JP2002329121A - Maintenance management system, maintenance management charge managing server, advertisement distributing server, maintenance server, copying machine, maintenance management charge determining method, advertisement charge determining means, advertisement distributing method, and method and program for request and repair frequency management - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a maintenance management system, a maintenance management charge managing server, an advertisement distributing server, a maintenance server, a copying machine, a maintenance management charge determining method, an advertisement charge determining method, an advertisement distributing method, and a method and a program for request and repair frequency management which reduce substantial print unit prices to users. SOLUTION: Counter information is gathered from a user copying machine 201, an advertisement print quantity is specified according to the counter information, and a performance charge is reduced according to the advertisement print quantity. Further, an advertisement charge billed to an advertiser is determined according to the advertisement print quantity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a maintenance management system, a maintenance management fee management server, an advertisement distribution server, a maintenance server, a copying machine, a maintenance management fee determining method, an advertisement fee determining method,
The present invention relates to an advertisement distribution method, a request / repair frequency management method, and a program therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a maintenance management system of a copying machine, as shown in FIG. 28, a performance charge management server 3000 provided in a center (management system) using a public line 1000 is used by a user. It communicates with each copier 2000 and collects usage information (counter information) such as the cumulative number of prints and status information such as the remaining amount of toner and the occurrence of failures. ), And maintenance activities such as toner replacement and repair.

Further, information such as advertisements and news is periodically distributed to the copying machine between the server and the copying machine connected via the public line, and the information is displayed on the operation panel of the copying machine. Information distribution system to be displayed
No. 00-59554 (hereinafter referred to as prior art 1).

In the information distribution system disclosed in the prior art 1, as shown in FIG. 29, a user's copy machine 2001 is connected to a public telephone line 100 via a modem 2002.
1 and a central management server 300 on the management system side.
1 is also connected to the public telephone line 100 via the modem 3002.
1 connected.

In this system, the central management server 2
001 periodically distributes information such as advertisements and news to the designated copy machine 2001.

With such a configuration, in the prior art 1,
Information held in the copy machine 2001 at the time of copying is displayed on the operation panel to prevent the user from getting tired of the work. Further, in the prior art 1, it is possible to print a distributed advertisement or news.

As a method of displaying an advertisement on a user terminal, there is a general method of displaying an advertisement by using a banner advertisement.

However, in recent years, the click rate of banner advertisements has been on a downward trend.
It is around 4%. On the other hand, the percentage of users who were originally interested in advertising related to the site and who took action such as purchasing behavior on this site from the banner advertisement accounted for 24%. , Did not click on a banner ad,
Recognized users account for 32% of the total, indicating that the percentage of banner advertisements directly linked to sales activities is small.

[0009] Under such circumstances, in the banner advertisement industry, in order to improve the click rate from the user, the banner advertisement is animated, emphasized colors, characters, and the like are emphasized on the display. And various methods such as displaying only banner advertisements adapted to the interests of individual users.

[0010]

However, in the information distribution system disclosed in the above-mentioned prior art 1, the advertisement and news displayed on the operation panel of the user's copy machine match the user's preference. Not necessarily something,
In addition, in order to view advertisements and news on the operation panel, the user must be close to the copy machine, and when printing, for example, the cost required for printing the advertisement (performance charge) is a burden on the user. Had the problem of becoming

[0011] This problem is disadvantageous for the user because a performance charge is generated for printing of advertisements and the like that are not originally required, and the amount charged is increased.

[0012] Further, from the viewpoint of the advertiser, the result that the advertisement does not show sufficient use value to the user,
Advertisers were at a disadvantage.

Further, at present, the usage rate of the copying machine is decreasing year by year, and there is also a problem that the profit from the maintenance of the copying machine is decreasing.

[0014] Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has a maintenance management system, a maintenance management fee management server, an advertisement distribution server, a maintenance server, and a maintenance management system capable of reducing a substantial printing unit price for a user. Copy machine, maintenance and maintenance fee determination method, advertisement fee determination method, advertisement distribution method,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a repair frequency management method and a program thereof.

[0015] The present invention also provides a copier user, an advertiser, and a maintenance company to enjoy benefits by reducing the actual printing unit price for the user and fully utilizing the utility value of the advertisement. Provide a maintenance management system, a maintenance management fee management server, an advertisement distribution server, a maintenance server, a copy machine, a maintenance management fee determination method, an advertisement fee determination method, an advertisement distribution method, a request / repair frequency management method, and a program for enabling the maintenance management system. The purpose is to do.

Further, the present invention provides a maintenance management system in which a copier user and a maintenance company can enjoy profits by transferring the burden of the maintenance company to the user and reducing a substantial printing unit price for the user. A system, a maintenance management fee management server, an advertisement distribution server, a maintenance server, a copying machine, a maintenance management fee determination method, an advertisement fee determination method, an advertisement distribution method, a request / repair frequency management method, and a program thereof are provided. I do.

[0017]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a maintenance management fee for a user is determined based on the print contents of a copier installed in the user. Features.

Thus, according to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to substantially reduce the printing unit price for the user.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the print contents of the copying machine are the number of printed advertisements distributed, printing in color / black and white, and the printing area.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee (performance charge) in consideration of the cost required for printing the advertisement distributed to the copy machine.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the number of times of requesting repair of a copier installed by a user, and / or
Alternatively, the maintenance fee for the user is determined based on the number of times the user has repaired the copying machine.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the maintenance management fee can be reduced according to the number of repairs borne by the user.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a maintenance management system including an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copying machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal sends the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system. Register, the advertisement distribution system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, stores the advertisement print information on the print content of the printed advertisement, and the maintenance management fee management system It is characterized in that print information is collected, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the maintenance management fee can be reduced based on the amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser printed on the user's copy machine, and the advertisement can be used. Can be substantially received by the user.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a maintenance management system including an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copy machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal sends the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system. Register, the advertisement distribution system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, stores the advertisement print information on the print content of the printed advertisement, and the maintenance management fee management system It is characterized by collecting print information and determining an advertisement fee based on the advertisement print information.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to determine the advertisement fee based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine. It is only necessary to pay for what actually functions, and efficient utilization of advertisements and unnecessary reduction of the amount of advertisements can be achieved.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a copier for requesting repair of a fault that has occurred, a maintenance system for notifying the copier of a method for repairing the fault, and a maintenance management for determining a maintenance fee for the copier. A maintenance management system having a charge management system, wherein the copier displays on the operation panel a repair request selection screen that allows the user to select whether or not to request repair, and the maintenance system requests that the repair be performed. Count and
The number of successful repairs based on the user's repair method,
The maintenance management fee management system is characterized in that the maintenance management fee is determined based on the number of repairs requested by the maintenance system and the number of successful repairs based on the repair method. .

Thus, in the invention according to claim 6, it is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee by taking into account the work borne by the user in detail, and for the user, the benefit of performing the repair by himself is provided. It becomes possible to receive substantially. In addition, it is possible for the maintenance company to reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

[0029] According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, advertisement printing information is collected from a copier that stores advertisement printing information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement printing information. It is characterized by:

According to the invention described in claim 7, the maintenance management fee can be reduced based on the amount of printing of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and the advertisement can be used. Can be substantially given to the user.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, an advertisement print information is collected from a copy machine storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement, and an advertisement fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. It is characterized by.

Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to determine the advertisement fee based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and the advertisement functions substantially. Since only billing is performed, it is possible to give the advertiser the effect of using the advertisement efficiently and the effect of reducing the amount of unnecessary advertisement.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a maintenance management fee management server for determining a maintenance management fee for a copying machine,
The number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the repair based on the repair method by the user has been managed are managed in the maintenance system that notifies the copy machine requesting the repair of the occurred failure the repair method. , A maintenance management fee is determined.

Thus, according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee in consideration of the work borne by the user in detail, and it is advantageous for the user to perform the repair by himself. Can be substantially given.
Further, the maintenance company can reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

Further, the invention according to claim 10 holds the advertisement notified from the advertiser terminal, and replaces the held advertisement with:
It is characterized in that the advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement is distributed to a copying machine that stores the advertisement print information.

Thus, according to the tenth aspect of the present invention,
For example, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a plurality of held advertisements to one or more copy machines, and it is possible to determine a transmission time zone in consideration of line congestion.

Further, the invention according to claim 11 is characterized in that, out of the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a field specified via a copy machine are distributed to the copy machine.

Thus, according to the eleventh aspect of the present invention,
It is possible to select and distribute only the advertisement that matches the user's preference, and it is possible to achieve efficient distribution of the advertisement and to increase the utility value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

Further, the invention according to claim 12 is an advertisement distribution server for distributing an advertisement to a copy machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, and holding an advertisement displayed in a predetermined time period. It is characterized by holding the advertisements applied by the winning bidder determined by the online auction.

Thus, in the twelfth aspect of the present invention,
Advertisers can select the time zone that is most effective according to their budget and distribute the advertisement.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a maintenance server for notifying a copier requesting repair of an occurred failure of a method of repairing the failure. And the number of successful repairs based on the repair method according to (1).

Thus, the invention according to claim 13 enables the work borne by the user to be considered in detail, and can be used as a reference when reducing the maintenance management fee, for example.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, an advertisement delivered from an advertisement delivery system is held, an advertisement is printed according to a command input by a user, and advertisement print information relating to a print content of the printed advertisement is stored. It is characterized by.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 14,
The print content of the advertisement printed by the user can be held by the user, and can be used as reference information when a maintenance company or the like determines a maintenance management fee.

Further, the invention according to claim 15 is characterized in that a menu for allowing the user to select the held advertisement is displayed on the operation panel.

Accordingly, in the invention according to claim 15,
A function for easily selecting an advertisement to be printed can be provided to the user.

Further, the invention according to claim 16 is characterized in that it is detected whether or not a person exists within a predetermined range, and when it is detected that a person exists, a menu is displayed.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 16,
There is no need to display a menu when it is unnecessary, and it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the copier.

Further, according to the seventeenth aspect, a line is established with a designated destination based on an input from a user corresponding to the advertisement displayed on the operation panel, or
The input information is transmitted to a designated destination.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 17,
It is possible to provide the user with additional functions and information included in the advertisement.

The invention according to claim 18 is a maintenance method that manages the number of times the repair of a fault has occurred and the number of times the user has successfully repaired the fault based on the notified repair method. A copy machine for requesting a system and acquiring a repair method is characterized in that the repair method is displayed on an operation panel, and a maintenance system is notified that the user has successfully repaired based on the repair method.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 18,
In the maintenance system, it is possible to manage the work borne by the user, and accordingly, for example, the maintenance company can reduce the maintenance management fee.

[0053] The invention according to claim 19 is an advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to the print content of an advertisement every time a distributed advertisement is printed, and an advertisement print of collecting advertisement print information. It is characterized by including an information collecting step and a maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the collected advertisement print information.

According to the invention described in claim 19,
The maintenance management fee can be reduced based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and the user can substantially receive the benefit of using the advertisement. .

The invention according to claim 20 is a repair request number management step for managing the number of repair requests for failures occurring in the copier, and the number of times the user has successfully repaired the failures based on the notified repair method. , And a maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the number of repair requests and the number of successful repairs.

Thus, according to the twentieth aspect,
The maintenance management fee can be reduced by taking into account the work the user has paid in detail, and the user can substantially benefit from performing the repair by himself. In addition, it is possible for the maintenance company to reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, each time a distributed advertisement is printed, an advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to print contents of the advertisement, and an advertisement print of collecting advertisement print information It is characterized by including an information collecting step and an advertisement fee determining step of determining an advertisement fee based on the collected advertisement print counter information.

