JP2015141464A - Management device, control method therefor, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mechanism for managing shortcut information for providing a report screen under the consideration of stereotyped statistical information, and for providing desired analytic information to a user with a simple operation.SOLUTION: A management device 101 is configured to, when a parameter is designated by a user in any stage among a plurality of stages for providing a report screen related to operation information, provide the report screen corresponding to the parameter, and to store the parameter designated for each of a plurality of stages used in the case of providing the report screen related to the operation information, and to, when the designated parameter is coincident with a predetermined condition, manage shortcut information for providing a different report screen having the same characteristics as the report screen provided by the parameter. The management device 101 is configured to, when the shortcut information is designated, provide the report screen corresponding to the designated shortcut information without making it necessary for a user to designate the parameter with respect to each of a plurality of stages.

Description

  The present invention relates to a management apparatus that manages operation information of a plurality of image forming apparatuses, a control method thereof, and a program.

  Device management services that perform device management of image forming apparatuses such as copiers and printers, failure recovery, and improvement of printing status have become widespread. The device management service drills down the accumulated daily operational status into monthly units, site units, and organizational units, displays them on the client's Web UI, and provides the user with a function for reporting problems and improvements in the operational status. However, the analysis operation represented by drill-down is a technique that can intuitively realize various analyzes. However, when analyzing the detailed operation status, there are many user operations, so the operability is not good. For example, when it is desired to see the color printing rate of an image forming apparatus belonging to “tissue with the maximum color printing rate” existing in “site X” of “current month”, at least three drill-down operations are required.

  On the other hand, bookmarks are a technique for reducing the number of operations. Further, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for improving performance at the time of a request from a client by prefetching information on an access destination registered in a client bookmark.

JP 2010-15432 A

  When the bookmark technology is used, the screen changes to a unique screen by a single operation by designating a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or the like. However, when bookmarks are used for managing the operation information of the image forming apparatus described above, statistical information is not considered. For example, when the user wants to analyze statistical information such as “latest month” or “organization with the largest total value” in a routine manner, the client device cannot acquire the corresponding statistical information. In some cases, the user wants to acquire statistical information related to the statistical information acquired by the user. However, the management system disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above cannot acquire information related to the information acquired by the bookmark simply by prefetching the bookmark registered in the client device.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism for managing shortcut information that provides a report screen in which typical statistical information is taken into account, and providing desired analysis information to a user with a simple operation.

  A management apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is a management apparatus that manages operation information from a plurality of image forming apparatuses installed at each of a plurality of bases, and a plurality of management apparatuses for providing a report screen related to the operation information. When a parameter is designated by a user at any one of the stages, a providing means for providing a report screen corresponding to the designated parameter, and a plurality of used for providing a report screen regarding the operation information Storage means for storing parameters specified for each stage, and the same features as the report screen provided with the specified parameters when the parameters specified for each of the plurality of stages match a predetermined condition Management means for managing shortcut information for providing different report screens. When the shortcut information managed by the management means is designated, the providing means displays a report screen corresponding to the designated shortcut information without designation of a parameter for each of the plurality of stages. provide.

  According to the present invention, shortcut information that provides a report screen in which typical statistical information is considered is managed, and desired analysis information is provided to the user with a simple operation. The operability can be improved by reducing the number of operations by the user for obtaining the standard statistical information.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the whole management system. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an image forming apparatus. FIG. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of a management server and a client terminal. It is a figure which shows the software structural example of each apparatus which comprises a management system. It is an example of an apparatus statistics information screen. It is an example of the apparatus statistics information screen displayed by drilldown. It is an example of the apparatus statistics information screen displayed by drilldown. It is a processing flowchart at the time of analyzing the feature of a drill-down path. It is an example of the drilldown path confirmation screen at the time of shortcut registration. It is an example of the data structure of shortcut information. It is an example of the apparatus statistics information display screen by calling a shortcut. It is a flowchart of the process performed in the case of a shortcut call. It is a flowchart of the process performed when apparatus statistical information is transmitted. It is an example of the screen at the time of calling the shortcut registered with the other customer.

Example 1
Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of the overall configuration of a device management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The device management system includes a management server 101, an image forming apparatus 102, and a client terminal 103. Each device is connected via the network 100. The device management server 101 is a management device that collects various types of information such as operation information of a plurality of image forming apparatuses installed at each of a plurality of bases, and statistically analyzes various types of information stored in the management server 101. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the analysis target is not limited to the information of the image forming apparatus 102, and general statistical information such as purchase history is also the target.

