Process for monitoring the consumptions of franking machines

• US 6,868,443 B1
• Filed: 09/09/1999
• Issued: 03/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Neopost Industrie (Quadient SA)
• Original Assignee: Neopost Industrie (Quadient SA)
• Inventors: Lecarpentier, Marc, Deslandes, Thierry
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr., William C.
• Application Number:
  US09/392,585
• Publication Number:
  US 20010042120A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,014 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 705401-410, 705/43, 705/22, 705/28, 705/42, 705/60, 705/61, 705/62, 705/63, 345/736, 235/51, 235/380, 235/381, 235/375, 235/382, 235/386, 700/231, 700/233, 700/237, 700/241
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/0008 Communication details outside or between apparatus coin-freed apparatus for franking per se G07F17/26
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00096 via phone lines
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00145 via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00169 from a franking apparatus, e.g. for verifying accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00201 Open franking system, i.e. the printer is not dedicated to franking only, e.g. PC (Personal Computer)

Abstract

According to the process for monitoring the consumptions of a plurality of franking machines through a public communication network, at least one franking machine not being connected to this network, a link is firstly established with a management server, through the public network, by means of at least one supervision terminal independent of the off-line franking machine, in accordance with a determined protocol of communication, and data is then exchanged between the terminal and the server during which the user inputs at the supervision terminal a current invoicing index relative to the off-line franking machine and receives in return a code of authorization to frank in order to validate the subsequent frankings of the off-line franking machine.

Claims

1. A process for monitoring a plurality of franking machines, wherein at least one of the plurality of franking machines is connected to a public communications network and at least another one of the plurality of franking machines is not connected to the public communications network, the process comprising:

establishing a link between a management server on the public communications network, and a supervision terminal on the public communications network, wherein the supervision terminal is independent from the plurality of franking machines; and

exchanging data between the supervision terminal and the management server over the established link, including transmitting a current invoicing index corresponding to the at least another one of the franking machine not connected to the public communications network to the management server and transmitting a code of authorization to frank for validating subsequent frankings of the at least another one of the franking machine not connected to the network to the supervision terminal and wherein the code of authorization to frank is communicated manually to the at least another one of the plurality of franking machine through a user interface, and

wherein exchanging data further comprises displaying at the supervision terminal a list of the entire plurality of franking machines and, a last invoicing index validated by the management server corresponding to each of the plurality of franking machines.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the protocol of communication used for establishing a link with the management server is a Videotex protocol.

3. The process of claim 2, wherein the protocol of communication is a teletel protocol.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the protocol of communication used for establishing a link with the management server is TCP/IP.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein exchanging data further comprises:

entering into the supervision terminal an identifier including at least one of a password and a personal identification number.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein exchanging data further comprises displaying, at the supervision terminal, one of a selectable plurality of tables and statistics in graph form relating to a set of printing heads of the plurality of franking machines.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the code of authorization to frank comprises information corresponding to (1) an authorized maximum amount of credit, (2) an authorized maximum amount of consumption, and (3) a period of franking.

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the code of authorization to frank is obtained by a calculation based upon the current invoicing index.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein the code of authorization to frank is obtained by a calculation based upon a current date.

10. The process of claim 1, wherein the code of authorization to frank is obtained by a calculation from based upon one or more of (1) a maximum amount of credit, (2) a maximum amount of authorized consumption, and (3) an authorized period of franking.

11. The process of claim 1, wherein the protocol of communication used for establishing a link with the management server is a protocol of telephonic communication of a vocal synthesis type.

12. The process of claim 1, wherein the code of authorization to frank is obtained by a calculation based upon a serial number of a printing head.