JP6569614B2 - Billing management system and billing management method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a billing management system and a billing management method when using a management system for maintaining an image forming apparatus.

  Manufacturers of copiers, multifunction peripherals (MFPs), printers, etc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as image forming devices) manage the image forming devices installed at the end customer site in a centralized manner. Various ideas have been made such as building and providing a system.

  For example, in the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, a customer's image forming apparatus is not managed at each service store, but is centrally managed by including a center, including the usage status of the image forming apparatus and its peripheral devices. Provide information to the service store to manage maintenance schedules. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the man-hours for managing customer equipment at the service store.

  Further, in the technology disclosed in Patent Document 2, customer information and product information of a customer who has traded a product at a store are acquired by a server, and another customer having the same attribute as that of the traded customer is extracted and extracted. The product information of the traded product is provided from the server to the dealer in charge of the customer.

JP 2002-269460 A JP 2004-272387 A

  In general, manufacturers want to continue to purchase new models as much as possible from the business point of view. And I would like sales companies and sales agents to continue selling new models to end customers as much as possible.

  However, the management system as described above did not have a mechanism for motivating sales companies and sales agents to encourage end customers to purchase new models.

  In view of the circumstances as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a billing management system and a billing management method capable of motivating a sales company / sales agent company to purchase a new model by an end customer.

  To achieve the above object, a billing management system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a billing management server connected to a network and one or more image forming apparatuses under the management of the billing management server. Includes a communication unit capable of network communication, a model name for each of the one or more image forming apparatuses, an image forming apparatus management database for managing the one or more image forming apparatuses in a group, and the 1 The model / release date table in which the model name and release date of the image forming apparatus are described as a set, and the discount rate of charging as the number of days elapsed from the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses increases. A list of image forming apparatuses belonging to one group using the discount rate table determined so as to decrease and the image forming apparatus management database The image forming apparatus management unit to be configured, and the image forming apparatus management database, for each image forming apparatus belonging to one group, based on the list created by the image forming apparatus management unit. The model name is obtained, the release date of the target image forming apparatus is obtained from the model / release date table, the elapsed days from the obtained release date to the present are calculated, and the discount rate table is calculated using the calculated elapsed days. From the discount rate processing unit for obtaining a discount rate when charging the target image forming apparatus from the discount rate and the discount rate for each image forming apparatus in the group determined by the discount rate processing unit, the user (sales company / sales agent) A charge management unit for calculating the total amount of charges charged to the company. Therefore, it is possible to motivate sales companies and sales agents to encourage end customers to purchase new models.

  To achieve the above object, a billing management method according to an aspect of the present invention is a billing management system including a billing management server connected to a network and one or more image forming apparatuses under the management of the billing management server. A charge management method, wherein an image forming apparatus management unit of the charge management server describes a model name for each of the one or more image forming apparatuses, and manages the one or more image forming apparatuses in a group. A list of image forming apparatuses belonging to one group is created using an image forming apparatus management database, and the discount rate processing unit of the billing management server is based on the list created by the image forming apparatus management unit. For each image forming apparatus belonging to one group, the model name of the target image forming apparatus is obtained from the image forming apparatus management database. The release date of the target image forming apparatus is obtained from the model / release date table in which the model name and release date of one or more image forming apparatuses are described as a set, and the process from the obtained release date to the present Calculate the number of days, and use the calculated number of elapsed days to increase the number of days elapsed from the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses. A discount rate for charging the device is obtained, and the charge management unit of the charge management server charges the total amount of the fee charged to the user from the discount rate for each image forming device in the group obtained by the discount rate processing unit. Calculate

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to motivate the sales company / sales agent company to make the end customer purchase a new model.

1 is an overall view for explaining an overall image of an environment in which a charge management system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention operates. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the concept of a group. It is a block diagram in case the accounting management server 10 is comprised by a general computer. It is a figure which shows the example of the model release date table 17b. It is a figure which shows the example of the discount rate table 17c. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of processing in a charge management server 10;

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[overall structure]
First, an overview of an environment in which a charge management system according to an embodiment of the present invention operates will be described. FIG. 1 is an overall view for explaining an overall image of an environment in which a charge management system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention operates.