  The image forming apparatus 102 is a copying machine, a printer, or the like, and periodically transmits various types of information to the device management server 101. The client terminal 103 requests statistical information regarding the operation information of the image forming apparatus 102 from the device management server 101 and receives a report. The client terminal 103 is not limited to a personal computer, and may be an image forming apparatus or a portable terminal having the same function. The network 100 is a communication line for exchanging information between the above-described devices, and the Internet, intranet type, wired / wireless, and the like are not limited.

  Next, the hardware configuration of each device constituting the device management system will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the image forming apparatus 102. The image forming apparatus 102 includes an image processing unit 201, a printing unit 202, and a reading unit 203. When the image forming apparatus 102 is not a multifunction peripheral, the reading unit 203 may be omitted.

  The image processing unit 201 includes a CPU 204, a memory 205, a hard disk 206, a user interface 207, and a NIC 208. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 204 controls the operation of the entire image forming apparatus 102. The memory 205 is a unit that temporarily stores various information, and is also used as a temporary work storage area of the CPU 204. The hard disk 206 is a unit that stores various data, and may be other hardware such as a flash memory having the same function. The CPU 204 implements various functions by loading various programs stored in the hard disk 206 into the memory 205 and executing them.

  The user interface 207 is a unit for receiving a processing request from the user and displaying a screen to the user. A NIC (Network Interface Card) 208 is a unit for connecting the image forming apparatus 102 to the network 100. FIG. 2 shows a typical hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 102, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to this configuration. For example, a configuration in which a FAX board or an external control device is connected may be used.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the device management server 101 and the client terminal 103. The CPU 301 controls the overall operation of the devices 101 and 103. The memory 302 is a unit that temporarily stores various information, and is also used as a temporary working storage area of the CPU 301. The hard disk 303 is a unit that stores various data, and may be other hardware such as a flash memory having the same function. The CPU 301 implements various functions by loading various programs stored in the hard disk 303 into the memory 302 and executing them.

  The user interface 304 is a unit for receiving a processing request from the user and displaying a screen to the user. The NIC 305 is a unit for connecting the device management server 101 and the client terminal 103 to the network 100. FIG. 3 shows a typical hardware configuration of the device management server 101 and the client terminal 103, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to this configuration.

  FIG. 4 shows a software configuration example of each device constituting the device management system. Programs that realize the functions of the software configurations shown in FIG. 4 are stored in the hard disks 206 and 303 of each device, and the CPUs 204 and 301 load the programs into the memories 205 and 302 and execute them. Various functions are realized.

  First, software constituting the image forming apparatus 102 will be described. The device information transmission unit 421 transmits various information generated by using the image forming apparatus 102 to the device management server 101. The various types of information are information generated by using the image forming apparatus 102 such as job execution history, error occurrence information, operation information, consumable information, setting information, operation history, repair information, and inquiry information. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the various types of information are not limited to the information described above, and arbitrary information may be transmitted. Below, various information is called apparatus information. Further, the device information transmission unit 421 is not necessarily provided in the image forming apparatus 102, and the device information may be transmitted to the device management server 101 via an information processing apparatus (not illustrated).

  Next, software configuring the device management server 101 will be described. The device management server 101 includes a device information reception unit 401, a statistical information transmission unit 402, a suggestion generation unit 403, a shortcut registration reception unit 404, and a drill-down path analysis unit 405. The device management server 101 also includes a statistical information storage unit 406, a shortcut information storage unit 407, and a device information totaling unit 408. The device information receiving unit 401 receives device information transmitted from the image forming apparatus 102. The device information totaling unit 408 totalizes the received device information in units of totals such as monthly units, site units, organizational units, and device units. In the following, the information about the devices aggregated by the device information aggregation unit 408 is referred to as device statistical information or simply statistical information. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the units to be aggregated are not limited to the units described above.

