Method and apparatus for printing in a distributed communications network
First Claim
1. A method for printing in a distributed communications network, the network comprising a plurality of enterprise customers that are capable of submitting at least one print job to a distributed print provider over a global network, the method comprising acts of:
- receiving, on a computer system of the distributed print provider via a print job interface provided over at least one network communication interface, a print job from at least one of the plurality of enterprise customers, wherein the print job includes a plurality of attributes for the print job, the plurality of attributes including;
a number of physical products to be produced, at least one destination address to which a plurality of physical products resulting from the print job are to be shipped, and a set of product attributes for the plurality of physical products;
dividing, by the computer system, the print job into a plurality of portions, each portion of the print job to be performed by a respective service provider of a plurality of available service providers distinct from the distributed print provider, wherein each portion of the print job corresponds to production of a unique subset of the plurality of physical products, and wherein the plurality of portions of the print job result in production of the number of physical products having the set of product attributes;
allocating, by the computer system, at least one first portion of the print job to a first service provider;
allocating, by the computer system, at least one second portion of the print job to a second service provider;
preparing, by the computer system, job performance data for each service provider allocated at least a portion of the print job, wherein the preparing includes generating job definition data for use by the respective service provider in producing the subset of the plurality of physical products, wherein the job definition data for each respective service provider is configured according to a set of attributes of production equipment of the respective service provider, and wherein the job definition data ensures a desired quality of at least one of the set of product attributes for all of the plurality of physical products; and
forwarding, by the computer system via at least one network communication interface, the job performance data for each portion of the print job for use by the respective service provider in performing the corresponding at least one portion of the print job for the distributed print provider, wherein the job performance data further includes a destination address from the at least one destination address to which the subset of the plurality of physical products for the corresponding at least one portion of the print job are to be shipped.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system is provided for printing jobs received from enterprise customers through a global printing network. One aspect relates to an architecture that interfaces customers, communication service firms (CSFs), and downstream digital print service providers (PSPs) in a global communications network. Such an architecture permits last-mile production functions that allow the distribution of print jobs to be optimized, containing costs, maintaining quality, and performing billing functions that improve the quality of such networks and make a global print network feasible. As a result, Enterprise customers benefit from lower costs and global sourcing while print service providers and graphics service firms benefit from increased revenue due to increased utilization of the overall global network.
27 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for printing in a distributed communications network, the network comprising a plurality of enterprise customers that are capable of submitting at least one print job to a distributed print provider over a global network, the method comprising acts of:
-
receiving, on a computer system of the distributed print provider via a print job interface provided over at least one network communication interface, a print job from at least one of the plurality of enterprise customers, wherein the print job includes a plurality of attributes for the print job, the plurality of attributes including;
a number of physical products to be produced, at least one destination address to which a plurality of physical products resulting from the print job are to be shipped, and a set of product attributes for the plurality of physical products;dividing, by the computer system, the print job into a plurality of portions, each portion of the print job to be performed by a respective service provider of a plurality of available service providers distinct from the distributed print provider, wherein each portion of the print job corresponds to production of a unique subset of the plurality of physical products, and wherein the plurality of portions of the print job result in production of the number of physical products having the set of product attributes; allocating, by the computer system, at least one first portion of the print job to a first service provider; allocating, by the computer system, at least one second portion of the print job to a second service provider; preparing, by the computer system, job performance data for each service provider allocated at least a portion of the print job, wherein the preparing includes generating job definition data for use by the respective service provider in producing the subset of the plurality of physical products, wherein the job definition data for each respective service provider is configured according to a set of attributes of production equipment of the respective service provider, and wherein the job definition data ensures a desired quality of at least one of the set of product attributes for all of the plurality of physical products; and forwarding, by the computer system via at least one network communication interface, the job performance data for each portion of the print job for use by the respective service provider in performing the corresponding at least one portion of the print job for the distributed print provider, wherein the job performance data further includes a destination address from the at least one destination address to which the subset of the plurality of physical products for the corresponding at least one portion of the print job are to be shipped. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A system comprising:
a set of computing devices configured to; receive on behalf of a distributed production provider, via at least one network communication interface, requested production job data corresponding to a production job to be performed for a customer, wherein the requested production job data includes a plurality of attributes for the production job, the plurality of attributes including a number of physical products to be produced and at least one destination address to which a plurality of physical products resulting from the production job are to be shipped; select a first production location of a plurality of available production locations to perform at least a portion of the production job, wherein the first production location is distinct from the distributed production provider; generate job performance data corresponding to the production job for use by the first production location in performing the at least a portion of the production job, wherein generating the job performance data includes generating modified production job data from at least some of the requested production job data based on production equipment of the first production location, wherein the modified production job data reduces an amount of variance in at least one attribute of the physical products produced by the production equipment of the first production location from a benchmark for each of the at least one attribute that would result from use of the requested production job data by the production equipment of the first production location; and forward the job performance data for use by the first production location in performing the production job, wherein the job performance data includes the at least one destination address to which at least a portion of plurality of physical products are to be shipped. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
14. A computer-implemented method for producing physical products in a communications network, the method comprising acts of:
-
receiving, on a computer system of a distributed production provider including a set of computing devices via a production job interface provided over at least one network communication interface, production job data corresponding to a production job to be performed for a customer, wherein the production job data includes a plurality of attributes for the production job, the plurality of attributes including a number of physical products to be produced and at least one destination address to which the plurality of physical products resulting from the production job are to be shipped; the computer system dividing the production job into a plurality of portions, each portion of the production job to be performed at a respective production location of a plurality of available production locations distinct from the distributed production provider, wherein each portion corresponds to production of a unique subset of the plurality of physical products, and wherein the plurality of portions result in production of the number of physical products; the computer system preparing job performance data for each production location allocated at least a portion of the production job, wherein the preparing includes generating job definition data for use by the respective production location in producing the subset of the plurality of physical products, wherein the job definition data for each respective production location is configured according to a set of attributes of production equipment of the respective production location, and wherein the job definition data ensures a desired quality for all of the plurality of physical products; and the computer system forwarding the job performance data for each portion of the plurality of portions for use by the respective production location in performing the corresponding portion of the production job, wherein the job performance data further includes a destination address from the at least one destination address to which the subset of the plurality of physical products for the corresponding portion of the production job are to be shipped. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A computer-implemented method for producing physical products in a communications network, the method comprising acts of:
-
receiving, on a computer system of a distributed production provider including a set of computing devices via a production job interface provided over at least one network communication interface, requested production job data corresponding to a production job to be performed for a customer, wherein the requested production job data includes a plurality of attributes for the production job, the plurality of attributes including a number of a plurality of physical products to be produced and at least one destination address to which the plurality of physical products resulting from the production job are to be shipped; the computer system selecting a first production location of a plurality of available production locations to perform at least a portion of the production job, wherein the first production location is distinct from the distributed production provider; the computer system generating job performance data corresponding to the production job for use by the first production location in performing the production job, wherein generating the job performance data includes generating modified production job data from at least some of the requested production job data based on production equipment of the first production location, wherein the modified production job data reduces an amount of variance in at least one attribute of the physical products produced by the production equipment of the first production location from a benchmark for each of the at least one attribute that would result from use of the requested production job data by the production equipment of the first production location; and the computer system forwarding the job performance data for use by the first production location in performing the production job, wherein the job performance data includes the at least one destination address to which at least a portion of the plurality of physical products are to be shipped. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
-
Specification