JP2007228239A - Composite machine and program thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent leakage of information by preventing arbitrary processings by user, in a composite machine. <P>SOLUTION: The contents of the processing instructed by the user are informed to a manager, and only the processings approved by the manager are set executable, and for processings that are not approved by the manager, the command is deleted and the user is notified of this. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to processing in a multi-function peripheral, and more particularly to processing that has been approved by an administrator.

  In many cases, processing in a multifunction device is performed without permission from anyone as required by the user. For example, it is possible to freely transmit a document or the like by facsimile transmission without obtaining permission from a supervisor or the like. In addition, printers are often used privately, and costs are increased due to private use. In recent years, a particular problem has been inadequate information management, and if free use is tolerated, there is a risk of information leaking to the outside by facsimile transmission, e-mail, etc. via a multifunction machine.

An object of the present invention is to obtain approval from a manager when a user performs processing (claims 1 to 6). Here, the administrator is a user having an authorization authority, and only the processing permitted by the administrator is performed as giving approval to the processing of each user.
An additional problem of the present invention is to cancel the processing of a user who is not approved by the administrator and prevent the processing from being performed (claims 2 and 6).
Further, there is an additional problem in that an approval by an administrator is required particularly for information transmission processing (claim 3).

Furthermore, an additional problem is that notification to the administrator is made to the terminal, and the administrator can approve or disapprove the process from the terminal (claim 4).
Furthermore, the administrator is to be able to confirm the content of the document to be processed from the terminal (claim 5).

  According to the present invention, in a multi-function peripheral having a copy function and a document data transmission / reception function, means for notifying the administrator of the content of the process instructed by the user, and requesting the administrator to approve the process And a process instructed by the user with the approval of the administrator.

  Preferably, if there is no approval by the administrator, the user is notified of this and the user's instruction is canceled. More preferably, the processing of the user is an electronic mail transmission or a facsimile transmission of a transmission original.

  Preferably, the notification to the administrator is made to the terminal. More preferably, the document to be processed is referred to from the screen of the terminal.

  Further, the present invention provides a command for notifying the administrator of the content of the process instructed by the user and a request for the approval of the process in the program of the multi-functional peripheral having a copy function and a document data transmitting / receiving function. If there is an instruction to do so, an instruction to perform the process instructed by the user if there is an approval from the administrator, and if there is no approval from the administrator, the user is informed to that effect, and an instruction from the user is given. An instruction to cancel is provided.

  According to the present invention, only processing that has been approved by the administrator is performed for the processing by the user in the multi-function peripheral, and arbitrary use by the user is prevented (claims 1 to 6). Since the user's private use of the multifunction device can be prohibited, confidential information and personal information can be prevented from being taken out by the user, and the user can perform only necessary processing, thereby reducing the cost. In addition, erroneous operations such as erroneous dialing can be prevented.

  In particular, the invention of claim 3 requires approval by the administrator for transmission processing such as e-mail transmission and facsimile transmission, so that information leakage can be prevented and information such as confidential information and personal information can be managed. . In addition, since the administrator can approve / disapprove the process from his / her terminal, it is possible to easily cope with frequent requests for approval (claim 4). Further, the content of the document to be processed can be confirmed from the terminal, and for example, the content of the document to be sent by e-mail can be referred to, so that approval / non-approval of the document is easy (claim 5). .

  In the following, an optimum embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be shown.

  1 to 4 show an embodiment. In the figure, 2 is a multifunction peripheral, 4 is a CPU as a main control, 6 is a network control unit (NCU) for establishing a call to the public telephone network, and 8 is a G3 facsimile via a public telephone line. A modem for transmitting and receiving data and the like. The MFP 2 is connected to the administrator's personal computer 14 and the user's personal computer 15 via the LAN 12 via the LAN interface 10.