  The statistical information storage unit 406 stores statistical information regarding the aggregated devices. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 5, the client terminal 103 can request device statistical information narrowed down to a desired unit by a drill-down operation. The statistical information transmission unit 402 acquires device statistical information corresponding to the request from the statistical information storage unit 406 and transmits it to the client terminal 103. Further, in this embodiment, the statistical information storage unit 406 stores the aggregated device information. However, the uncalculated device information is stored, and when requested, the device information aggregation unit 408 aggregates the statistical information. It is also possible to convert to

  The suggestion generation unit 403 analyzes statistical information transmitted to the client terminal 103 to generate a message to be presented to the user, and transmits the message to the client terminal 103 via the statistical information transmission unit 402.

  The shortcut registration receiving unit 404 receives a request for registration of shortcut information corresponding to the report screen of device information for which a drill-down operation has been performed from the client terminal 103. In this report screen, a parameter related to statistical information may be specified by the user at any stage of drill-down that narrows down the aggregation range by a plurality of stages. The drill-down path analysis unit 405 generates a shortcut path in consideration of statistical information, which is desired by the user, from the shortcut information and parameters included in the registration request from the client terminal 103. Details will be described later with reference to FIG. The shortcut information storage unit 407 stores the shortcut information generated by the drill-down path analysis unit 405.

  Next, software constituting the client terminal 103 will be described. The statistical information request unit 431 requests device statistical information from the device management server 101. As an operation method to be requested, there are a method using a drill-down operation described later with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7 and a method using a shortcut function created by a drill-down operation described later with reference to FIG. The drill-down path regeneration unit 432 regenerates a drill-down path for acquiring statistical information highly relevant to the statistical information of the shortcut destination when the acquisition of statistical information is requested using the shortcut function. Details will be described later with reference to FIG. The display unit 433 displays statistical information received from the device management server 101. Details will be described later with reference to FIGS. The shortcut registration request unit 434 registers the shortcut created by the drill-down operation with respect to the device management server 101. Details will be described later with reference to FIG.

(Analysis of statistical information by drill-down operation)
FIG. 5 shows a statistical information display screen displayed by the display unit 433 when the client terminal 103 requests statistical information from the device management server 101 by a drill-down operation and when statistical information is received from the device management server 101. It is an example. In this embodiment, the statistical information of FIGS. 5 to 7 is displayed by a drill-down operation.

  FIG. 5A is a screen showing a device operation result acquired from the device management server 101 when the client terminal 103 requests statistical information. The simple display unit 501 simply displays various statistical information, and in this example, displays the color printing rate and duplex printing rate of the current month calculated from the job execution history of the image forming apparatus. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the statistical information is not limited to the information described above.

  The detailed analysis instruction unit 502 is an instruction unit that requests detailed information of statistical information that is simply displayed. When the detailed analysis instruction unit 502 is pressed, a transition is made to the monthly rate totaling screen shown in FIG. On the monthly tabulation screen shown in FIG. 5B, the color printing rate tabulated by month is displayed as a transition. The monthly tabulation allows the user to analyze the monthly tendency of the color printing rate.

  The achievement level display unit 503 is a display unit that displays the color printing rate of the achievement target set by the user on the achievement level setting screen (not shown). In this example, the target color printing rate is set to be 30% or less. By displaying the achievement level and the operation result together, the user can analyze the achievement / non-achievement of the target for each aggregation unit.

  The drill-down instruction unit 504 is an instruction unit that instructs a drill-down analysis of statistical information. In this example, it is possible to drill down from the statistical information shown in FIG. 5B to statistical information aggregated by base, organization, or device.

  FIG. 6A shows a tabulation screen for each site displayed when the color printing rate in December 2013 and “by site” in the drill-down instruction section 504 are selected on the screen shown in FIG. 5B. It is an example. The user can narrow down the information for the month of interest by the drill-down operation, and at the same time change the analysis axis to the base to find a base with a high color printing rate.

  The path display unit 505 displays the path of the screen on which the user has transitioned through a drill-down operation. The totaling month changing unit 506 is a changing unit for changing the month designated on the screen of FIG. 5B for the statistical information acquired by the drill-down operation. When analyzing statistical information, there are use cases where you want to change the period of the same analysis axis as in the previous or next month. Normally, the user needs to return to the monthly tabulation screen in FIG. 5B once, select a different month, and perform a drill-down operation again. You can change the total month.

  In this screen example, by pressing “Last month” in the total month changing unit 506, statistical information on the color printing rate for each base in 2013/11 can be acquired. Since the current month is 2013/12 and the next month does not exist, “next month” is invalidated. The shortcut registration unit 507 is a registration unit for instructing the device management server 101 to register a drill-down operation instructed by the user until the current aggregation screen is displayed as a shortcut. When the shortcut registration unit 507 is pressed, the shortcut registration request unit 434 requests the shortcut registration reception unit 404 of the device management server 101 to register a shortcut.