Thus, according to the twenty-first aspect of the present invention,
It is possible to determine the advertisement fee based on the amount of printing of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and for the advertiser, it is only necessary to pay only for the function of the advertisement substantially. In addition, efficient use of advertisements and reduction of unnecessary advertisement amounts can be achieved.

According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, an advertisement holding step of holding the notified advertisement, and the advertisement held in the advertisement holding step are distributed to a copy machine that stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement. And an advertisement distribution step.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 22,
For example, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a plurality of held advertisements to one or more copy machines, and it is possible to determine a transmission time zone in consideration of line congestion.

Further, the invention according to claim 23 is characterized in that, in the advertisement distribution step, of the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to the designated field via the copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. .

Thus, in the invention according to claim 23,
It is possible to select and distribute only the advertisement that matches the user's preference, and it is possible to achieve efficient distribution of the advertisement and to increase the utility value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

Further, the invention according to claim 24 is an advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement to a copy machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, wherein the advertisement displayed in a predetermined time period is transmitted online. Holding an auction and determining a winning bidder in a predetermined time zone based on information notified from the advertiser terminal; and having a successful bid determining step in which the advertisement holding step is performed in the successful bid determining step. Is characterized by holding the applied advertisement.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 24,
Advertisers can select the time zone that is most effective according to their budget and distribute the advertisement.

The invention according to claim 25 is a failure repair requesting step for requesting repair of a failure that has occurred in a copier.
A repair / method transmission step of transmitting a repair instruction for a failure to a copier based on a request for repair, a request / repair frequency management step of managing the number of times of request for repair and the number of times of successful repair by the repair instruction, It is characterized by having.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 25,
The work borne by the user can be considered in detail, and can be referred to, for example, when the maintenance management fee is reduced.

According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, advertisement print information is collected from a copier that stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. The computer is caused to execute a maintenance management fee determination process.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 26,
The maintenance management fee can be reduced based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and the user can substantially benefit from using the advertisement. .

According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, an advertisement for collecting advertisement print information from a copier storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement and determining an advertisement fee based on the advertisement print information. The computer is caused to execute a fee determination process.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 27,
Advertisement fees can be determined based on the amount of advertisements registered by the advertiser printed on the user's copy machine, and only ads that are effectively functioning are charged, so that efficient advertisements And the effect of reducing unnecessary advertising volume can be given to advertisers.

According to a twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute a maintenance management fee determining process for determining a maintenance management fee for a copying machine. Managed in the maintenance system that notifies the copier requesting the repair of the failure repair method, based on the number of times the failure was requested to be repaired and the number of times the user successfully performed the repair based on the repair method. It is characterized by determining a maintenance fee.

Thus, according to the twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention,
It is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee by taking into account the work the user has paid in detail, and it is possible to substantially give the user the benefit of performing the repair by himself. Further, the maintenance company can reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

Further, according to the invention of claim 29, the advertisement notified from the advertiser terminal is held, and the held advertisement is
The computer is caused to execute an advertisement distribution process of distributing the advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement to a copy machine storing the advertisement print information.

Thus, according to the twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention,
For example, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a plurality of held advertisements to one or more copy machines, and it is possible to determine a transmission time zone in consideration of line congestion.

Further, the invention according to claim 30 is characterized in that, in the advertisement distribution processing, among the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a designated field via a copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. .

Thus, in the invention according to claim 30,
It is possible to select and distribute only the advertisement that matches the user's preference, and it is possible to achieve efficient distribution of the advertisement and to increase the utility value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

Further, in the invention according to claim 31, the copier limits the advertisement to be printed for each time period, and the advertisement distribution processing is performed by an online auction held for the advertisement to be displayed in the predetermined time period. It is characterized in that the determined successful bidder holds the applied advertisement.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 31,
Advertisers can select the time zone that is most effective according to their budget and distribute the advertisement.

The invention according to claim 32 is a repair method notifying process for notifying a copier requesting repair of an occurred failure of a repair method of the failure, the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested, and the user And a request / repair number management process for managing the number of successful repairs based on the repair method by the computer.

Accordingly, in the invention according to claim 32,
The work borne by the user can be considered in detail, and can be referred to, for example, when the maintenance management fee is reduced.

The invention according to claim 33 is an advertisement holding process for holding an advertisement delivered from an advertisement delivery system, a process for printing an advertisement in accordance with a command input by a user, and an advertisement for a print content of the printed advertisement. And an advertisement print information storage process for storing print information.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 33,
The print content of the advertisement printed by the user can be held by the user, and can be used as reference information when a maintenance company or the like determines a maintenance management fee.

Further, in the invention according to claim 34, the copier performs an advertisement selection menu display process for displaying, on the operation panel, a menu for allowing the user to select a held advertisement.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 34,
A function for easily selecting an advertisement to be printed can be provided to the user.

Further, the invention according to claim 35 is characterized in that the advertisement selection menu display processing displays a menu when it is detected that a person exists within a predetermined range.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 35,
There is no need to display a menu when it is unnecessary, and it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the copier.

Further, according to the present invention, a line is established with a designated destination based on an input from a user corresponding to the advertisement displayed on the operation panel, or
The copier performs a line establishment / information transmission process for transmitting the input information to the designated destination.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 36,
It is possible to provide the user with additional functions and information included in the advertisement.

Further, according to the present invention, the repair of the occurred failure is managed by managing the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the user has succeeded in the repair based on the notified repair method. Repair request processing for requesting the system, repair method display processing for displaying the repair method received from the maintenance system on the operation panel, and repair success notification processing for notifying the maintenance system that the repair by the user based on the repair method was successful. Is executed by the copier.

Thus, in the invention according to claim 37,
In the maintenance system, it is possible to manage the work borne by the user, and accordingly, for example, the maintenance company can reduce the maintenance management fee.

[0091]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [Features of the present invention] The present invention is intended to efficiently carry out advertising activities using a copy machine.

In order to make this possible, the present invention distributes the contents of the advertisement to the copy machine in accordance with the user's preference (high usage rate by the user). Further, the present invention provides benefits to the user according to the degree of use of the advertisement by the user.

Thus, in the present invention, it is possible to give the user sufficient interest in the advertisement and the value of browsing the advertisement to the user.
Can be improved.

More specifically, the present invention allows a user to register the type of advertisement that the user wants to view using a copier in a server on the management side and, based on this, to register the desired advertisement. To the copier. Further, it uses the counter information of the copying machine to detect which advertisement has been printed, and accordingly reduces the usage charge (performance charge) of the copying machine. In addition, the advertiser is charged an advertisement fee according to the number of times the advertisement is printed.

Therefore, the user can efficiently browse necessary advertisements, and can reduce the performance charge by browsing. In addition, the advertiser can efficiently distribute advertisements by narrowing down the target users, and further, because only the advertisement fee according to the use is charged, unnecessary charges can be saved. Become. In addition, the management side is expected to increase the number of times the user uses the copier by reducing the performance charge. It can be a source of income.

Hereinafter, a maintenance management system, a maintenance management fee management server, an advertisement distribution server, a maintenance server, a copy machine, a maintenance management fee determination method, an advertisement fee determination method, an advertisement distribution method, and the number of requests / repairs having such features are described. A preferred embodiment of a management method and a program thereof will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a flow of information and money exchanged between the copier user 200, the maintenance company 100, and the advertiser 300 in the maintenance management system according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, advertiser 300 registers an advertisement to be provided to the user with maintenance company 100 (1). The advertisement registered in this way is distributed from the maintenance company 100 to the target copier user 200 (2). Thereafter, the maintenance company 100 prompts the copier user 2
Collect counter information (normal use count and use count for advertisement printing) recorded at 00 (3),
The copier user 200 is billed for an amount obtained by subtracting the exemption amount corresponding to the use of the advertisement from the performance charge corresponding to the number of times of normal use (4.1). Further, the advertiser 300 is charged with an advertisement fee corresponding to the use for advertisement printing (4.2). In contrast, copy machine user 20
0 pays the performance charge of the invoiced amount to the maintenance company 100 (5.1), and the advertiser 300
Pays the charged advertisement fee to the maintenance company 100 (5.
2).

(Example of Configuration According to First Embodiment) Next, a system configuration that more specifically realizes the data flow shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 2, copier user 200
Has a user copy machine 201 connected to the Internet 10. The user copy machine 201 also stores contents (advertisement contents) of advertisements distributed from the maintenance company 100 and various information. Advertisement content database 211 and user copy machine 2
01 (counter information) such as the number of times of normal use / advertisement print use and an ID (advertisement ID) for identifying a printed advertisement
And a counter information database 212 that stores However, hereinafter, the database is referred to as DB in the drawings.

The user copy machine 201 in this embodiment is a device (image forming device) for forming an image such as a copy machine or a digital multifunction peripheral, and has a function of communication via the Internet (a terminal adapter or the like is used). Function) or a function of communication by a modem. However, in the present embodiment, the user copy machine 20
1 and advertisement distribution server 101 or charge management server 10
2 is connected to the Internet 10, but in practice, it may be a dedicated line using the Internet line. Hereinafter, for simplification of description, the Internet 10 will be simply described.

The user copy machine 201 and the advertisement distribution server 101 are actually a charge management server 102
Is configured to perform transmission and reception of data and the like via a. However, in the following, for the sake of simplicity, description of the configuration and operation via the charge management server 102 is omitted, and the user copy machine 201 and the advertisement distribution server 102 directly transmit and receive data via the Internet 10. It will be described on the assumption that

Further, the maintenance company 100 includes an advertisement distribution server 101 connected to the Internet 10, a charge management server 102 also connected to the Internet,
Having. Here, the advertisement content and various information registered from the advertiser terminal 301 connected via the Internet 10 are distributed from the advertisement distribution server 101 to the user copy machine 201 periodically or at an arbitrary period.
Further, the charge management server 102 collects the counter information stored in the counter information database 212 of the user copy machine 201 periodically or at an arbitrary period,
The charge amount (performance charge and advertisement fee) for each copy machine user 200 and each advertiser 300 is calculated. Further, the charge amount calculated by the charge management server 102 is stored in the advertisement fee information database 118 or the performance charge information database 119 connected to the payment system 103, and the payment system 1
03 is charged to the copier user 200 or the advertiser 300. However, the settlement system 103 may be managed and operated by the maintenance company 100 or may be managed and operated by a separately provided settlement organization. Further, the advertisement distribution server 101 and the charge management server 102 may be configured by a single computer, or may be configured by using a plurality of computers.

In FIG. 2, the user copy machine 2
01 and the advertisement distribution server 101 or the charge management server 1
02 and / or advertiser terminal 301
The line connecting the advertisement distribution server 101 to the public telephone line may be a public telephone line. However, when the connection is made via a public telephone line, the user copy machine 201, the advertiser terminal 301, and each server are connected to the public telephone line via a modem. In the following description, for simplification of the description, a case where the Internet 10 is used will be described as an example.

Further, in FIG. 2, the advertisement distribution server 1
01 and the charge management server 102 (and, in some cases, the settlement system 103) may be constituted by a single computer (such as a workstation).

It is preferable that the distribution of the advertisement content information to the user copy machine 201 is performed at night or the like when the use probability is low in consideration of the probability that the user copy machine is used.

(Specific Example of Database According to First Embodiment) Next, a specific table configuration example of each database shown in FIG. 2 will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, in the present embodiment, each database is
It can be created in a normal file format or in a relational database or the like. Also,
In the following description, an example in which the data is created in a relational database will be described.