  Reference numeral 16 denotes a copy function processing unit, and reference numeral 18 denotes a scanner function processing unit which performs processing such as reading an image with a scanner and transmitting image data to a personal computer or the like. A printer function processing unit 20 gives the printer a network printer function, and performs printing as a network printer in response to a request from the personal computers 14 and 15 in the LAN 12. A G3 facsimile function processing unit 22 transmits / receives image data and the like using a public telephone line. A network communication unit 24 transmits and receives e-mails and the like. Reference numeral 26 denotes an Internet network.

  28 is a display panel such as an LCD, and 30 is an operation unit, which uses a touch panel or a keyboard of the LCD display panel to select processing such as G3 facsimile or e-mail transmission, transmission document selection, destination facsimile number, Enter setting conditions such as e-mail address. Reference numeral 32 denotes a process approval unit, which displays a process content instructed by the user on the process content display unit 34 on the display screen of the LCD 28 or the personal computer 14, and accepts approval / non-approval of the manager for the process content by the approval reception unit 36. The approval / not-approval result is notified to the user who has instructed the processing by the approval result notification unit 38. Reference numeral 39 denotes an approval setting unit for setting whether or not approval is required in advance for each type of processing. The processing and document types to be approved are managed in a table, and a level is assigned to each user. Then, the range of processing that requires approval is set according to the level of the user. Reference numeral 40 denotes a ROM for storing programs and the like, and 42 denotes a RAM for storing various data and the like. Reference numeral 44 denotes a user processing approval program for approving user processing, which is stored in the storage device.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the user process approval program 44 according to the embodiment. In the program 44 of the embodiment, a processing content display command 45 for notifying the administrator of the processing content instructed by the user and displaying it, and requesting approval / non-approval of the processing by the administrator and accepting it are requested. An administrator approval acceptance command 46, a process execution command 47 for executing an approved process, an approval result notification command 48 for notifying the user of an approval / non-approval result of the administrator, and a process type And a processing setting instruction 49 for setting that the approval of the manager is necessary.

  The operation in the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the embodiment, it is assumed that the user A instructs a process (for example, facsimile transmission) in the MFP 2 on the LCD 28, and the contents of the instructed process are displayed on the personal computer 14 of the manager. The administrator approves the processing from the personal computer 14 on the Web screen of the multifunction machine, and the approval result is displayed on the user's personal computer 15. The user A can also instruct Internet facsimile transmission or e-mail transmission from the user's personal computer 15 or the like, and the administrator may approve the processing on the side of the multifunction device 2. In the embodiment, the estimate is transmitted by G3 facsimile transmission, but it is also possible to ask the administrator for approval at the time of copying, scanning, and printing a document in addition to Internet facsimile transmission and electronic mail transmission.

  In the figure, the processing content of facsimile transmission performed by user A is displayed on the display screen 280 of the multifunction device 2. That is, in addition to the name of the transmission destination and the facsimile number, the name of the document to be transmitted and the date when the document can be specified are displayed, and the contents are notified to the administrator when the transmission button 50 is pressed. Then, on the display screen 140 of the administrator's personal computer 14, the destination name, facsimile number, user name and its department, transmission document name, and the like are displayed as the contents of processing that the user A is to perform. The administrator determines whether the transmission is possible from the destination and the document to be transmitted, checks whether the user A can perform the processing, whether the attached document is correct, and whether the destination facsimile number is correct. Can do. Further, when confirming the contents of the transmission document, the specific contents can be referred to from the button 52. When the facsimile transmission is permitted, the approval button 54 is selected. When the facsimile transmission is not permitted, the non-approval button 56 is selected.

  When the administrator selects the approval button 54, the multifunction device 2 notifies the display screen 150 of the user's personal computer 15 of the approval, and transmits the target document to the designated destination by facsimile. When the non-approval button 56 is selected, it is notified that the approval has not been made and that the user's instruction has been canceled.

