System and method for performing selective off-loading of document processing operations

摘要

A system and method for selectively outsourcing document processing operations from a document processing device. The document processing device analyzes a submitted document processing job from a user and determines whether external devices are available and capable of performing some or all of the requested document processing operations. When external devices are available and capable, the document processing device performs any necessary local preprocessing and forwards information related to the document processing job to one of the external devices. The external device then processes the data and returns the processed data to the document processing device. The document processing device then performs any remaining document processing operations and the job is thereupon output according to the selected document processing operation.