Advertiser Information Database 111 First, in FIG. 2, the advertiser information database 111 connected to the advertisement distribution server 101 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 3, the advertiser information database 111 has, as attributes, items such as an advertiser ID, an advertiser name, a contact address to the advertiser, and a method of paying an advertisement fee.

In this attribute, the advertiser name, contact information, and payment method (hereinafter collectively referred to as advertiser information) are described in the advertiser terminal 30 via the Internet 10.
1 is stored. Advertiser ID
Are the values assigned and stored by the advertisement distribution server 101 as identifiers for uniquely identifying advertisers.

In the above item contents, the contact information is
Information on a means for contacting the advertiser, such as a telephone number, an address, or an e-mail address, and may be a plurality of types instead of one type.

Further, in the above item contents, as a payment method, there are a method by an account withdrawal, a bill, and the like. Selection of a payment method and information necessary for payment (for example, an account number, a billing If it is a written method, the billing address etc.).

Distribution advertisement content information database 1
14. Further, from the advertiser terminal 301, in addition to the advertiser name, contact information, and payment method (advertiser information), the type of advertisement desired (advertisement type) in the classification by the maintenance company and the field to which the advertisement belongs ( Advertisement field), a period in which an advertisement is desired to be displayed (advertisement period), headline data relating to the advertisement (headline data), the content of the advertisement (advertisement content), and (hereinafter collectively referred to as advertisement content registration information) are notified.

[0115] The notified advertisement content registration information corresponds to the distribution advertisement content information database 1 shown in FIG.
14 is stored.

Here, in the advertisement content registration information, the type of advertisement is determined by the maintenance company 100 by the advertisement distribution server 10.
In step 1, the type of advertisement to be recruited in advance (for example, an advertisement delivered to the user on a regular basis, an advertisement delivered to the user in the order of acceptance, an advertisement that is offered by dividing the time zone, and made a successful bid by the auction method, etc.) The advertiser requests the advertisement by designating this type of advertisement.

The advertising field is a field to which the advertisement belongs. Examples of this field include those that are classified to the extent that the field relating to the contents of the advertisement is known, such as the construction field, the mechanical field, the electric / electronic field, the computer field, the communication field, and the non-genre.

The advertisement period may be a period specified by the advertiser or a period specified by the maintenance company.

As the headline data, a document in which the contents of the advertisement are simply summarized is preferable, and is prepared using text data or the like.

[0120] The advertisement content is the content of the advertisement, and is file data in the form of image data to be printed by the user copier 201.

Also, in FIG. 4, the advertiser ID is
The same value as the value added in is used. Thus, the advertiser information database 111 and the distribution advertisement content information database 114 are related with the advertiser ID as a primary key.

Further, the item content of the advertisement ID is a value assigned and stored by the advertisement distribution server 101 as an identifier for uniquely identifying the advertisement.

The information stored in the distribution advertisement content information database 114 may be information such as news in addition to the advertisement (advertisement content registration information) as described above. The maintenance company 100 creates the information such as news and advertisements by itself and stores them in each database. In this case, the processing can be divided by leaving unnecessary items blank.

Auction processing information database 11
5. Further, when the advertiser participates in the auction for the advertising space (period, time zone, etc.) held by the maintenance company, the advertiser terminal 301 sends to the advertisement distribution server 101, in addition to the above advertisement content registration information, Various settings (including an initial value, an increase in a successful bid price, and an upper limit of a successful bid price; hereinafter, referred to as a successful bid condition) necessary for participating in the auction are notified.

Further, in the notified advertiser information, advertisement content registration information and successful bid conditions, the advertiser information and advertisement content registration information are not stored in the distribution advertisement content information database 114 shown in FIG. As shown, it is temporarily stored in the auction processing information database 115 together with the successful bid conditions. Thereafter, the advertisement distribution server 101 causes the advertiser to participate in the auction based on the stored information and conditions.

Thereafter, when the advertiser wins the advertising space, the advertiser information is stored in the advertiser information database 111.
The advertisement content registration information is moved to the distribution advertisement content information database 114 and stored as described in FIG. 4, and the successful bid condition is deleted. If the advertiser has failed to win this advertising space, the advertiser information, advertisement content registration information, and successful bid conditions are deleted.

Also, in FIG. 5, the advertiser ID is
It is added in the auction processing information database 115 similarly to the addition in FIG. Further, the added advertiser ID is stored in each database together with the advertiser information and the advertisement content registration information.

When the advertisement content registration information is stored in the distribution advertisement content information database 114 as described above, the advertisement distribution server 101 determines the advertisement fee when the advertisement is printed. Calculation parameters (Advertising fee calculation parameters)
And parameters for calculating the performance charge (performance charge calculation parameters)
Are stored in the charge amount calculation parameter database 116 shown in FIG. 6 corresponding to the advertisement ID.

Accordingly, the billing amount calculation parameter database 116 has a relationship with the distribution advertisement content information database 114 using the advertisement ID as a primary key.

Here, when each parameter is a fixed advertisement type in advance, the advertisement distribution server 101 reads out the fixed parameter from a memory or the like in which the parameter is fixed in advance, and reads the billing amount calculation parameter database 1
16 is stored. Also, recruited at auctions,
When each parameter is an advertisement type that is not fixed in advance, each parameter is specified based on the conditions specified in the auction or the like, and is stored in the billing amount calculation parameter database 116.

Customer Information Database 112 In FIG. 2, the customer information database 112 connected to the advertisement distribution server 101 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 7, the customer information database 112 has, as attributes, items such as a user ID, a user name, a contact address for the user, and a performance charge payment method.

In this attribute, the contents notified from the user copy machine 201 via the Internet 10 are stored as the item contents of the user name, contact information, and payment method (hereinafter collectively referred to as user information). Also, the item content of the user ID is
It is assigned and stored as an identifier for uniquely identifying a copy machine user.

In the above item contents, the contact information is
Information on a means for contacting the advertiser, such as a telephone number, an address, or an e-mail address, and may be a plurality of types instead of one type.

Further, in the above item contents, the payment method is a method by a direct debit or an invoice, etc., and the selection of the payment method and the information required for the payment (for example, account number, invoice, In the case of the method according to, the billing address and the like) are included.

Copy machine information database 113 Further, from the user copy machine 201, in addition to the above-mentioned user name, contact information, payment method (user information), a copy machine ID, a copy machine address, a desired news genre, and the like. The desired advertisement field and (hereinafter collectively referred to as copier information) are notified.

The notified copy machine information is stored in the copy machine information database 113 shown in FIG.

Here, in the copy machine information, the copy machine ID is a serial number or the like assigned in advance by the manufacturer (or maintenance company if the maintenance company is a manufacturer) at the time of shipment of the user copy machine 201. An identifier for uniquely identifying the copy machine 201.

The copy machine address is an address for the advertisement distribution server 101 or the charge management server 102 to communicate with the user copy machine 201. For example, when connecting to the Internet, the address is an IP address. In the case of dial-up connection or connection using a public telephone line, this is a telephone number.

Further, the desired news genre and desired advertisement field are information for specifying the field and genre of the advertisement and news distributed from the advertisement distribution server 101 to the user copying machine 201.

The user ID in FIG. 8 is the same as the value added in FIG. Thus, the customer information database 112 and the copier information database 113 are related with the user ID as the primary key.

The advertisement content information database 211 The distribution advertisement content information database 114 having the above configuration is
Advertisement content information database 211 connected to
Has a table configuration as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 9, the advertisement content information database 211 stores an advertisement type and an advertisement I as attributes.
D, advertising period, heading data, advertising content (hereinafter, advertising content information), counter ID
And the item of.

That is, from the advertisement distribution server 101, the user
The advertising content information is transmitted to the copy machine 201 and stored in the same record in the advertising content information database 211.

[0145] Further, the user copy machine 201 attaches a counter ID to the advertisement content information stored as described above and stores the same in the same record. This counter ID is an identifier for identifying one or more counter mechanisms provided inside the user copying machine 201.

Thus, in the present embodiment, each counter mechanism is associated with an advertisement, and a unique counter is incremented for each advertisement. However, in the above configuration, the user copy machine 201 has a configuration in which a unique counter mechanism is provided for each advertisement that is a print candidate. However, instead of such a configuration, counting is performed by a single counter mechanism. You may comprise. in this case,
The count value of the counter mechanism is the total number of printed sheets.

The user copy machine 201 refers to the current date and time based on the type of advertisement and the advertisement period, and displays the title data of each advertisement on the operation panel in the form of a menu. Accordingly, the copy machine user 200 selects a desired advertisement from the menu displayed in this way, and prints the advertisement content of the advertisement.

In this embodiment, however, the case where the operation panel is constituted by a touch input type is described as an example. However, the operation panel is constituted by another input method (such as a case where buttons are provided outside the operation panel). Is also good.

Counter Information Database 212 In FIG. 2, the counter information database 212 connected to the user copy machine 201 has a table configuration as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 10, in the counter information database 212, a copy machine ID, an advertisement ID, a counter ID, a count value, and a print number are stored in the same record.

That is, when printing is performed using the user copying machine 201, if the printing is normal printing, the copying machine ID and the identifier of the counter mechanism that counts up during normal printing (counter I) are stored in the counter information database 212.
D), the counter value in the counter mechanism corresponding to the counter ID, and the print number uniquely assigned to the print processing are stored in association with each other.

Here, this counter information database 2
12 is preferably created in a normal file format, unlike the above databases. This is because, when the counter information is transmitted to the charge management server 102, the processing is simpler in the normal file format.

Here, the reason for including the counter ID is to more reliably manage and check the user copy machine 101 in the maintenance company 100. That is, in order to prevent malfunction of the counter mechanism, illegal tampering, etc., the advertisement ID in each user / copy machine 201
The relationship between the ID and the counter ID is maintained and managed by the maintenance company, and can be confirmed at the time of inspection or the like.

Further, the print number is unique to each user / copier 201 and print processing.
The reason for including the print number is to prevent falsification of the print contents, malfunction of the counter function, illegal tampering, and the like. The maintenance company confirms the operation of the user copy machine 201 based on the print number. Is performed.

Further, the counter information may include information indicating whether printing of the advertisement is performed by color printing or monochrome printing. This is because the printing cost is different between color printing and monochrome printing, and it is preferable to change the performance charge to be reduced or the calculated advertising fee accordingly.

Further, in order to consider, for example, the case where the advertisement is reduced and printed, it is preferable to include information on the area occupied by the advertisement on the transfer paper.

The counter information integrated database 117 Therefore, the charge management server 102 of the maintenance company 100 created by collecting counter information from the counter information database 212 provided in each user copying machine 201
FIG. 11 shows a table configuration of the counter information integrated database 117 connected to.

This can be created by combining the collected counter information.

The collection of counter information from each user / copier 201 may be performed periodically, such as every day, every week, or every month, or may be performed irregularly. You may comprise.

Advertisement charge information database 118 The charge management server 102 calculates an advertisement charge for each advertisement based on the information stored in the counter information integrated database 117 and the billing amount calculation parameter database 116. Then, the calculated advertisement fee is stored in the advertisement fee information database 118 shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 12, in the advertisement fee information database 118, the advertiser ID, the advertisement ID, and the advertisement fee are stored in the same record.

Here, the advertiser ID and the advertisement ID correspond to the distribution advertisement content information database 1 shown in FIG.
In accordance with the fact that the advertisement content registration information and the advertiser ID are stored in 14, the same information is stored in the advertisement fee information database 118 correspondingly.

