the type of image. The counting of the number of image formations is performed based on whether or not condition 1 or condition 2 set for each group is satisfied. Therefore, unlike a case where all image formations for all printers in the printer system 1 are simply counted, counting is performed for image formations suitable for printers belonging to a specific group. Then, plan recommendation information based on the counting results is notified. Therefore, appropriate plan recommendation information for the specific group is easily notified.

[0045] In this embodiment, condition 1 is a condition that the amount of printing paper used in one image formation exceeds a predetermined reference value or is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value. According to this, conditions are set according to group A, which is suitable when the amount of printing paper used in one image formation is relatively small, and group B, which is suitable when the amount of printing paper used in one image formation is relatively large.

[0046] In this embodiment, condition 2 is a condition that the content of the image to be formed corresponds to a predetermined type. Specifically, the image type for group A is a photograph, and the image type for group B is a document. According to this, a condition according to the predetermined type, that is, a condition according to group A suitable for image formation of a photograph and a condition according to group B suitable for image formation of a document are set.

[0047] In addition, the plan recommendation information of the present embodiment has contents that reflect the priority of the rate plan P based on the above formula 1. The priority based on formula 1 becomes larger as the minimum value and the average value in the values ​​of table 5 are closer to each other. In other words, the priority of the rate plan P becomes higher as the degree of fluctuation of the values ​​in table 5 becomes smaller. In this way, the priority of the rate plan P is appropriately evaluated by formula 1. Note that the plan recommendation information that reflects the priority of the rate plan P or the rate plan Q may be acquired by a method other than using formula 1. For example, based on an index indicating the variation of the values ​​in table 5, such as the variance or standard deviation, the plan recommendation information may be acquired such that the priority of the rate plan Q becomes higher as the variation of the values ​​in table 5 becomes larger. In addition, the plan recommendation information may be acquired such that the priority of the rate plan P becomes higher as the maximum value and the average value in table 5 are closer to each other.

[0048] In addition, in this embodiment, two conditions, Condition 1 and Condition 2, are set for each of Groups A and B. Then, for each group, recommended plan information is acquired based on a value (see Table 5) obtained by adding up both the number of image formations whose image formation information satisfies Condition 1 (see Table 3) and the number of image formations whose image formation information satisfies Condition 2 (see Table 4). In this way, since it is based on a count that takes into account multiple conditions for each group, more appropriate plan recommendation information is likely to be notified for each group. Also, Condition 1 is a condition as to whether the number of printed sheets exceeds a predetermined reference value. And Condition 2 is a condition as to whether the type of image is a photo or a document. Therefore, since it is based on a count that takes into account both the number of printed sheets and the type of image, plan recommendation information that appropriately reflects both of these is notified.

[0049] <Modification> Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above based on the drawings, the specific configuration should not be considered to be limited to these embodiments. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the claims rather than the description of the above embodiments, and further includes all modifications within the meaning and scope of the claims.

[0050] For example, in the above embodiment, the printers in the printer system 1 are classified into two groups, group A and group B. Instead of this, the present invention may be applied when the printers are classified into three or more groups. For example, the present invention may be applied to the following modified example in which a group C is added in addition to the above groups A and B. In this modified example, the printers belonging to groups A and B have a device characteristic of being capable of color printing in addition to the above device characteristics. On the other hand, the printers belonging to group C have a device characteristic of being exclusively for monochrome printing. In response to this, the conditions shown in Table 9 below are set for each group. That is, in addition to conditions 1 and 2 related to groups A and B, condition 3 related to color printing or monochrome printing is added. Then, the counting results based on these conditions are, for example, as shown in Table 10 below. That is, for group A or B, the number of image formations in which the image formation information satisfies condition 1 is a1 or b1, the number of image formations in which the image formation information satisfies condition 2 is a2 or b2, and the number of image formations in which the image formation information satisfies condition 3 is a3 or b3. For group C, conditions 1 and 2 are not tallied, and the number of image formations for which the image formation information satisfies condition 3 is c. The value after the aggregation of the aggregation results related to conditions 1 to 3 is a1+a2+a3 for group A, b1+b2+b3 for group B, and c for group C, as shown in Table 10. Then, for each group, these combined values ​​for 12 months are calculated, and the priority is calculated based on Formula 1 using the minimum and average values, and plan recommendation information is obtained based on the calculated values.

[0051] [Table 9]

[0052] [Table 10]

[0053] Moreover, condition 1 in the above embodiment is a condition related to the number of prints, that is, the number of sheets of printing paper used in one image formation. Instead of or in addition to this, a condition related to the amount of ink used in one image formation may be adopted. For example, the image formation information transmitted from the printers 100A and 100B to the plan recommendation server 300 may include information on the amount of ink consumed per image formation, and the plan recommendation server 300 may tally up the number of image formations in which the amount of ink exceeds a predetermined reference value. In this case, the ink corresponds to the "consumable" of the present invention.