  FIG. 6B is an example of an organization-by-organization screen displayed when “New York” and “by organization” in the drill-down instruction unit 504 are selected on the screen of FIG. Similar to the above-described function, the base: New York in FIG. 6A is analyzed by organization by drill-down operation.

  FIG. 7 is an example of a device-by-device tabulation screen displayed when “Planning Dept.” is selected on the screen of FIG. Similar to the above-described function, the organization shown in FIG. 6B: Planning Dept. Are analyzed by device. The screen described above is an example, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the screen configuration, screen transition, and operation method are not limited thereto.

Next, an example of parameters generated by the statistical information request unit 431 in order for the client terminal 103 to request device statistical information from the device management server 101 when the analysis axis is changed by a drill-down operation will be described. . In the present embodiment, the client terminal 103 acquires desired statistical information from the device management server 101 using the REST API, and displays the acquired statistical information on the display unit 433. An example of parameters generated by the statistical information request unit 431 when acquiring statistical information on the device-by-device aggregation screen (FIG. 7) is shown below.
・ Request URL (http://devicemanagement.com/statistics)
・ DrillDown parameter (DrillDown = month-2013 / 12 | branch-New York | Organization-Planning Dept.)
・ Grouping parameter (Grouping = device)

  The request URL represents the address of the shortcut registration receiving unit 404. The condition that is narrowed down by the drill-down operation is specified by the DrillDown parameter. According to the above example, the following conditions are narrowed down by AND conditions. That is, the aggregation month is 2013/12 (month-2013 / 12), the base is New York (branch-New York), and the organization is Planning Dept. (Organization-Planning Dept.) is narrowed down by AND condition.

  The grouping unit of device information is specified by the Grouping parameter. In the above parameters, device information is aggregated for each device. The statistical information request unit 431 can acquire statistical information from the device management server 101 by setting parameters based on the drill-down operation and making a GET request to the request URL. The above is an example, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the request method and parameters are not limited thereto.

(Register drill-down shortcuts)
In the screen example shown in FIG. 7, three drill-down operations are required to obtain a total result for each device by narrowing down the total month, base, and organization. Therefore, the operability is not good for a user who wants to analyze the tabulated result for each device narrowed down to a specific condition in a typical manner. Therefore, the present invention provides a mechanism for registering the result of the drill-down operation as a shortcut and providing the user with the same total result for each device in a single operation, thereby improving the operability of the user.

  However, when registering the results of a drill-down operation as a shortcut, not only simply store the selected operation, but also analyze the characteristics from the contents of the statistical information and the analysis contents, and consider the background of the user operation. I need to remember. For example, in the screen of FIG. 7, regarding the total month, it is necessary to appropriately determine whether the user has selected the month 2013/12, the current month, or the month with a small total value. In the following, selecting the former 2013/12 itself is referred to as “direct designation”, and selecting the latter current month or a total month characterized by statistical values is referred to as “indirect designation”.

  If the user wants to acquire statistical information of the latest month in a standard way, specify 2013/12 as a bookmark and store a shortcut. When the current month becomes 2014/1, the current month will be displayed in a single operation. Statistics cannot be obtained. Therefore, when the shortcut registration reception unit 404 of the device management server 101 receives the shortcut registration request, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 makes the above determination and generates an appropriate drill-down path.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart when the drill-down path analysis unit 405 analyzes the characteristics of the drill-down path when a shortcut registration request is received. The processing shown in FIG. 8 is realized by the CPU 301 of the device management server 101 executing a program related to the software of the device management server 101 shown in FIG.

  The drill-down path analysis unit 405 applies each filter in steps S601 to S608 to each hierarchy instructed to drill down, and determines whether there is a feature in the total value or total unit instructed by the drill-down. . In the processing of S601 to S603, a statistical value filter is applied, and it is determined whether or not there is a feature in the total value (Y axis) of the instructed month. In the processing of S605 to S608, the aggregation unit filter is applied, and it is determined whether or not there is a feature in the instructed aggregation unit (X axis).