Accordingly, the charge management server 102 sets the advertisement ID registered in the advertisement fee information database 118
, All the counter information corresponding to each advertisement in the counter information integrated database 117 is specified using each advertisement ID, and the advertisement fee in the billing amount calculation parameter database 116 is further determined using each advertisement ID. The calculation parameter is specified, and the advertisement fee for each advertisement is calculated based on all the specified counter information and the advertisement fee calculation parameter.

As described above, the charge amount calculation parameter database 116, the counter information integrated database 117, and the advertisement fee information database 118
D is related as a primary key.

The calculation of the advertising fee is performed on a daily or weekly basis.
Alternatively, it may be configured to be performed periodically, such as every month, or may be configured to be performed irregularly.

Performance charge information database 119 Similarly, the charge management server 102 performs the performance for each copy machine ID based on the information stored in the counter information integrated database 117 and the billing amount calculation parameter database 116. The charge is calculated, and the calculated performance charge is stored in the performance charge information database 119 shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 13, in the performance charge information database 119, the user ID, the copier ID, and the performance charge are stored in the same record.

Here, the user ID and the copier ID are
When the copy machine information and the user ID are stored in the copy machine information database 113 shown in FIG. 8, the same one is stored in the performance charge information database 119 correspondingly.

Therefore, the charge management server 102 refers to the copy machine ID registered in the performance / charge information database 119, and
Is used to specify all counter information corresponding to each user / copier 201 in the counter information integrated database 117, and further, using all the advertisement IDs included in the specified counter information, a billing amount calculation parameter
The parameters for calculating the performance charge in the database 116 are specified, and the performance of each advertisement (for each advertisement ID) is determined for all the specified counter information.
The performance charge for each copy machine ID is calculated based on the charge calculation parameter. However, when there are a plurality of performance charge calculation parameters to be specified, it is preferable that the priority is determined for each performance charge calculation parameter, and the calculation is performed according to the priority. Also, the priority order is determined, for example, for each advertisement type, and if the advertisement type is the same, an appropriate parameter is obtained by adding this parameter or the like. After that, the problem is solved by calculating in the order of priority.

As described above, the billing amount calculation parameter database 116 and the counter information integrated database 117 are related by using the advertisement ID as a primary key, and the counter information integrated database 117 and the performance charge information database 119 are Copy machine I
D is related as a primary key.

The calculation of the performance charge is as follows:
It may be configured to be performed periodically, such as every day, every week, or every month, or may be configured to be performed irregularly.

Therefore, the settlement system 103 in FIG.
Is the advertisement fee information database 1 created as described above.
18 or Performance Charge Information Database 1
19, the advertiser 300 or the user copier 2
Bill 00 for an advertising fee or performance charge.

(Operation of First Embodiment) Next, the operation of the above-described first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Advertisement Distribution Application Operation First, the copier user 200 enters the user copier 201
The operation of applying for the distribution of the advertisement to the maintenance company 100 by using FIG. 14 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 14, in this operation, copier user 200 requests a page (advertisement distribution application page) for applying for advertisement distribution from user copy machine 201 to advertisement distribution server 101 (step). S201). On the other hand, the advertisement distribution server 101
An advertisement distribution application page is transmitted to the user copy machine 201 (step S101). FIG. 15 shows a configuration example of the advertisement distribution application page.

Referring to FIG. 15, the advertisement delivery application page according to the present example includes information on the user name, contact information, payment method, copy machine ID, copy machine address, desired news genre, and desired advertisement field. Is displayed on the operation panel of the user copy machine 201.

Here, user name, contact information, copy machine I
D, the copy machine address is set in advance in the user copy machine 201.
It is preferably stored in an internal memory or the like. This is realized by inputting by the manufacturer or the user himself when purchasing the user copy machine 201. However, if these pieces of information are not stored, the problem is solved by newly inputting the information.

It is preferable that the desired news genre and the desired advertisement field are provided from the maintenance company 100 (advertisement distribution server 101), and are selected from them. This is to make it easier for the advertisement distribution server 101 to automatically perform processing.

After inputting predetermined items (user information and copier information) on this advertisement distribution application page,
When the user information and the copy machine information are transmitted from the copy machine 201 to the advertisement distribution server 101 (step S20)
2) The advertisement distribution server 101 checks the user information from the received information, and checks whether necessary information is included and whether the user information is correct (step S102). This inspection is performed in advance by the user copy machine 20.
Information registered by the copy machine user 200 at the time of one sale (for example, a user name and a copy machine ID) is stored in the advertisement distribution server 101 and can be compared with this information.

If the user information is correct, the user information is stored in the customer information database 112, the copy machine information is stored in the copy machine information database 113, and a user ID for identifying the copy machine user 200 is added. Then, it is stored in a predetermined item in each database (step S103). However, if the user information is incomplete, the application does not proceed to step S103 and the application is canceled.

The advertisement distribution server 101 sets the user ID assigned in step S103 and the corresponding copier ID
And the performance charge information database 11
9 (step S104).

Thereafter, the advertisement distribution server 101 transmits the user registration confirmation information including the registered contents to the user copy machine 201 in order to make the copy machine user 200 confirm the registered contents (step S105), and performs the processing. To end. On the other hand, the user copy machine 201 displays the sent user registration confirmation information on the operation panel and prompts the user to confirm the contents (step S20).
3), end the process.

Advertisement Registration Application Operation Next, the operation of the advertiser 300 applying for advertisement registration to the advertisement distribution server 101 using the advertiser terminal 301 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 16, in this operation, first, the advertiser sends the advertisement distribution server 1 from the advertiser terminal 301.
01, a homepage for registering an advertisement (a homepage for applying for an advertisement registration) is requested (step S31).
1). In response, the advertisement distribution server 101 transmits an advertisement registration application homepage to the advertiser terminal 301 (step S111). Here, an example of the configuration of the advertisement registration application homepage is shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 17, an advertisement registration application homepage according to the present example has an advertiser name which is the name of the client itself, contact information for the advertiser, a method of paying the advertisement fee, and an advertisement for registration request. Information on the type of advertisement, the advertisement field to which the advertisement to be registered belongs, and (advertiser information and some advertisement content information) are included.

Accordingly, the advertiser inputs his / her name (advertiser name), contact information, payment method, advertisement type, and advertisement field on this advertisement registration application homepage, and transmits it to the advertisement distribution server 101 (step). S312). However, in the above description, it is preferable that the maintenance company 100 (the advertisement distribution server 101) provides options for the payment method, the advertisement type, and the advertisement field, and allows the user to select one of them.

Further, upon receiving the advertiser information and a part of the advertisement content registration information in this manner, the advertisement distribution server 101 determines whether the notified advertiser information includes the necessary information without error. Inspection (Step S112)
If it is correct, the homepage for advertisement content registration for transmitting the content of the advertisement to be registered (the remaining advertisement content information) to the advertiser is transmitted to the advertiser terminal 301 (step S113). Here, a configuration example of the advertisement content registration homepage will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 18 shows a homepage for registering advertisement contents in this example. For example, a homepage for registering advertisement contents when registering advertisements to be distributed in the order of application (hereinafter referred to as B
(Referred to as an advertisement content registration homepage).

Referring to FIG. 18, in this configuration example, for the advertiser, the posting period of the registered advertisement, the heading data for briefly explaining the content of the registered advertisement, and the advertisement content (the advertisement content) Image data) and
Is configured to be input. However, when inputting the advertisement content, the file itself may be designated by dragging and dropping.

Therefore, the advertiser 300 transmits the remaining advertisement content registration information from the advertiser terminal 301 to the advertisement distribution server 101 after inputting predetermined items on the B advertisement content registration homepage (step S313). .

On the other hand, the advertisement distribution server 101
To register the advertiser information received from the advertiser terminal 301 in the advertiser information database 111, and to register all the received advertisement content registration information in the distribution advertisement content information database 114, and to identify the advertiser Of the advertiser and an advertisement ID for identifying the advertisement are stored in predetermined items in each database (step S114). However, if the advertiser information is incomplete in the inspection in step S112, the process proceeds to step S112.
It does not proceed to 113 and cancels the application.

Further, the advertisement distribution server 101 registers the advertiser ID and the advertisement ID given in step S114 in the advertisement fee information database 118 (step S11).
5).

Thereafter, the advertisement distribution server 101 transmits the advertisement registration confirmation information including the registered contents to the advertiser terminal 301 in order to confirm the registered contents to the advertiser 300 (step S116), and ends the processing. I do. On the other hand, the advertiser terminal 301 displays the sent advertisement registration confirmation information on the display, causes the advertiser to confirm the content (step S314), and ends the processing.

[0194] In FIG. 16 described above, the operation when registering advertisements to be distributed in the order of application is described. For example, when the maintenance company 100 participates in an auction held in the advertisement distribution server 101, The operation is as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 19, in this operation, first, the advertiser sends the advertiser terminal 301 to the advertisement distribution server 1.
01, a request is made for a home page for registering an advertisement (a home page for applying for an advertisement registration) (step S32).
1). In response, the advertisement distribution server 101 transmits an advertisement registration application homepage to the advertiser terminal 301 (step S121). However, the configuration example of the advertisement registration application homepage is the same as that in FIG.

Therefore, the advertiser stores his / her name (advertiser name), contact information, payment method, advertisement type and advertisement field on the advertisement registration application homepage.
At the time of transmission to “1” (step S322), “A” is selected as the advertisement type in FIG. (In the present embodiment, 'A' is a recruitment of an advertisement using an auction.) Further, upon receiving the advertiser information and a part of the advertisement content registration information, the advertisement distribution server 101 is notified. It is checked whether the required information is included in the advertiser information without error (step S122). If the information is correct, the contents of the advertisement to be transmitted to the advertiser (the remaining advertisement contents information) are transmitted. The homepage for registration (hereinafter, referred to as homepage for registration of A advertisement contents) is transmitted to the advertiser terminal 301 (step S123). Here, a configuration example of the A advertisement content registration homepage will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 20, in the present configuration example, the insertion period of the advertisement of the participating auction and the insertion period of the advertisement, the successful bid conditions (initial value, increment and upper limit value) for participating in the auction, registration, It is configured to input heading data for simply explaining the contents of the advertisement to be performed and advertisement contents (a file based on image data) as the contents of the advertisement. However, as in FIG. 18, when inputting the advertisement content, the file itself may be designated by drag and drop.

[0198] In addition, publication period (including advertisement publication time zone)
In specifying the, we will present an auction that can participate,
It is preferable to make a configuration so that the user can select from these. However, in the present embodiment, the advertisement solicited in the auction is performed for each posting period.
It is also possible to set for each advertisement distribution area or department (department in a company).

In the public offering of advertisements, the lowest price (unit price per print) is determined by the auction sponsor, ie,
It may be configured to be set on the maintenance company 100 side. Furthermore, the advertiser 300 may be configured to set a budget for the total amount of the advertising fee. Thus, for example, when the total amount of the advertising fee reaches this budget, the posting of the target advertisement is stopped, and the empty advertising space (posting period, etc.) can be further offered by an auction. .

[0200] Therefore, the advertiser 300 enters predetermined items on the A advertisement content registration homepage, and then enters the auction with the remaining advertisement content registration information from the advertiser terminal 301 to the advertisement distribution server 101. The bidding condition is transmitted (step S323).

On the other hand, the advertisement distribution server 101
The received advertiser information, successful bid conditions, and all advertisement content registration information are stored in the auction processing information database 115.
Registered in the same record and participate in the designated auction based on the successful bid condition (step S12).
4).

Thereafter, the advertisement distribution server 101 proceeds with each auction according to a predetermined auction processing operation, and determines a successful bidder (advertisement).

