Equipment management system

摘要

Systems and methods of management of electronic office equipment through automated monitoring and reporting of usage and status are disclosed. A monitoring agent monitors electronic office equipment on a network and collects usage and status information to send to a control system. The control system can use the usage and status information to compile various reports responsive to the received information. The system allows for the automatic assessment, monitoring, re-supply, maintenance, and billing of networks of printing devices from a variety of different manufacturers. In some embodiments, the system enables a pay per use lease arrangement.

主权项

1. A control system comprising:
an interface configured to receive messages from a monitoring and recording agent over a computing network, the monitoring and recording agent being configured to:
automatically detect a plurality of printers in the computing network, each of the plurality of printers manufactured by a variety of manufacturers, the automatic detection including the detection of printers that have been newly installed onto the computing network,broadcast a message onto the computing network on a periodic basis to solicit responses from each of the detected printers,collect usage information from each of the detected printers in the computing network, the usage information determined on an individual user basis using an identifier unique to the individual user, the usage information associated with a lease rate given to each of the detected printers, the usage information used to establish the lease rate for the individual user, the usage information recorded by the control system, andautomatically generate messages including the usage information collected from the detected printers in the computing network and recorded by the control system; a memory configured to store a report recipient database including information concerning a plurality of report recipients, each report recipient being designated to receive a type of report; a processor for executing instructions stored in memory; a data analyzer executable by the processor to:
analyze the usage information in received messages, anddetermine a type of report associated with the usage information relating to the plurality of printers; one or more assemblers executable by the processor to:
automatically generate a report in accordance with the determined type of report, and send the report over the computing network to the designated report recipient associated with the type of report; an agent database accessible by the data analyzer to identify the monitoring and recording agent; and a second monitoring and recording agent executable by the processor to:
automatically monitor a second network of printing devices,automatically record the second network of printing devices,collect further usage information and status information from the printing devices on the second network,record the further usage information and status information from the printing devices on the second network, andassemble messages including the further usage information and status information, wherein the control system is further configured to distinguish messages received from the first monitoring and recording agent from messages received from the second monitoring and recording agent.