  First, in S601, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the selected total value is the maximum value compared with other total values. If the selected aggregate value is not the maximum value, the process proceeds to S602, and the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the selected aggregate value is the minimum value compared with other aggregate values. If the selected aggregate value is not the minimum value, the process proceeds to S603, and the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the selected aggregate value has not achieved the target. Next, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the aggregation unit selected in S604 is a monthly unit or a base / organization unit. If the aggregation unit is a base / organization, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the selected aggregation unit is a base or organization to which the user belongs (S608). On the other hand, if the aggregation unit is monthly, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines whether the selected month is the current month (S605), the closed month (S606), or whether it is one year before the current month. (S607) is determined.

  If the specified parameter meets a predetermined condition, that is, if any of the filters is met, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines that the aggregation unit instructed to be drilled down is the indirectly specified aggregation unit. (S611). On the other hand, when none of the filters corresponds to the steps of S601 to S608, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 determines that the aggregation unit instructed to be drilled down is the aggregation unit that is directly designated (S621). Finally, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 displays the drill-down path confirmation screen of FIG. 9 based on the corresponding filter item. In FIG. 8, the example in which the aggregation unit is the operation information of the image forming apparatus for each base, the organization in the base, or the monthly unit has been described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the items and order of the filters of S601 to S608, and the aggregation unit filter are not limited to monthly units and organizations / bases. For example, the aggregation unit can be specified up to the date and time such as the aggregation date. Further, the order of the filters may be changed depending on the frequency of use of the filters described later in FIG.

  FIG. 9 is an example of a drill-down path confirmation screen when the display unit 433 of the client terminal 103 displays the contents of the drill-down path analyzed by the drill-down path analysis unit 405 in the process shown in FIG. The screen of FIG. 9 is displayed when a shortcut registration request is made from the screen shown in FIG.

  The shortcut name input unit 701 is an input unit for inputting the name of a shortcut to be registered, and the user can input an arbitrary name to identify the shortcut. The drill-down path analysis result display unit 702 is for displaying the result analyzed by the drill-down path analysis unit 405 in the process of FIG. In this example, the “current month” is indirectly specified in the monthly total result, the “New York” base is directly specified in the base total result, and the “maximum value” is specified indirectly in the organization total result. Indicates that drill-down was instructed under the condition of

  The drill down path instruction unit 703 is an instruction unit for the user to manually specify another condition when the content analyzed by the drill down path analysis unit 405 does not match the user's intention. In this screen example, the user has changed the condition of the result of aggregation by organization to an organization that has been indirectly designated “not achieved to target”. A registration button 704 is a button for instructing registration of a shortcut, and when pressed, the shortcut is registered in the shortcut information storage unit 407 via the shortcut registration reception unit 404 of the device management server 101.

  If there is an indirectly specified condition in the specified condition, the shortcut registration receiving unit 404 converts the above-described DrillDown parameter as follows, and stores it in association with the shortcut. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the monthly aggregation unit that is indirectly specified is converted to “month- * Current *”, and the organizational aggregation unit is converted to “organization- * Unsatisfactory *”. Therefore, it is finally converted into a DrillDown parameter of “DrillDown = month- * Current * | branch-New York | Organization- * Unsatisfactory *”. The words * Current * and * Unsatisfactory * are reserved words for the device management server 101 to determine “current month” and “not achieved”, respectively.

  In the “DrillDown” parameter, “month- * Current *” and “Organization- * Unsatisfactory *” are specified. In this case, the statistical information transmission unit 402 derives 2013/12 from the current month and the organization that satisfies the unachieved condition, and transmits the statistical information. As a result, it is possible to narrow down the total month as the current month, the base as New York, and the organization that has not been achieved with the organization as the target by the AND condition. Therefore, the client terminal 103 can register a shortcut that is dynamically reflected even if the total value of the current month or organization changes. A cancel button 705 is for canceling shortcut registration.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a data structure example of shortcut information managed by the shortcut information storage unit 407 of the device management server 101. The shortcut information storage unit 407 manages the data structure shown in FIG. 10 in association with identification information that uniquely identifies the client terminal 103. The shortcut name 801 is a name input by the shortcut name input unit 701 at the time of shortcut registration. In this data structure, a shortcut name is uniquely identified as a key. As described above, the DrillDown parameter 802 is a DrillDown parameter converted by the shortcut registration receiving unit 404 at the time of shortcut registration. The Group parameter 803 is a shortcut destination aggregation unit specified at the time of shortcut registration. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this data structure is an example, and the type and structure of information is not limited.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a statistical information display screen for displaying statistical information received from the device management server 101 by the client terminal 103 calling a shortcut, and screen transitions thereof. 9-a is the same device statistical information list screen as 5-a. The shortcut calling unit 901 is for calling a desired shortcut from the shortcuts stored in the shortcut information storage unit 407. When the user instructs a shortcut call, the statistical information request unit 431 receives the parameters for the shortcut call shown in FIG. 10 from the shortcut information storage unit 407 and acquires the statistical information.
・ Request URL (http://devicemanagement.com/statistics)
・ DrillDown parameter (DrillDown = month- * Current * | branch-New York | Organization- * Unsatisfactory *)
・ Grouping parameter (Grouping = device)