After the end of the auction, the advertisement distribution server 101 determines whether or not each advertisement (advertisement ID) has won (step S125), and the winning advertisement (advertisement ID).
(Yes in step S125), the corresponding advertiser information and advertisement content registration information are stored in the advertiser information database 111 and the distribution advertisement content information database 11 from the auction processing information database 115.
4 and deletes the successful bid condition, transmits the advertisement registration confirmation information (it is preferable to include the successful bid (successful bid result)) to the advertiser terminal 301 (step S126), and ends the process. In addition, for the advertisement that has not been awarded (No in step S125), the corresponding advertiser information, the award condition and the advertisement content registration information are deleted from the auction processing information database 115, and the fact that the auction has not been awarded (the award result) is reported Send to main terminal 301 (step S1
27), end the processing.

On the other hand, the advertiser terminal 301 displays the advertisement registration confirmation information or the successful bid result received from the advertisement distribution server 101 on the display, prompts the user to confirm (step S324), and ends the processing.

Advertisement Distribution Operation The operation of the advertisement distribution server 101 for distributing the corresponding advertisement (advertisement content information) to each user / copy machine 201 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. In describing this operation, a case where the distribution of the advertisement is performed based on a predetermined time will be described as an example. However, this operation is not limited to the method based on the predetermined time, and can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the gist of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 21, advertisement distribution server 10
At 1, it is always determined whether or not it is a predetermined time set in advance (step S131).

Next, at a predetermined time (Yes in step S131), the advertisement distribution server 101 refers to the copy machine information database 113 (step S13).
2).

Here, the copy machine information database 113
To the user copy machine 201 (actually, the copy machine address associated with the copy machine information database 113) corresponding to all the copy machine IDs registered in the. If it is determined (step S133) that the transmission of the predetermined advertisement content information corresponding to at least one of the devices has not been completed (No in step S133), the user / copier 201 whose distribution of the advertisement has not been completed is The copy machine address, the desired news genre, and the desired advertisement field are specified from the copy machine information database 113 using the copy machine ID, and the distribution advertisement content information database 114 is specified based on the specified desired news genre and desired advertisement field. Identify advertising content information for more specific advertisements (including news) To deliver to the copy machine address identified this (step S134). Then, step S
Return to 132. In contrast, user copy machine 2
01 stores the received advertising content information in the advertising content information database 211.

[0209] If the result of determination in step S133 is that predetermined advertising content information has been transmitted to all user / copiers 201 (Y in step S133).
es), the advertisement distribution server 101 ends the processing. However, in this operation, the advertisement distribution server 101 restarts the operation after step S131 after finishing the processing.

[0210] In order to prevent the presence of two pieces of advertisement content information already stored in the advertisement content information database 211 in the user copy machine 201, whether or not the advertisement content information has already been transmitted is determined. The advertisement distribution server 101
Or the user copy machine 20
In 1, it may be configured to judge using the advertisement ID and discard the duplicated reception.

Advertisement Printing Operation Next, the operation when the advertisement distributed from the advertisement distribution server 101 is printed by the user copying machine 201 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 22, in this operation, a menu screen (advertisement print menu screen) as shown in FIG. 23 is displayed on the operation panel of user copy machine 201 (step S241). Here, referring to FIG. 23, on the advertisement print menu screen in the present embodiment, headline data is displayed for each type of advertisement (advertisement type).

Therefore, the copy machine user 200 selects a desired advertisement (or news) on this advertisement print menu screen (step S242), and causes printing to be performed.
Also, when displaying this advertisement print menu screen,
User copy machine 201 or this user copy machine 2
01, on the operation panel, a button for displaying an advertisement print menu screen is provided, or a button is displayed when the user copying machine 201 is in an idling state, or a sensing unit is provided in the user copying machine 201.
For example, when it is detected that a person is present nearby, it may be configured to display.

As described above, when the print command is input from the user, the user copy machine 201 reads out the advertisement content corresponding to the selected advertisement from the advertisement content information database 211 and prints it (step S2).
43).

Thereafter, the user copying machine 201 increments the count value of the counter mechanism corresponding to the printed advertisement content by one (step S244), and ends the processing. However, as a method of specifying the incrementing counter mechanism, the counter mechanism is specified using the counter ID stored in the same record as the advertising content to be printed.

Further, the advertisement print menu according to the present embodiment can be provided to the user with a hierarchical structure instead of one screen.

In the case of such a configuration, this menu structure may be held in the user copying machine 201.

Also, the advertisement content information database 2
The advertisement content stored in the printer 11 may be displayed on an operation panel of the user copying machine 201 as well as printed on photographic paper.

Further, the advertising content itself may have a hierarchical structure. In this case, when a print command is input from the operation panel, the main advertisement (cover) of the advertisement content may be printed, or all pages of the advertisement content may be printed. Is also good.

Also, the advertising content has a hierarchical structure,
When this is displayed on the operation panel, each page included in the advertisement content may be provided with a button for shifting to a page at a level above and / or below the currently displayed page.

Further, when displaying the advertising content on the operation panel, the advertiser terminal 301 or the advertiser of the advertiser 300 connected via the Internet 10 or a public telephone line is displayed from the displayed advertising content. It is also possible to configure to display (jump to a page) a page provided by the provided server or the advertisement distribution server 101 or the like. In this case,
Include information for displaying the target page (jump to the page).

The information includes the address (IP address, telephone number, etc.) of the advertiser terminal 301, the server provided by the advertiser, the advertisement distribution server 101, etc., and the information for specifying the page to be displayed.

Further, when displaying the advertising content on the operation panel, the advertiser 300 connected via the Internet 10 or a public telephone line transmits the information input from the copier user 200 in accordance with the displayed advertising content. It can also be configured to transmit to the advertiser terminal 301 or the server provided by the advertiser, the advertisement distribution server 101, or the like.

In this case, the address (IP address, telephone number, etc.) of the advertiser terminal 301 or the server provided by the advertiser or the advertisement distribution server 101 is included in the advertisement content. A function such as mail is provided, or data is transmitted in a predetermined format.

Counter Information Collection Operation Next, in the present embodiment, the charge management server 102
However, the operation of collecting counter information from each user copy machine 201 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 24, in this operation, charge management server 102 always determines whether or not it is a predetermined time set in advance (step S15).
1).

Next, at a predetermined time (Yes in step S151), the charge management server 102 refers to the copy machine information database 113 (step S13).
2).

Here, the copy machine information database 113
It is determined whether or not the counter information has been obtained from the user copy machine 201 (actually, the copy machine address associated with the copy machine information database 113) corresponding to all the copy machine IDs registered in (1). (Step S153) If the collection of the corresponding counter information has not been completed for any one device (No in Step S153), the copy machine ID is used for the user / copy machine 201 for which the collection of the counter information has not been completed. A copy machine address is specified from the copy machine information database 113, and counter information is requested based on the specified copy machine address (step S154). On the other hand, when the counter information is requested, the user copy machine 201 reads the counter information (other than the already transmitted counter information) stored in the counter information database 212 and sends it to the charge management server 102. It transmits (step S251), and ends the processing.

Upon receiving this counter information, charge management server 102 stores this counter information in counter information integrated database 117 (step S15).
5) Return to step S153.

[0230] If the result of determination in step S153 is that counter information has been obtained from all user copy machines 201 (Yes in step S153), charge management server 102 ends the process. However, in this operation, the charge management server 102, after finishing the process,
Further, the operation after step S151 is restarted.

However, the operation of notifying the charge management server 102 of the counter information is as described above, in addition to the method according to the request from the charge management server 102, the user copy machine 201 sets the address of the charge management server 102. Stored in advance and, if necessary, user copy machine 2
01 may automatically notify the counter information.

Next, the operation of the charge management server 102 calculating the advertisement fee charged to the advertiser 300 using the counter information collected as described above will be described in detail with reference to FIG. explain. However, this operation is an operation that is started or executed periodically or by an operator of the maintenance company 100.

Referring to FIG. 25, in this operation, the charge management server 102 first determines whether or not the advertisement fee corresponding to all the advertisement IDs registered in the advertisement fee information database 118 has been calculated (see FIG. 25). Step S16
1).

As a result of this judgment, when there is at least one advertisement (advertisement ID) for which the advertisement fee has not been calculated (step S
No. 161), the charge management server 102 selects one advertisement ID of the advertisement for which the advertisement fee has not been calculated, and specifies all the corresponding counter information from the counter information integrated database 117 by using this advertisement ID (step). S162).

The charge management server 102 specifies the corresponding advertisement fee calculation parameter from the billing amount calculation parameter database 116 using the advertisement ID (step S163).

After that, the charge management server 102 calculates an advertisement fee based on the counter information specified above and the advertisement fee calculation parameter (step S164), and calculates the calculated advertisement fee based on the advertisement ID. The information is stored in the corresponding record of the advertisement fee information database 118 (step S165), and the process returns to step S161.

[0237] Also, as a result of the determination in step S161, if the advertisement fee has been calculated for all the advertisements (Yes in step S161), the charge management server 102
The process ends.

Performance Charge Calculation Operation The charge management server 102 calculates the performance charge to be charged to the copier user 200 using the counter information collected as described above with reference to FIG. This will be described in detail. However, this operation is an operation that is started or executed periodically or by an operator of the maintenance company 100.

Referring to FIG. 26, in this operation, charge management server 102 first determines whether or not the performance charges corresponding to all copy machine IDs registered in performance charge information database 119 have been calculated. A determination is made (step S171).

As a result of this determination, when there is at least one user copy machine 201 (copy machine ID) for which the performance charge has not been calculated (N in step S171).
o), the charge management server 102
One copy machine ID of the user copy machine 201 whose charge has not been calculated is selected, and this copy machine ID is used to
All the corresponding counter information is specified from the counter information integrated database 117 (step S172).

Next, the charge management server 102 specifies all performance charge calculation parameters corresponding to all advertisement IDs included in the specified counter information from the charge amount calculation parameter database 116 (step S173).

After that, the charge management server 102 calculates an advertisement fee based on the counter information specified above and the performance charge calculation parameter (step S174), and calculates the calculated advertisement fee based on the advertisement ID. Then, the information is stored in the corresponding record of the advertisement fee information database 118 (step S175), and the process returns to step S171. However, in step S172, when there is no counter information including the advertisement ID (ie,
If the advertisement content is not printed), the charge management server 102 calculates a normal charge.

Further, as a result of the determination in step S171, the performance
If the charge has been calculated (Y in step S171)
es), the charge management server 102 ends the processing.

Therefore, in requesting the actual advertisement fee or performance charge, the settlement system 103
Is performed with reference to the advertiser information database 111 or the customer information database 112, and the advertisement fee information database 118 or the performance charge information database 119.

In the above operation, the performance
In calculating the charge, for example, if the counter information includes information on color printing / monochrome printing or information on the print area of an advertisement, it is preferable to determine the performance charge in consideration of this as well.

In order to realize this, for example, the count value (the number of prints, etc.) is calculated by changing the weight, such as “1” for monochrome printing and “2” for color printing. It can be realized.

Also, when considering the printing area, weighting is performed according to the area and the count value is calculated.

Advertisement Charge / Performance Charge Confirmation Operation Further, the advertisement charge or the performance charge calculated as described above and stored in the advertisement charge information database 118 or the performance charge information database 119 is transferred to the advertiser terminal 301 or User copy machine 201
It is also possible to configure so that the advertiser 300 or the copier user 200 can check in.

[0249] In this case, the advertiser 300 or the copy machine user 200
01 to the charge management server 102 via the advertisement distribution server 101 or directly to the charge management server 102.
Request charging information. This request includes the advertiser 300 or the copier user 2 such as the advertiser name or copier ID.
00 is included.