  The charge management system 100 includes a charge management server 10 in the management cloud 1 and an image forming apparatus 40 belonging to a group (described later) to be charged managed by the charge management server 10.

  The management cloud 1 includes a configuration server 30 that manages the configuration of the image forming apparatus 40 managed by the management cloud 1 and a maintenance server 20 that maintains the image forming apparatus 40 managed by the management cloud 1.

  Also, the cloud administrator accesses the management cloud 1 from the management terminal 50 that manages the management cloud 1 and manages the management cloud 1.

  The image forming apparatuses 40 installed in the end customers X, Y, and Z that use the image forming apparatus 40 are managed remotely from the management cloud 1 via the network.

  A serviceman (may include a salesman) of the sales company A and the sales agent B becomes a user of the management cloud 1 and performs the maintenance of the image forming apparatus 40 of each end customer via the service terminal 60. The management cloud 1 is accessed, and remote maintenance or the like of the image forming apparatus 40 installed at each end customer site is performed.

  The billing management server 10 uses the management cloud 1 for the sales company and the sales agent according to the number of the image forming apparatuses 40 of the final customer registered in the group managed by the sales company and the sales agent. Charge a fee.

  The overall image of the environment in which the charge management system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention operates has been described above.

[About Group]
Next, the concept of groups will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the concept of groups.

  The billing management server 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention uses the concept of a group in order to maintain the image forming apparatus 40 and manage billing to a sales company / sales agency.

  Groups are hierarchized in a tree structure.

  The group basically assumes one independent company organization. A user such as the service person described above can belong to a group.

  The image forming apparatus 40 to be managed belongs to the group.

  The hierarchy in the vertical direction in FIG. 2 may represent, for example, the inclusion relationship of sales areas such as sales companies.

  The group concept has been described above.

[Billing management server configuration]
Next, the configuration of the charge management server 10 will be described. The accounting management server 10 may be configured by dedicated hardware or software, or may be configured by a general computer. FIG. 3 shows a configuration diagram when the charge management server 10 is configured by a general computer.

  As shown in the figure, the charge management server 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 13, an operation input unit 14, a communication unit 15, a display unit 16, And a storage unit 17, and these blocks are connected via a bus 18.

  The ROM 12 stores a plurality of programs and data such as firmware for executing various processes. The RAM 13 is used as a work area for the CPU 11 and temporarily holds an OS (Operating System), various applications being executed, and various data being processed.

  The storage unit 17 is, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory, or other nonvolatile memory. The storage unit 17 stores an OS, various applications, various data, an image forming apparatus management DB (Database) 17a, a model / release date table 17b, and a discount rate table 17c.

  The image forming apparatus management DB 17a stores information for managing the image forming apparatus 40 for each group, for example, a list of image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to the group, a model name for each image forming apparatus 40, and the like.

  The model release date table 17b stores a release date (sales start date) for each model of the image forming apparatus 40.

  The discount rate table 17c describes a discount rate according to the number of days elapsed from the release date for each image forming apparatus 40 when the management cloud 1 is used.

  The communication unit 15 is connected to a network for exchanging information with the maintenance server 20, the configuration server 30, the image forming apparatus 40, the management terminal 50, and the service terminal 60.

  The CPU 11 expands a program corresponding to a command given from the operation input unit 14 or via the network among a plurality of programs stored in the ROM 12 or the storage unit 17 in the RAM 13 and displays the program according to the expanded program. The unit 16 and the storage unit 17 are appropriately controlled.

  The operation input unit 14 is, for example, a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, and other operation devices.

  The display unit 16 is, for example, a liquid crystal display, an EL (Electro-Luminescence) display, a plasma display, or the like.

  Next, functional blocks realized by executing a program in the CPU 11 will be described.

  The functional blocks realized in the CPU 11 of the charge management server 10 are an image forming apparatus management unit 11a, a discount rate processing unit 11b, and a charge management unit 11c.