  FIG. 11B is an example of a device-by-device aggregation screen for the same statistical information as FIG. With the above-described processing, the screen that is conventionally displayed through three drill-down operations is displayed in one operation by calling a shortcut, so that the user operability can be improved. In addition, by the processing described with reference to FIG. 8, typical statistical information when a parameter specified for each of a plurality of stages by a drill-down operation matches a predetermined condition, that is, a predetermined aggregate value condition or a total unit. A report screen that takes into account

  By the way, as a use case, there is a case where it is desired to check a statistical result of another layer of the statistical information screen displayed by the shortcut call, for example, one layer above. There are also cases where you want to check the results of last month. Therefore, the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 regenerates a parameter for acquiring statistical information highly relevant to the shortcut destination from the parameters used in the shortcut call. By prefetching statistical information using the parameters regenerated by the statistical information request unit 431, the processing speed when the user acquires related device statistical information from the shortcut destination can be improved.

  In the present embodiment, the drill-down path regenerating unit 432 acquires, as statistical information having high relevance, the aggregation units existing in the hierarchy in the middle of the drill-down path and the statistical information of the last month and the next month of the shortcut destination. Furthermore, when a statistical value filter is included in the DrillDown parameter for acquiring statistical information, it is possible to determine what the user is paying attention to for the hierarchy.

  In the present embodiment, an organization that is “not achieved as a target” is set for the organization-based aggregation. Therefore, when the statistical information of the hierarchy one level before the shortcut is prefetched, the suggestion generation unit 403 determines whether there is information corresponding to the statistical value filter in the prefetched statistical information. The suggestion generation unit 403 transmits the suggestion information to the client terminal 103 when there is information corresponding to the statistical value. As a result, the user can determine on the shortcut destination report screen whether or not there is an organization “unachieved in the target” in another hierarchy without changing the screen.

  The path display unit 902 is for displaying a drill-down path. In the case of a shortcut call, the path display unit 902 analyzes the DrillDown parameter, converts it into a path that is originally transited by a drill-down operation, and displays it. Further, when the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 prefetches the statistical information of another layer, the notation method (color or font) of the prefetched layer is changed. The suggestion display unit 904 is for displaying the contents when a suggestion is received from the suggestion generation unit 403 described above. By changing the notation method of the hierarchy in which prefetching is completed, it is possible to prompt the user to transition to the aggregation result screen related to the shortcut destination.

  The total month change instruction unit 903 is for changing the total month of the same total unit. Similar to the pre-reading of the statistical information of another layer, when the drill-down path regenerating unit 432 pre-reads the statistical information of the previous month and the next month, the pre-read aggregation month can be selected. In the example shown in FIG. 11B, only the statistical information for the previous month can be selected, and the next month cannot be selected. In this way, link information that can be changed to pre-read statistical information, such as the total month change instruction unit 903 and the suggestion display unit 904, is provided to the client terminal 103, and the user confirms statistical information related to the shortcut destination with a simple operation. can do. This link information is validated when it is ready after providing the relevant statistical information screen.

  The screen shown in FIG. 11 is an example, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the screen configuration, screen transition, and operation method are not limited to the above examples. In this embodiment, the notation method is changed when the statistical information is prefetched. However, the prefetched screen may be displayed on a reduced screen or the like.

  FIG. 12 is a processing flowchart when the display unit 433 of the client terminal 103 displays device statistical information by a shortcut call. The following processing is realized by the CPU 301 of the client terminal 103 executing a program related to the software of the client terminal 103 shown in FIG.