[0250] In response to this request, the charge management server 102 specifies an advertisement fee or a performance charge corresponding to the request, and directly or through the advertisement distribution server 101 to the advertiser terminal 301 or the user / user. This is transmitted to the copy machine 201.

As a result, the advertiser 300 or the copier user 200 confirms the advertisement fee or the performance charge calculated so far on the display of the advertiser terminal 301 or the operation panel of the user copier 201. Becomes possible.

Here, for example, when the advertisement fee or the performance charge is settled every month, the charge management server 102 sets the reference date for each month (the period for calculating the total of the advertisement fee or the performance charge) every day. By configuring so as to update the accumulated advertisement fee or performance charge from the first day), it is possible to provide the advertiser 300 or the copier user 300 with more accurate advertisement fee or performance charge information.

Each operation described above is performed by each computer (the advertisement distribution server 101, the charge management server 102,
This is realized by being stored as a program in a recording device provided inside or outside the payment system 103, the user copy machine 201, and the advertiser terminal 301), and read out and executed as needed. Things.

(Method of Calculating Charge Amount) Next, a method of calculating the performance charge PC in the present embodiment will be described with some examples.

Example of calculation when C advertisement / news is printed In the description of the above-described embodiment, for example, an advertisement or a news classified into the advertisement type 'C' shown in FIG.
In this embodiment, a normal fee is charged when an advertisement is printed. This is because, in the present embodiment, the C advertisement is an advertisement or news that does not include a commerce meaning.

Therefore, the performance charge PC charged to the copying machine user 200 is calculated by adding the number of printed sheets (counter value) Cp of the C advertisement to the counter value obtained by adding the number of printed sheets Up for normal (other than advertisement printing) use. Price M
u is multiplied.

In the counter mechanism, when the C advertisement is printed, the counter mechanism for normal printing is configured to be incremented by one, or the counter mechanism uniquely assigned to the C advertisement / news is incremented by one. , The charge management server 102 may be configured to collect them.

Accordingly, the performance charge for the C advertisement / news print is the same as the normal performance charge PCu, as shown in FIG.

In addition, for the advertiser 300, the advertisement fee C
C shall not be claimed.

Example of Calculation When Printing B-Advertisement In the present embodiment, the performance charge and the advertisement fee when an advertisement classified as the advertisement type “B” (hereinafter, referred to as B-advertisement) is printed. A calculation example will be described.

In the present embodiment, as described above, the B advertisement is, for example,
Advertisement to be delivered to 1.

Since this advertisement has a commerce meaning, when used, the performance charge to the copy machine user 200 is reduced.

In this calculation example, this reduction method is determined by, for example, the predetermined number Bk (<1: the number of prints Bp / number of copies Bn) for the performance charge according to the number of prints Bp (or the number of copies Bn) of the B advertisement. The value may be calculated by multiplying

The charge management server 102 manages the correspondence between the number of prints Bp (the number of prints Bn) and a predetermined value Bk corresponding to the number of prints, and prints the number of B advertisements (counter value) or the number of prints. It is solved by specifying based on.

Therefore, in this calculation example, the performance charge PC charged to the copying machine user 200
Is the total number of prints Mp as shown in FIG.
Is multiplied by a normal printing unit price Mu, and further multiplied by a specified value Bk.

Also, as the advertisement fee charged to the advertiser, for example, a basic amount Mm is determined, and this is multiplied by a predetermined value Bl according to the number of printed B advertisements. It is also possible to set a value obtained by multiplying the value reduced for the user 200 by a predetermined value Bl.

Example of Calculation when Advertising A is Printed In this embodiment, calculation of the performance charge and the advertisement fee when an advertisement classified as the advertisement type “A” (hereinafter, referred to as A advertisement) is printed. An example will be described.

In the present embodiment, as described above, the advertisement A is a registered advertisement for which a successful bid is made in a time zone by an auction held by the maintenance company 100, for example.

Since this advertisement has a commerce meaning, when used, the performance charge PC to the copy machine user 200 is reduced.

In this calculation example, it is assumed that the method of calculating the amount to be reduced depends on, for example, the number of prints of the A advertisement. That is, the copying machine user 200 is not charged for a usage fee (performance charge) for printing the A advertisement.

[0271] This can be easily calculated by assigning a unique counter mechanism to each advertisement as described above. Even when counting is performed by a single counter mechanism, charge management is performed. In the server 102, A
Since the number of printed advertisements Ap can be managed, it can be calculated.

Further, the advertiser of the advertisement A is charged a charge corresponding to the printing as the advertisement charge CC. For example, the amount Ma per copy (or one sheet) is determined and calculated according to this.

Therefore, the performance charge PC applied to the copying machine user 200 by the A advertisement printing is shown in FIG.
As shown in (c) of FIG. 7, the normal calculation is performed on the count value Up (the count value by the normal printing excluding the one by the B advertisement printing) Up excluding the count value Ap used for the printing of the A advertisement. Is charged to the copier user 200.
In addition, the advertiser 300 is billed as an advertisement fee CC by an amount obtained by multiplying the printed number Ap by a predetermined amount Ma.

However, the above calculation method can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Second Embodiment] In the present invention, the point that the performance charge for the copier user is reduced is not only the above-described method of making up for the reduced amount by the advertiser but also the maintenance company. Required maintenance
A method in which a maintenance company compensates for the burden of management and the like as a cost of the copying machine user may be considered. FIG. 28 shows a system configuration for realizing this method.

(Configuration of the Second Embodiment) Referring to FIG. 28, the system configuration according to the present embodiment is composed of the user / copier 201 of the copier user 200 and the maintenance company 1
The charge management server 102 and the maintenance system 104 of the system 00 are connected via the Internet 10. The charge management server 102 and the maintenance system 1
04 may be configured to be connected via the Internet 10 or may be configured to be connected via a dedicated line or the like.

In this configuration, similarly to the first embodiment, the user copy machine 201 is connected to the counter information database 212 and is configured to store counter information.

The maintenance system 104 includes a customer information database 112 and a copier information database 113.
1 and a user repair manual database 120 and a user repair count database 121.

Further, the charge management server 102 includes a copier information database 113.1, a counter information integrated database 117, and a user repair count database 121.
And the performance charge information database 119.

The settlement system 103 is connected to the customer information database 112 and the performance charge information database 119.

In this configuration, charge management server 1
02 stores the calculated performance charge in the performance charge information database 119 similarly to the first embodiment, and the settlement system 103 uses the performance charge information database 119 and the customer information database 112 based on the Charge a performance charge.

Here, the copy machine information database 11
3.1 may have the same data configuration as that of the first embodiment. However, since data relating to the advertisement is not required, only the user ID, the copier ID, and the copier address need to be provided as attributes.

The user repair manual database 120 is a database in which repair methods (manuals) corresponding to various types of failure information to be notified are stored. Therefore, the maintenance system 104 specifies a repair method corresponding to the failure information sent from the user copy machine 201 from the user repair manual database 120, and transmits this to the user copy machine 201 via the Internet 10. .

[0284] Further, the maintenance system 104
After the repair method is transmitted to the copy machine 201, if the failure of the user copy machine 201 is improved, that is, the copy machine user himself / herself can use the copy machine 201 without sending repair staff from the maintenance company 100. If you improve the failure,
The number of repairs performed by the copy machine user 200 himself stored in the user repair frequency database 121 is 1
Increment. However, the user repair count database 121 is configured so that the copy machine ID and the repair count by the user (user repair count) are stored in the same record.

Therefore, the charge management server 102 refers to the user repair count database 121 at the time of settlement (at the time of performance charge calculation), and if a user has performed repairs, the performance charge is performed according to the number of repairs. Is reduced.

[0286] This reduction method is solved by registering in advance the amount or ratio of reduction in accordance with the number of user repairs in the charge management server 102 and calculating based on this.

[0287] Further, in this reduction method, the user
By changing the amount or percentage to be reduced for each failure state (the level of difficulty required for repair) of the copy machine 201,
If the user performs difficult repairs, the performance charge may be reduced by a larger amount or percentage.

As described above, when changing the amount or ratio to be reduced for each failure state, the user repair manual database 120 classifies the failure information for each failure state, and for example, if the difficulty level required for repair is high. If 1
Weighting such as equivalent to the number of batches is performed, and the number of user repairs in the user repair frequency database 121 is incremented by two.

In this configuration, the user copy machine 20
When a failure occurs in step 1, the user copy machine 201 specifies information (failure information) such as a failure location in the provided automatic failure diagnosis device 202 and notifies the maintenance system 104 of the information via the Internet 10. I do.

On the other hand, the maintenance system 104 reads the corresponding repair method from the user repair manual database 120 based on the notified failure information,
This is transmitted to the user copy machine 201.

The maintenance system 104 increments the number of user repairs corresponding to the copier ID in the user repair number database 121 by one.

On the other hand, the user copy machine 201 displays the repair method (manual) notified via the Internet 10 on the operation panel, and causes the copy machine user 200 to perform the repair.

After that, the charge management server 102 refers to the user repair count database 121 at the time of settlement,
A performance charge reduced according to the number of user repairs is calculated, and this is stored in the performance charge information database 119.

[0294] Accordingly, the settlement system 104 transfers the reduced performance charge to the copy machine user 20.
Charge 0.

As a result, the maintenance company 100 can save the cost and labor of dispatching repair staff, and the copier user 200 can benefit from reduced performance charge.

In the above description, the maintenance system 104
Has described a configuration in which only the case where the repair by the copying machine user 200 is successful is counted, and the performance charge is reduced accordingly, but a repair manual is requested from the user copying machine 201 ( It is also possible to reduce the performance charge in consideration of the fact that a failure has occurred or a request for repair of the failure has been taken into account.

In this case, the user repair count database 1
21 is not only when the repair by the user is completed,
Even when a user requests repair, it can be realized by incrementing the user repair count by one.

Further, in the above description, both the case where the repair is requested and the case where the repair is successful are configured so that “1” is incremented. However, this value is not limited to “1”. Modifications can be made.

In the above description and the drawings, the components denoted by the same reference numerals are basically the same as those in the first embodiment, and the description is omitted here. However, the application or application of various configurations can easily correspond from the description of the first embodiment and the description of the second embodiment.

The embodiments described above are merely examples of the embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0301]

As described above, according to the present invention, according to the present invention, the contents of an advertisement are distributed to a copying machine in accordance with the user's preference (the usage rate of the user is high). Providing a benefit to the user according to the degree of use makes it possible to give the user sufficient interest in the advertisement and the value of browsing the advertisement, thereby improving the browsing rate (utilization rate) of the advertisement. It is possible to do.

[0302] In other words, the user can efficiently browse necessary advertisements, and can reduce the performance charge by browsing. In addition, the advertiser can efficiently distribute advertisements by narrowing down the target users, and further, because only the advertisement fee according to the use is charged, unnecessary charges can be saved. Become. In addition, the management side is expected to increase the number of times the user uses the copier by reducing the performance charge. It can be a source of income.

For example, the invention according to claim 1 is characterized in that a user's maintenance management fee is determined based on the print content of a copier installed in the user, whereby
It is possible to reduce a substantial printing unit price for the user.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the print contents of the copy machine are the number of prints of the distributed advertisement, printing in color / black and white, and the print area, whereby the content is distributed to the copy machine. It is possible to reduce the maintenance charge (performance charge) in consideration of the cost required for printing the advertisement thus placed.