[0054] In the above embodiment, the plan recommendation information is acquired for each of the groups A and B. Alternatively, the plan recommendation information may be acquired for either the groups A or B.

[0055] In the above embodiment, two conditions, conditions 1 and 2, are adopted as the conditions set for each of groups A and B. Instead of this, three or more conditions may be adopted as the conditions set for each of groups A and B. That is, when the first to Nth conditions are set for group A and the (N+1)th to 2Nth conditions are set for group B, N may be 3 or more. That is, a total of six or more conditions may be set for groups A and B. In this case, for group A, the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the first condition to the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the Nth condition is added. Also, for group B, the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the (N+1)th condition to the number of times of image formation in which the image formation information satisfies the 2Nth condition is added. In this case, the number of times related to the condition may be multiplied by a weight according to the importance of the condition before the addition. Note that conditions 1 and 2 in the above embodiment are an example of N=2.

[0056] Additionally, in the above-described embodiments, the present invention is applied to the printer system 1, but is not limited thereto. The present invention may be applied to other inkjet type image forming devices that eject ink from a head, such as multifunction machines and copy machines, or to systems having these image forming devices. The present invention may also be applied to systems having laser type image forming devices (e.g., laser printers) that perform image recording processing by adhering toner to printing paper, instead of adhering ink to printing paper in the inkjet method. In this case, a toner cartridge that contains toner is detachably mounted in the image forming device. [Explanation of symbols]

[0057] 1 Printer System 100A, 100B Printer 110 Image forming section 120 Control section 300 Plan Recommended Server 310 Storage section 320 Group Counting Department 330 Recommended Plan Decision Department

Claims

1. An information processing system including a plurality of image forming apparatuses that form images on a medium, an information notifying apparatus for a user, and a computer, Each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses is set with one of a plurality of fee plans in which a fee for a consumption amount of a consumable used in the image formation varies in a different manner from one another, each of the image forming apparatuses belongs to one of a plurality of groups according to apparatus characteristics; the image forming apparatus transmits image forming information indicating the content of the image forming to the computer; The computer includes: a counting process for counting, for at least one of the plurality of groups, a condition satisfaction count, which is the number of times that the image formation information from the image forming apparatus satisfies a condition set for the one group, as a value per predetermined unit period; and a plan notification process that causes the notification device to notify plan recommendation information indicating the priority of the rate plan recommended for the one group based on the results of the aggregation process performed over an aggregation period consisting of multiple consecutive specified unit periods.

2. 2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the condition is that an amount of the consumable used in one image formation exceeds a predetermined reference value or is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value.

3. 2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the condition is that the content of the image to be formed corresponds to a predetermined type.

4. The information processing system according to claim 1 , wherein the plan notification process includes an acquisition process for acquiring the plan notification information according to a degree of change in the number of times the condition is satisfied.

5. The information processing system according to claim 4, characterized in that the multiple fee plans include a first plan in which a fixed first fee is set when the amount of consumption of the consumable within a specified service period does not exceed a threshold, and a second fee greater than the first fee is set when the amount of consumption of the consumable within the specified service period exceeds the threshold, and a second plan in which the fee increases continuously according to the amount of consumption of the consumable.

6. 6. The information processing system according to claim 5, wherein in the plan recommendation information, the closer the average value of the number of times the condition is satisfied is to the maximum or minimum value of the number of times the condition is satisfied, the higher the priority of the first plan.

7. The information processing system described in claim 6, characterized in that the plan recommendation information indicates a first number, which is the number of image forming devices to which the first plan should be set, and a second number, which is the number of image forming devices to which the second plan should be set, such that the closer the average value of the number of times the condition is met is to the maximum or minimum value of the number of times the condition is met, the greater the proportion of the first number in the total number of the multiple image forming devices.

8. The information processing system according to claim 7, characterized in that in the plan recommendation information, the ratio between the first number and the second number is a value corresponding to the ratio between the average value of the number of times the condition is met and the minimum value of the number of times the condition is met.

9. A plurality of the conditions are set corresponding to the plurality of groups, In the tabulation process, 2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the number of times the image formation is performed that satisfies a corresponding one of the plurality of conditions is tallied for each of the plurality of groups.

10. The plurality of conditions include first to second N conditions (N: a natural number equal to or greater than 2), The information processing system according to claim 9, characterized in that in the counting process, a result of adding, with or without weighting, the number of times of image formation that satisfies the first condition through the number of times of image formation that satisfies the N condition is taken as the counting result for the first group, and a result of adding, with or without weighting, the number of times of image formation that satisfies the (N+1) condition through the number of times of image formation that satisfies the second N condition is taken as the counting result for the second group.

11. N is 2, the first condition being that an amount of a consumable used in one image formation is equal to or less than a predetermined reference value; the second condition is that the content of the image to be formed corresponds to a first type; the third condition being that an amount of a consumable used in one image formation exceeds a predetermined reference value; 11. The information processing system according to claim 10, wherein the fourth condition is that the content of the image to be formed corresponds to a second type different from the first type.

Images