  The image forming apparatus management unit 11a uses the image forming apparatus management DB 17a to manage the image forming apparatuses belonging to each group and create a list of the image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to each group.

  The discount rate processing unit 11b creates a model / release date for each image forming apparatus 40 belonging to each group based on the list of image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to a specific group created by the image forming apparatus management unit 11a. The release date is specified using the table 17b, and the number of days elapsed from the release date is calculated. Then, the discount rate of the usage fee of the management cloud 1 for each image forming apparatus 40 is specified using the discount rate table 17c.

  The charge management unit 11c calculates the total amount charged to the user from the discount rate for each image forming apparatus 40 in the group specified by the discount rate processing unit 11b. The total amount of the fee is the sum of the fee per image forming apparatus (discounted by the discount rate) for each image forming apparatus 40 belonging to the group.

  The configuration of the charge management server 10 has been described above.

[About Model Release Date Table]
Next, an example of the model / release date table 17b will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the model / release date table 17b.

  For example, in the case of the image forming apparatus 40 with the model name XXXX, the release date (which is also the sales start date) is obtained from the model / release date table 17b to be May 5, 2010.

  The example of the model / release date table 17b has been described above.

[About discount rate table]
Next, an example of the discount rate table 17c will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the discount rate table 17c.

  For example, when the number of days elapsed from the release date is from 0 days to 365 days, the discount rate of the charge is 30%.

  And from the 366 days to 730 days, the discount rate of the charge is lowered to 15%.

  Thus, the discount rate system is such that the discount rate decreases as the number of days elapsed from the release date increases, that is, as the image forming apparatus 40 becomes older.

  Since the usage fee of the management cloud 1 is charged every month, the large discount rate means that a user of a sales company or sales agency sells a new model of the image forming apparatus 40 as much as possible to the end customer and registers it with the group. It will be a big motivation for.

  The example of the discount rate table 17c has been described above.

[Process flow]
Next, the flow of processing in the charge management server 10 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of processing in the charge management server 10.

  First, the image forming apparatus management unit 11a acquires a list of image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to a specific group from the image forming apparatus management DB 17a (step S1).

  Next, the discount rate processing unit 11b repeats steps S3 to S5, thereby repeatedly acquiring the discount rate for the number of image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to the group (step S2).

  Next, the discount rate processing unit 11b uses the model / release date table 17b to acquire the release date of the image forming apparatus 40 for which the discount rate is to be acquired (step S3).

  Next, the discount rate processing unit 11b calculates the number of elapsed days from the release date of the image forming apparatus 40 for which the discount rate is acquired to the present (step S4).

  Next, the discount rate processing unit 11b acquires a discount rate based on the calculated elapsed days from the discount rate table 17c (step S5).

  When the acquisition of the discount rate is completed for all the image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to the group, the charge management unit 11c calculates the fee of each image forming apparatus 40 based on all the acquired discount rates, and calculates The charged amounts are totaled to calculate the charge amount for the entire group (step S7).

  The flow of processing in the charge management server 10 has been described above.

[Additional notes]
As described above, the billing management system 100 according to the present invention includes the billing management server 10 and one or more image forming apparatuses 40 under the management of the billing management server 10 connected to the network. Describes a communication unit 15 capable of network communication and a model name for each of the one or more image forming apparatuses 40, and an image forming apparatus management database 17a for managing the one or more image forming apparatuses 40 in a group. A model / release date table 17b in which model names and release dates of the one or more image forming apparatuses 40 are described as a set, and the number of days elapsed from the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses 40. The discount rate table 17c, which is set so that the discount rate of charging is reduced as the number increases, and the image forming apparatus management database 17a are used. The image forming apparatus management unit 11a for creating a list of image forming apparatuses 40 belonging to one group and the image forming apparatus 40 belonging to one group based on the list created by the image forming apparatus management unit 11a. Each time, the model name of the target image forming apparatus 40 is obtained from the image forming apparatus management database 17a, the release date of the target image forming apparatus 40 is obtained from the model / release date table 17b, and the obtained release date is obtained. A discount rate processing unit 11b that calculates the number of days elapsed from the present to the present and obtains a discount rate for charging the target image forming apparatus 40 from the discount rate table 17c using the calculated elapsed days, and the discount rate processing From the discount rate for each image forming apparatus 40 in the group determined by the section 11b, the user (sales company / sales agency) And a charging management unit 11c for calculating a total fee to be charged for.