Further, according to the present invention, the number of times of requesting repair of a copier installed by a user, and / or
Alternatively, the maintenance fee for the user is determined based on the number of times the user has repaired the copier, whereby the maintenance fee can be reduced according to the number of repairs borne by the user. And

The invention according to claim 4 is a maintenance management system including an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copy machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal sends the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system. Register, the advertisement distribution system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, stores the advertisement print information on the print content of the printed advertisement, and the maintenance management fee management system Print information is collected, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information, whereby the maintenance management fee is determined based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine. Can be reduced, and the user can substantially receive the benefit of using the advertisement.

The invention according to claim 5 is a maintenance management system including an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copy machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal sends the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system. Register, the advertisement distribution system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, stores the advertisement print information on the print content of the printed advertisement, and the maintenance management fee management system Print information is collected, and the advertisement fee is determined based on the advertisement print information, whereby the advertisement fee is determined based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine. Advertisers only need to pay for what they are doing, effectively use ads, reduce unnecessary advertising volume,
It is possible to plan.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a copier for requesting repair of a fault that has occurred, a maintenance system for notifying the copier of a repair method for the fault, and a maintenance management for determining a maintenance management fee for the copier. A maintenance management system having a charge management system, wherein the copier displays on the operation panel a repair request selection screen that allows the user to select whether or not to request repair, and the maintenance system requests that the repair be performed. Count and
The number of successful repairs based on the user's repair method,
The maintenance management fee management system is characterized in that the maintenance management fee is determined based on the number of repairs requested by the maintenance system and the number of successful repairs based on the repair method, As a result, it is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee by taking into account the work that the user has paid in detail, and it is possible for the user to substantially receive the benefit of performing the repair by himself. and,
For the maintenance company, it is possible to reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

[0309] According to the invention of claim 7, the advertisement print information is collected from the copy machine storing the advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement, and the maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. This makes it possible to reduce the maintenance and management fee based on the amount of printing of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine, and substantially reduce the profit of using the advertisement to the user. It is possible to give it.

[0310] Further, according to the invention of claim 8, the advertisement print information is collected from a copy machine that stores the advertisement print information related to the print content of the printed advertisement, and the advertisement fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. This makes it possible to determine the advertisement fee based on the amount of printing on the user's copy machine of the advertisement registered by the advertiser, and to charge only for the portion where the advertisement is substantially functioning. Therefore, it is possible to provide an advertiser with the effect of efficient use of advertisement and the effect of reducing unnecessary advertisement volume.

[0311] Further, the invention according to claim 9 is a maintenance management fee management server for determining a maintenance management fee of a copying machine,
The number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the repair based on the repair method by the user has been managed are managed in the maintenance system that notifies the copy machine that requests the repair of the occurred failure the repair method. , The maintenance management fee is determined on the basis of the above, whereby it is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee by taking into account the work borne by the user in detail, and to provide the user with a self-service repair. The benefits of doing so can be given substantially.
Further, the maintenance company can reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

[0312] Further, according to the invention of claim 10, the advertisement notified from the advertiser terminal is held, and the held advertisement is
It is characterized in that the advertisement print information relating to the print contents of the advertisement is delivered to a copying machine that stores the advertisement, whereby, for example, a plurality of held advertisements can be transmitted to one or more copy machines at the same time, and further transmitted. The time zone can be determined in consideration of line congestion.

[0313] Further, the invention according to claim 11 is characterized in that, out of held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a designated field via a copy machine are distributed to the copy machine, whereby the user can receive the advertisement. It is possible to select and distribute only the advertisements that match the tastes, and it is possible to efficiently distribute the advertisements, and to increase the use value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

[0314] Further, the invention according to claim 12 is an advertisement distribution server for distributing an advertisement to a copy machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, and holding an advertisement to be displayed during a predetermined time period. It is characterized by retaining the advertisements applied by the winning bidder determined by the online auction, which allows the advertiser to select the most effective time period according to the budget and distribute the advertisement I have.

The invention according to claim 13 is a maintenance server for notifying a copier requesting repair of an occurred failure of a repair method of the failure. And the number of successful repairs based on the repair method according to (1), whereby the work borne by the user can be considered in detail, for example, as a reference when the maintenance management fee is reduced. It is possible.

[0316] The invention according to claim 14 holds the advertisement delivered from the advertisement delivery system, prints the advertisement according to a command input by the user, and stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement. This makes it possible for the user to hold the print content of the advertisement printed by the user, and can be used as reference information when a maintenance company or the like determines a maintenance management fee.

[0317] Further, the invention according to claim 15 is characterized in that a menu for allowing the user to select the held advertisement is displayed on the operation panel, thereby enabling the user to easily select the advertisement to be printed. The function can be provided to the user.

Further, the invention according to claim 16 is characterized in that it is detected whether or not a person exists within a predetermined range, and when it is detected that a person is present, a menu is displayed. This eliminates the need to display a menu when it is not needed, thus making it possible to reduce the power consumption of the copier.

[0319] Further, the invention according to claim 17 establishes a line with a designated destination based on an input from a user corresponding to an advertisement displayed on an operation panel, or
It is characterized in that the input information is transmitted to a designated destination, whereby it is possible to provide the user with additional functions and information included in the advertisement.

[0320] Further, the invention according to claim 18 is a maintenance method that manages the number of times a repair of a failure that has occurred has been requested and the number of times that a user has successfully repaired based on the notified repair method. A copy machine for requesting a system and acquiring a repair method, characterized in that the repair method is displayed on an operation panel, and a maintenance system is notified that repair by a user based on the repair method has been successful. In the maintenance system, it is possible to manage the work borne by the user, and accordingly, for example, the maintenance company can reduce the maintenance management fee.

[0321] The invention according to claim 19 is the advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement every time the delivered advertisement is printed, and the advertisement print of collecting the advertisement print information. An information collection step, and a maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the collected advertisement print information, whereby the user's copy machine of the advertisement registered by the advertiser is provided. , The maintenance management fee can be reduced based on the print amount, and the user can substantially receive the benefit of using the advertisement.

The invention according to claim 20 is a repair request number management step for managing the number of repair requests for a failure that has occurred in a copier, and the number of times the user has successfully repaired the failure based on the notified repair method. The number of times the user has been repaired, and a maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the number of repair requests and the number of successful repairs. It is possible to reduce the maintenance management fee by taking into account the work borne by the user in detail, and it is possible for the user to substantially benefit from performing the repair by himself. In addition, it is possible for the maintenance company to reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

The invention according to claim 21 is an advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to the print content of an advertisement every time a distributed advertisement is printed, and an advertisement print of collecting advertisement print information. An information collection step, and an advertisement charge determination step of determining an advertisement charge based on the collected advertisement print counter information, whereby the advertisement registered by the advertiser is printed on the user's copy machine. Based on the print volume, it is possible to determine the advertising fee, and the advertiser only has to pay for the actual functioning of the advertisement, making effective use of the advertisement and unnecessary advertisement volume It is possible to achieve

[0324] Further, according to the invention of claim 22, an advertisement holding step of holding the notified advertisement, and the advertisement held in the advertisement holding step are distributed to a copy machine which stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement. Advertising distribution step, whereby, for example, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a plurality of held advertisements to one or more Kope machines, and furthermore, to reduce transmission time slots by reducing line congestion. It is possible to make decisions based on consideration.

[0325] Further, the invention according to claim 23 is characterized in that, in the advertisement distribution step, of the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a designated field via a copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. As a result, it is possible to select and distribute only the advertisement that matches the user's preference, and it is possible to realize efficient distribution of the advertisement and increase the utility value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

Further, the invention according to claim 24 is an advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement to a copying machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, wherein the advertisement displayed in a predetermined time period is transmitted online. Holding an auction and determining a winning bidder in a predetermined time zone based on information notified from the advertiser terminal; and having a successful bid determining step in which the advertisement holding step is performed in the successful bid determining step. Is characterized by retaining the applied advertisements, thereby enabling the advertiser to select the most effective time zone according to the budget and distribute the advertisements.

[0327] The invention according to claim 25 is a failure repair requesting step for requesting repair of a failure occurring in a copying machine.
A repair method transmission step of transmitting a repair instruction for a failure to a copier based on a repair request, a request / repair frequency management step of managing the number of times of repair requests and the number of times of successful repairs by the repair instruction, This makes it possible to take into account the work that the user has paid in detail, and to refer to, for example, a case where the maintenance management fee is reduced.

According to the twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, advertisement print information is collected from a copy machine that stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. The computer is caused to execute a maintenance management fee determination process, whereby, based on the print amount of the advertisement registered by the advertiser on the user's copy machine,
The maintenance and management fee can be reduced, and the benefit of using the advertisement can be substantially given to the user.

According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, an advertisement for collecting advertisement print information from a copier storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of a printed advertisement, and determining an advertisement fee based on the advertisement print information. The computer executes a fee determination process, whereby the advertisement registered by the advertiser is
It is possible to determine the advertisement fee based on the amount of printing on the user's copier, and to charge only for the portion of the advertisement that is substantially functioning. It is possible to reduce the amount of advertising and to give advertisers.

The invention according to claim 28 is a program for causing a computer to execute a maintenance management fee determining process for determining a maintenance management fee for a copying machine, wherein the maintenance management fee determining process includes the steps of: Managed in the maintenance system that notifies the copier requesting the repair of the failure repair method, based on the number of times the failure was requested to be repaired and the number of times the user successfully performed the repair based on the repair method. , The maintenance management fee is determined, thereby making it possible to reduce the maintenance management fee in consideration of the work burdened by the user in detail,
It allows the substantial benefit of performing the repairs on its own. Further, the maintenance company can reduce the labor and cost required for dispatching repair staff and the like.

[0331] Further, the invention according to claim 29 holds the advertisement notified from the advertiser terminal, and replaces the held advertisement with:
Causing the computer to execute an advertisement delivery process of delivering the advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement to a copy machine that stores the advertisement print information,
As a result, for example, it is possible to simultaneously transmit a plurality of held advertisements to one or more copiers, and it is possible to determine a transmission time zone in consideration of line congestion.

[0332] Further, the invention according to claim 30 is characterized in that the advertisement distribution processing distributes, to the copy machine, an advertisement belonging to a designated field via the copy machine among the held advertisements. As a result, it is possible to select and distribute only the advertisement that matches the user's preference, and it is possible to realize efficient distribution of the advertisement and increase the utility value. In addition, since it is possible for the user to specify only the necessary advertisement, the selection of the advertisement to be printed is simplified.

[0333] Further, in the invention according to claim 31, the copy machine limits the advertisement to be printed for each time period, and the advertisement distribution process is performed by an online auction held for the advertisement displayed in the predetermined time period. The winning bidder will retain the applied ads,
It allows advertisers to choose the time that is most effective for their budgets and distribute ads.

The invention according to claim 32 is a repair method notifying process for notifying a copier requesting repair of an occurred failure of a repair method of the failure, the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested, and a user request. The computer executes a request / repair frequency management process for managing the number of successful repairs based on the repair method by the computer, thereby allowing the user to take into account the work borne by the user in detail, for example, a maintenance management fee It can be used as a reference when reducing the amount.

The invention according to claim 33 is an advertisement holding process for holding an advertisement delivered from an advertisement delivery system, a process of printing an advertisement according to a command input by a user, and an advertisement relating to the print content of the printed advertisement. And an advertisement print information storage process for storing print information, which is executed by the copier, thereby enabling the user to hold the print content of the advertisement printed by the user. For example, a maintenance company determines a maintenance management fee. It can be used as reference information when doing so.

[0336] Furthermore, the invention according to claim 34 causes the copier to execute an advertisement selection menu display process for displaying on the operation panel the menu for allowing the user to select the held advertisement, thereby easily printing. It is possible to provide a function for selecting an advertisement to be provided to the user.