First, in step S1001, the statistical information request unit 431 requests statistical information from the device management server 101 using the shortcut call parameter. When the statistical information is acquired, a graph is drawn using the device statistical information acquired by the display unit 433 in S1002. Next, if there is one upper hierarchy of the drill-down path in S1004, the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 generates parameters for acquiring statistical information of the upper hierarchy in S1005. For example, the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 generates the following parameters in order to acquire the statistical information of the next higher hierarchy when acquiring the 11 (B) device-by-device aggregation screen described above.
・ DrillDown parameter (DrillDown = month- * Current * | branch-New York)
・ Grouping parameter (Grouping = organization)
-Filter parameter (* Unsatisfactory *)

  The Filter parameter is a parameter of a filter applied to the hierarchy when acquiring statistical information of the upper hierarchy of the drill-down path. In the above example, the filter of * Unsatisfactory * (unachieved to the target) has been applied to the result of aggregation of organizational units.

When the display unit 433 acquires the statistical information of the next higher layer (S1006), the display unit 433 changes the notation method of the path display unit 902 (S1007). When a suggestion is received for the statistical information prefetched by the suggestion generation unit 403 described above in S1008, the display unit 433 displays the suggestion display unit 904 in S1009. By repeating the above processing for the hierarchy of the drill-down path, the statistical information of the upper hierarchy is prefetched. Next, when there are months before and after the shortcut destination in S1021, the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 generates parameters for acquiring statistical information of the months before and after in S1022. For example, when acquiring the device-by-device tabulation screen of FIG. 11B, the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 generates the following parameters in order to acquire last month statistical information.
・ DrillDown parameter (DrillDown = month-2013 / 11 | branch-New York | Organization- * Unsatisfactory *)
・ Grouping parameter (Grouping = device)

  When the display unit 433 acquires last month's device statistical information (S1023), the display unit 433 changes the notation method of the total month change instruction unit 903 (S1024).

  FIG. 13 is a processing flowchart when the statistical information transmission unit 402 of the device management server 101 transmits statistical information to the client terminal 103. The following processing is realized by the CPU 301 of the device management server 101 executing a program related to the software of the device management server 101 shown in FIG.

  In step S1101, the statistical information transmission unit 402 acquires statistical information from the statistical information storage unit 406 using the specified parameters. Next, the suggestion generation unit 403 determines whether a filter parameter exists in the parameters specified above. If it exists, the suggestion generation unit 403 analyzes the acquired statistical information using a filter specified by the Filter parameter, and generates a suggestion (S1103). In the example of FIG. 11, it is analyzed whether there is an organization of * Unsatisfactory * (unachieved as a target) in the aggregation results for each organization, and if it exists, a suggestion is generated. Finally, in step S <b> 1104, the statistical information transmission unit 402 transmits the statistical information and the generated suggestion to the client terminal 103.

  In addition, there is a use case in which an external service provider outsources the device management service. In this use case, the service provider analyzes the operation status of the customer of the service providing destination using the Web UI. In this case, the convenience of the service provider can be improved by using the drill-down shortcut registered by the service provider for analyzing a certain customer for the analysis of other customers.

  However, if there is a direct designation in the shortcut path, the same base or organization does not exist for other customers, so the shortcut cannot be used. In the example of the data structure diagram of FIG. 10, since the data of the first row designates the base: New York (branch-New York), and the base: New York does not exist for other customers, this shortcut is used. Can not. The data on the second line can be used by other customers because the shortcut parameters are all indirectly specified.

  FIG. 14 is a screen example when calling a shortcut registered by another customer. The shortcut menu 1201 of another customer is used to call a list of drill-down shortcuts registered for other customers. The shortcut call unit 1202 of another customer is for calling a shortcut registered for another customer. In the example described above, the shortcut of “Latest> NewYork> Unachieved organization> Total by device” is invalidated because it includes direct designation.

  In the software configuration of each device configuring the device management system of FIG. 4, in this embodiment, the drill-down path analysis unit 405 and the shortcut information storage unit 407 exist in the device management server 101. On the other hand, there is a configuration that does not exist in the device management server 101 but exists in the client terminal 103. In addition, there is a configuration in which the drill-down path regeneration unit 432 exists in the device management server 101 instead of the client terminal 103 and generates parameters for acquiring information highly relevant to the shortcut destination in the device management server 101. .