  Therefore, it is possible to motivate sales companies and sales agents to encourage end customers to purchase new models.

  In addition, this invention is not limited only to the above-mentioned embodiment, Of course, various changes can be added within the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

1 ... management cloud 10 ... billing management server 11 ... CPU
11a ... Image forming apparatus management unit 11b ... Discount rate processing unit 11c ... Charge management unit 12 ... ROM
13 ... RAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 ... Operation input part 15 ... Communication part 16 ... Display part 17 ... Memory | storage part 17a ... Image forming apparatus management DB
17b ... Model / release date table 17c ... Discount rate table 18 ... Bus 20 ... Maintenance server 30 ... Configuration server 40 ... Image forming device 50 ... Management terminal 60 ... Service terminal 100 ... Billing management system

Claims (2)

Billing management server included in the management cloud ,
One or more image forming apparatuses that are connected to the accounting management server via a network, use the management cloud, and are managed by the accounting management server,
The billing management server is
A communication unit capable of network communication;
An image forming apparatus management database for describing a model name for each of the one or more image forming apparatuses and managing the one or more image forming apparatuses in a group of image forming apparatuses managed by a sales company or a sales agent. When,
A model / release date table in which model names and release dates of the one or more image forming apparatuses are described in pairs;
A discount rate table determined so that the discount rate of the usage fee of the management cloud decreases as the number of days elapsed from the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses increases;
An image forming apparatus management unit that creates a list of image forming apparatuses belonging to one group using the image forming apparatus management database;
Based on the list created by the image forming apparatus management unit, for each image forming apparatus belonging to one group, the model name of the target image forming apparatus is obtained from the image forming apparatus management database, and the model release Japan seeking release date of the image forming apparatus of interest from the table, the discount of the image forming apparatus calculates the number of days from the release date obtained to date, interest from the discount rate table using the elapsed days calculated A discount rate processing unit for specifying a rate;
Based on the discount rate for each image forming apparatus in the group determined by the discount rate processing unit, the usage fee of the management cloud for each image forming apparatus is calculated, and the one or more image forming apparatuses in the group are calculated. Summing up the usage charges, calculating a total amount, and using the management cloud for charging the sales company or the sales agent that manages the image forming apparatus belonging to the group, A billing management system comprising: Billing management server included in the management cloud ,
A billing management method in a billing management system , which is connected to the billing management server via a network, uses the management cloud, and includes one or more image forming apparatuses under the management of the billing management server,
A group of image forming apparatuses in which an image forming apparatus management unit of the accounting management server describes a model name for each of the one or more image forming apparatuses, and the one or more image forming apparatuses are managed by a sales company or a sales agent. A list of image forming apparatuses belonging to one group is created using an image forming apparatus management database for managing them collectively.
Based on the list created by the image forming device management unit, the discount rate processing unit of the billing management server sets target image formation from the image forming device management database for each image forming device belonging to one group. The model name of the apparatus is obtained, and the release date of the target image forming apparatus is obtained from the model release date table in which the model name and the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses are described in pairs. The number of days elapsed from the release date to the present is calculated, and the discount rate of the usage fee of the management cloud decreases as the number of days elapsed from the release date of the one or more image forming apparatuses increases using the calculated number of elapsed days. Specify the discount rate of the target image forming device from the discount rate table specified in
The charge management unit of the charge management server calculates a usage fee of the management cloud for each image forming apparatus based on a discount rate for each image forming apparatus in the group obtained by the discount rate processing unit , and the group The usage fees of the one or more image forming apparatuses are totaled to calculate a total amount, and the total amount is calculated for the sales company or the sales agent that manages the image forming apparatuses belonging to the group. A charge management method that uses the management cloud as a charge.

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