[0337] Further, the invention according to claim 35 is characterized in that the advertisement selection menu display processing displays a menu when it is detected that a person exists within a predetermined range, thereby making unnecessary. In such a case, it is no longer necessary to display a menu, and the power consumption of the copier can be reduced.

[0338] Further, the invention according to claim 36 establishes a line with a designated destination based on an input from a user corresponding to the advertisement displayed on the operation panel, or
Causes the copier to execute a line establishment / information transmission process for transmitting the input information to the specified destination,
It is possible to provide the user with additional functions and information included in the advertisement.

Further, according to the present invention, the repair of the occurred failure is managed by managing the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the user has successfully repaired based on the notified repair method. Repair request processing for requesting the system, repair method display processing for displaying the repair method received from the maintenance system on the operation panel, and repair success notification processing for notifying the maintenance system that the repair by the user based on the repair method was successful. Is executed by the copier, thereby enabling the maintenance system to manage the work borne by the user, and accordingly, for example, the maintenance company can reduce the maintenance management fee.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a flow of information and money exchanged between a copier user 200, a maintenance company 100, and an advertiser 300 according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a table showing a data configuration of an advertiser information database 111 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a table showing a data configuration of a distribution advertisement content information database 114 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a table showing a data configuration of an auction processing information database 115 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a table showing a data configuration of a billing amount calculation parameter database 116 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a table showing a data configuration of a customer information database 112 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a table showing a data configuration of a copier information database 113 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a table showing a data configuration of an advertisement content information database 211 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a table showing a data configuration of a counter information database 212 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a table showing a data configuration of a counter information integrated database 117 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a table showing a data configuration of an advertisement fee information database 118 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a table showing a data configuration of a performance charge information database 119 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing an advertisement distribution application operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an advertisement distribution application page according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a B advertisement registration application operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an advertisement application homepage according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a home page for registering B advertisement contents according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an A advertisement registration application operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a homepage for A advertisement content registration according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating an advertisement distribution operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating an advertisement printing operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an advertisement print menu screen according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing a counter information collecting operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing an advertisement fee calculating operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart showing a performance charge calculation operation according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of a calculation formula applied in calculating performance charge calculation and advertisement fee calculation in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration according to a second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing a flow of information exchanged between a copying machine 2000 and a performance / maintenance management fee management system 3000 in the related art.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information distribution system according to the related art 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Internet 100 Maintenance company 101 Advertising distribution server 102 Charge management server 103 Payment system 104 Maintenance system 111 Advertiser information database 112 Customer information database 113, 113.1 Copy machine information database 114 Delivery advertisement content information database 115 Auction information database 116 Bill Amount calculation parameter database 117 Counter information integrated database 118 Advertising fee information database 119 Performance charge information database 120 User repair manual database 121 User repair frequency database 200 Copier user 201 User copy machine 211 Advertising content information database 212 Counter information database 300 Advertiser 301 Advertisement Terminal Ap A number of advertisements printed Bk B advertisement reduction ratio Bn B number of advertisements printed CC advertisement fee Cp C number of advertisements printed Ma A advertisement printing unit price Mm Basic fee Mp All printing units Mu Normal printing unit price PC performance charge PCu Normal performance Charge Up Normal number of prints

Claims (37)

[Claims] 1. A maintenance management system characterized in that a maintenance management fee for a user is determined based on print contents of a copying machine installed in the user. 2. The maintenance management system according to claim 1, wherein the print content of the copy machine is the number of printed advertisements, color / black and white printing, and printing area. 3. The maintenance management fee of the user is determined based on the number of requests for repair of the copy machine installed by the user and / or the number of repairs of the copy machine by the user. Maintenance management system. 4. A maintenance management system comprising an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copy machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal registers an advertisement in the advertisement distribution system, The system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, and stores advertisement print information related to the print content of the printed advertisement, The maintenance management fee management system includes: A maintenance management system, wherein the advertisement print information is collected, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. 5. A maintenance management system comprising an advertisement distribution system, a maintenance management fee management system, a copy machine, and an advertiser terminal, wherein the advertiser terminal registers an advertisement in the advertisement distribution system, and the advertisement distribution The system distributes the advertisement to the copy machine, the copy machine prints the distributed advertisement, and stores advertisement print information related to the print content of the printed advertisement, The maintenance management fee management system includes: A maintenance management system, wherein the advertisement print information is collected, and an advertisement fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. 6. A copy machine for requesting repair of a fault that has occurred, a maintenance system for notifying the copy machine of a repair method for the fault, and a maintenance management fee management system for determining a maintenance management fee for the copy machine. A maintenance management system, wherein the copier displays a repair request selection screen on an operation panel that allows a user to select whether or not to request the repair, on the operation panel, and the maintenance system displays the number of times the repair has been requested. And the number of successful repairs based on the repair method by the user, and the maintenance management fee management system is based on the number of times the repair managed by the maintenance system is requested and the repair method. A maintenance management system, wherein the maintenance management fee is determined based on the number of successful repairs. 7. A maintenance method, wherein the advertisement print information is collected from a copy machine that stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement, and a maintenance management fee is determined based on the advertisement print information. Management fee management server. 8. The maintenance management method, wherein the advertisement printing information is collected from a copier that stores the advertisement printing information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement, and the advertisement fee is determined based on the advertisement printing information. Fee management server. 9. A maintenance management fee management server for determining a maintenance management fee for a copy machine, wherein the maintenance management fee management server manages a maintenance system for notifying a copy machine requesting repair of an occurred failure of the repair method of the failure. A maintenance management fee management server that determines the maintenance management fee based on the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the user has successfully performed the repair based on the repair method. 10. An advertisement distribution server that retains an advertisement notified from an advertiser terminal and distributes the retained advertisement to a copy machine that stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement. . 11. The advertisement distribution server according to claim 10, wherein, out of the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a field designated via the copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. 12. An advertisement distribution server which distributes an advertisement to a copy machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, wherein the advertisement distribution server determines a successful bid determined by an online auction held for the advertisement to be displayed in a predetermined time period. The advertisement distribution server according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the advertisement distribution server holds an advertisement applied by a user. 13. A maintenance server for notifying a copier requesting repair of an occurred failure of the repair method of the failure, based on the number of times the repair of the failure was requested and the repair method by a user. A maintenance server that manages the number of successful repairs. 14. A copier that holds an advertisement distributed from an advertisement distribution system, prints the advertisement according to a command input by a user, and stores advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement. . 15. The copying machine according to claim 14, wherein a menu for allowing the user to select the held advertisement is displayed on the operation panel. 16. The copying machine according to claim 15, wherein it is detected whether or not a person exists within a predetermined range, and when the presence of a person is detected, the menu is displayed. 17. Based on an input from a user corresponding to the advertisement displayed on the operation panel, establish a line with a specified destination, or transmit the input information to the specified destination. 14. The method according to claim 14, wherein
7. The copier according to any one of items 6 to 6. 18. A maintenance system that manages the number of times the repair of the fault has been requested and the number of times that the user has successfully performed the repair based on the notified repair method. A copy machine for acquiring a method, wherein the repair method is displayed on an operation panel, and the maintenance system is notified that repair by a user based on the repair method has been successful. 19. An advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement every time the distributed advertisement is printed; an advertisement print information collecting step of collecting the advertisement print information; A maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the advertisement print information described above. 20. A repair request number management step for managing the number of repair requests for a failure that has occurred in a copy machine, and a user repair success number for managing the number of times the user has successfully repaired the failure based on a notified repair method. A maintenance management fee determining method, comprising: a management process; and a maintenance management fee determining step of determining a maintenance management fee based on the number of repair requests and the number of successful repairs. 21. An advertisement print information generating step of generating advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement every time the distributed advertisement is printed; an advertisement print information collecting step of collecting the advertisement print information; An advertisement fee determining step of determining an advertisement fee based on the advertisement print counter information described above. 22. An advertisement holding step of holding the notified advertisement, and an advertisement delivery step of delivering the advertisement held in the advertisement holding step to a copy machine storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement. An advertisement distribution method, comprising: 23. The advertisement distribution step, wherein, of the advertisements held, advertisements belonging to a field designated via the copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. Ad serving method. 24. An advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement to a copy machine for limiting an advertisement to be printed for each time period, wherein an online auction is held for the advertisement to be displayed in a predetermined time period, and an advertiser terminal A winning bidder determining step of determining a winning bidder in the predetermined time zone based on the notified information, wherein the advertisement holding step is an advertisement applied by the winning bidder determined in the winning bid determining step. 24. The advertisement distribution method according to claim 22, wherein 25. A failure repair requesting step of requesting repair of a failure occurring in the copy machine; a repair method transmitting step of transmitting the repair instruction of the failure to the copy machine based on the repair request; A request / repair frequency management step of managing the number of requests and the number of successful repairs according to the repair instruction. 26. A maintenance management fee determining process for collecting the advertisement printing information from a copy machine storing advertisement printing information relating to the printed contents of the printed advertisement and determining a maintenance management fee based on the advertisement printing information. A program to be executed by a computer. 27. A computer that collects the advertisement print information from a copy machine that stores the advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement, and determines the advertisement fee based on the advertisement print information in a computer. The program to be executed. 28. A program for causing a computer to execute a maintenance management fee determining process for determining a maintenance management fee of a copying machine, wherein the maintenance management fee determining process is performed by a copying machine which requests repair of an occurred failure. The maintenance management is performed based on the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested and the number of times the user has successfully performed the repair based on the repair method, which is managed in a maintenance system that notifies the repair method of the failure. A program characterized by determining fees. 29. The computer causes the computer to execute an advertisement distribution process of retaining the advertisement notified from the advertiser terminal and distributing the retained advertisement to a copy machine storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of the advertisement. Program for. 30. The advertisement distribution process, wherein, among the held advertisements, advertisements belonging to a field designated via the copy machine are distributed to the copy machine. Program. 31. The copy machine restricts an advertisement to be printed for each time period, and the advertisement distribution process includes a step of determining whether a successful bidder determined by an online auction held for an advertisement to be displayed in a predetermined time period. 31. The program according to claim 29, wherein the program holds an applied advertisement. 32. A repair method notifying process for notifying the copier requesting repair of the occurred failure of the repair method of the failure, the number of times the repair of the failure has been requested, and the repair method by a user. A program for causing a computer to execute the number of successful repairs and a request / repair frequency management process for managing the number of successful repairs. 33. An advertisement holding process for holding an advertisement distributed from an advertisement distribution system, a process of printing the advertisement in accordance with a command input by a user, and an advertisement storing advertisement print information relating to the print content of the printed advertisement. A print information storage process and a program for causing a copier to execute. 34. The program according to claim 33, wherein the program causes a copy machine to execute an advertisement selection menu display process for displaying, on the operation panel, a menu for allowing the user to select the held advertisement. 35. The program according to claim 34, wherein the advertisement selection menu display processing displays the menu when it is detected that a person is present within a predetermined range. 36. Establish a line with a designated destination or transmit information input to the designated destination based on an input from a user corresponding to the advertisement displayed on the operation panel. 36. The apparatus according to claim 33, wherein the copier performs a line establishment / information transmission process.
The program described in section. 37. A repair request process for requesting a maintenance system that manages the number of times the repair of a fault has been requested and the number of times the user has successfully repaired the fault based on the notified repair method. A repair method display process of displaying the repair method received from the maintenance system on an operation panel, and a repair success notification process of notifying the maintenance system that the repair by the user based on the repair method has been successful. A program to be executed by a copy machine.