DEVICE MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, DEVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20160020960A1
• Filed: 06/10/2015
• Published: 01/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: WANG, Weibo
• Granted Patent: US 9,875,479 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5032 Generating service level reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8016 based on quality of service [QoS]

Abstract

A device management apparatus including a receiving unit configured to receive state information indicating a change in a state of a device and store the state information in a state information storage unit; a sending unit configured to send report information relating to the state information to a predetermined destination, when the state information received by the receiving unit corresponds to a report target; and a changing unit configured to expand the report targets when an operation state of the device does not fulfill a scheduled state of a present time point, the operation state being identified based on history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.

Claims

1. A device management apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive state information indicating a change in a state of a device and store the state information in a state information storage unit;

a sending unit configured to send report information relating to the state information to a predetermined destination, when the state information received by the receiving unit corresponds to a report target; and

a changing unit configured to expand the report targets when an operation state of the device does not fulfill a scheduled state of a present time point, the operation state being identified based on history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.

2. The device management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an identifying unit configured to identify the scheduled state of the operation state of the device up to the present time point in a predetermined period, based on the history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit, wherein

the changing unit expands the report targets when the operation state of the device does not fulfill the scheduled state identified by the identifying unit, the operation state being identified based on the history of the state information up to the present time point in the predetermined period, among the history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.

3. The device management apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a predicting unit configured to predict a number of items of the state information corresponding to the report targets after the report targets have been expanded, among the state information received within the predetermined period, the number of items of the state information being predicted based on the history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit, wherein

the changing unit expands the report targets according to the number of items of the state information predicted by the predicting unit.

4. The device management apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the predicting unit predicts a cost within the predetermined period, based on the number of items of the state information predicted by the predicting unit and a cost that arises by sending the report information, and

the changing unit expands the report targets when the cost within the predetermined period is less than or equal to a predetermined value.

5. The device management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the changing unit reduces the report targets when the operation state of the device fulfills the scheduled state of the present time point, the operation state being identified based on the history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.

6. A device management system including at least one information processing apparatuses for implementing various functions of the device management system, the device management system comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive state information indicating a change in a state of a device and store the state information in a state information storage unit;

a sending unit configured to send report information relating to the state information to a predetermined destination, when the state information received by the receiving unit corresponds to a report target; and

a changing unit configured to expand the report targets when an operation state of the device does not fulfill a scheduled state of a present time point, the operation state being identified based on history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.

7. An information processing method executed by a computer, the information processing method comprising:

receiving state information indicating a change in a state of a device and storing the state information in a state information storage unit;

sending report information relating to the state information to a predetermined destination, when the state information received at the receiving corresponds to a report target; and

expanding the report targets when an operation state of the device does not fulfill a scheduled state of a present time point, the operation state being identified based on history of the state information stored in the state information storage unit.