  FIG. 4 shows a facsimile transmission process in the embodiment. When user A sets information related to facsimile transmission to the multifunction peripheral (step 1) and presses a button for starting facsimile transmission (step 2), the multifunction peripheral creates a command regarding facsimile transmission (step 3). If it is previously set that the approval by the administrator is necessary for the facsimile transmission processing, the administrator is requested for approval on the Web screen or the like (steps 4 and 5). The necessity of approval is set for each processing type such as facsimile transmission or electronic mail transmission.

  When the administrator approves user A's facsimile transmission from the multifunction device or the user's own device (step 6), the user A is notified of approval (step 7), and facsimile transmission is performed (step 8). Then, the user A is notified of the result of facsimile transmission (step 9). Here, when archiving transmission data, approved transmission data may be archived.

  If user A's facsimile transmission is not permitted, that is, if it is not approved, the facsimile transmission command is deleted, and the transmission data is deleted (steps 6 and 10). User A is notified that the facsimile transmission has not been approved on the display screen, or by e-mail or print processing (step 11).

  In the embodiment, only the processing approved by the administrator is performed in the multifunction peripheral. When the administrator approves, it is possible to prevent information from being leaked through the network, and confidential information or personal information from being printed out. Information can be managed by grasping the flow of information and archiving it. In addition, it is possible to reduce costs by monitoring the private use of multifunction devices.

Whether or not the administrator needs to be approved is set for each type of processing, or the user name, the department to which the user belongs is leveled, and is set in advance according to the level. If the administrator's approval is required, whether or not to approve the process of the user is determined from the type of document to be processed and the type of processing, and in the case of facsimile transmission or the like, the destination. For example, user A is permitted to perform all processing, but user B is permitted to copy processing but not facsimile transmission. Further, only user C is allowed to send an e-mail attached with a design drawing. And so on. The approval / non-approval by the administrator can be performed not only from the multifunction machine but also from the personal computer of the own machine, so that it can respond to frequent approval requests. Furthermore, the history of approval / non-approval can be left by archiving transmission data.

Block diagram showing the configuration of the MFP of the embodiment The block diagram which shows the structure of the approval program by the administrator of user processing in an Example The figure which shows each display screen at the time of approval / non-approval, and a user's processing content and the approval content to an administrator in an Example The flowchart which shows the process algorithm for requesting | requiring approval by the administrator at the time of facsimile transmission in an Example

Explanation of symbols

2 MFP 4 CPU
6 NCU (Network Control Unit)
8 Modem 10 LAN interface 12 LAN
14, 15 Personal computer 16 Copy function processing 18 Scanner function processing 20 Printer function processing 22 G3 facsimile function processing 24 Network communication unit 26 Network network 28 LCD
30 Operation Unit 32 Process Approval Unit 34 Process Content Display Unit 36 Approval Accepting Unit 38 Approval Result Notifying Unit 39 Approval Setting Unit 40 ROM
42 RAM
44 User process approval program 50-56 Instruction buttons

Claims (6)

In a multi-function peripheral equipped with a copy function and a document data send / receive function,
Means for notifying the administrator of the content of the process instructed by the user;
Means for requesting the administrator to approve the process,
A multifunction device that performs processing instructed by the user upon approval of an administrator. 2. The multifunction device according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying the user of the approval by the administrator and canceling the user's instruction. 3. The multi-function apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user processing is transmission of e-mail or facsimile transmission of document data. The multifunction device according to claim 1, wherein notification to the administrator is made to the terminal. 5. The multifunction peripheral according to claim 4, wherein a document to be processed is referred to from the screen of the terminal. A program of a multifunction machine having a copy function and a document data transmission / reception function,
A command for notifying the administrator of the content of the process instructed by the user;
An instruction for requesting the administrator to approve the process;
If there is approval of the administrator, a command to perform processing instructed by the user;
If there is no approval from the administrator, a program for a multi-function peripheral is provided which notifies the user to that effect and cancels the user instruction.

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