(Application 1)
User convenience can be improved by using a shortcut for analyzing device statistical information aggregated from specific device information for analysis of device statistical information aggregated from another device statistical information. For example, by using a shortcut for analyzing the color printing rate calculated from the device information called job execution history as the failure rate calculated from the error occurrence information, it is possible to reduce the trouble of creating a shortcut. However, if an indirect designation exists in the shortcut path, the shortcut cannot be used because the meaning of the statistical value differs depending on the device information. For example, analyzing a base having the maximum failure rate by using a shortcut for analyzing a base having the maximum color rate has a different meaning of analysis. On the other hand, a shortcut composed of direct designation can be used. Shortcuts that cannot be used invalidate the shortcut call unit 1202 as in FIG.

(Application example 2)
By sharing the analysis shortcut registered by the user with other users and using it in common, it is possible to reduce the effort for the user to create the shortcut and to analyze a new viewpoint. However, when the customer to be analyzed is different, the shortcut including the direct designation cannot be used as described above, so it is necessary to invalidate the customer. Also, when using for different device statistical information, a shortcut having an indirect designation cannot be used as described above, so it must be invalidated.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (computer program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media. Then, the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads out and executes the program. In this case, the program and the storage medium storing the program constitute the present invention.

Claims (11)

A management device that manages operation information from a plurality of image forming apparatuses installed in each of a plurality of bases,
Providing means for providing a report screen corresponding to the designated parameter when a parameter is designated by the user at any of a plurality of stages for providing a report screen relating to the operation information;
Storage means for storing parameters specified for each of a plurality of stages used when providing a report screen relating to the operation information;
Management for managing shortcut information for providing a different report screen having the same characteristics as the report screen provided by the designated parameter when parameters designated for each of the plurality of stages meet a predetermined condition Means,
When the shortcut information managed by the management means is designated, the providing means displays a report screen corresponding to the designated shortcut information without designation of a parameter for each of the plurality of stages. A management device characterized by providing. The predetermined condition is a predetermined aggregate value condition or aggregation unit related to the operation information,
The providing means provides a different report screen having the same characteristics as the report screen provided by the designated parameter when the parameter matches the predetermined aggregate value condition or aggregation unit. The management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein The said totaling unit is the operation information of the image forming apparatus for every said base, every organization in this base, or the operating information of the image forming apparatus designated by the total date. Management device. When the providing unit provides a report screen corresponding to the shortcut information, the providing unit requests a report screen corresponding to the parameter whose operation information is aggregated one stage before the report screen. The management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the management apparatus includes link information for providing the information. The providing means provides, when providing a report screen corresponding to the shortcut information, including any link information that can change any of the parameters specified for each of the plurality of stages on the report screen;
When the link information is specified, a report screen corresponding to the changed parameter is provided without specifying the parameter by the user for each of the stages prior to the parameter corresponding to the link information. Item 4. The management device according to any one of Items 1 to 3. The providing means, after providing the report screen corresponding to the specified shortcut information, provides the link information when the report screen corresponding to the previous parameter or the changed parameter is ready to be provided. The management device according to claim 4, wherein the management device is validated. The providing means, when providing a report screen corresponding to the shortcut information, provides the link information and suggestion information for providing a different report screen having the same characteristics as the report screen. The management apparatus as described in any one of Claims 4 thru | or 5. The management device according to claim 1, wherein the providing unit provides a confirmation screen for the shortcut information before the management unit manages the shortcut information. The management device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the storage unit stores parameters specified for each of the plurality of stages for each user. A control method in a management apparatus that manages operation information from a plurality of image forming apparatuses installed in each of a plurality of bases,
A providing step of providing a report screen corresponding to the designated parameter when a parameter is designated by the user at any of a plurality of stages for providing a report screen relating to the operation information;
A storage step of storing parameters designated for each of a plurality of stages used when providing a report screen relating to the operation information;
Management for managing shortcut information for providing a different report screen having the same characteristics as the report screen provided by the designated parameter when parameters designated for each of the plurality of stages meet a predetermined condition And having a process
In the providing step, when the shortcut information managed by the management unit is designated, a report screen corresponding to the designated shortcut information is displayed without designation of a parameter by the user for each of the plurality of stages. A control method characterized by being provided. A program that causes a computer to function as each unit included in the management device according to claim 1.

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