JP2002175241A - Document providing device, printed document providing system and printing service method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the crowded status of a printer by reducing the input operation of a user at a storefront in a system for transmitting a document from the center to the printer at the storefront to output it. SOLUTION: The user accesses a web page for the reservation of document output from a portable terminal 10 to specify a document to be printed and to input information required for the preparation of the document. The specified contents are transmitted from a reservation receiving server 20 to a document providing management server 30. The document providing management server 30 acquires the specified document from a host computer 32 and stores it together with the identity information of the user at a demand source. The user goes to a store 40 and inputs the output demand of the document reserved a little while ago. The document providing management server 30 that received the output demand of the document through an authentication server 22 transmits the document to the printer 45. In this system, what is required in the printer 45 is only to input extremely little information such as a user ID.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a system for printing and providing a document requested by a user from a printing device arranged at each base.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various documents have been provided through a telecommunications network such as the Internet.
Particularly recently, multifunctional printing / copiers and multimedia terminals have been installed in stores such as convenience stores and public facilities, and documents managed by a central host or the like have been printed via a telecommunications network. Various services for printing and outputting from a copying machine or the like have been proposed and realized. For example,
A service has also been proposed in which a local government or the like prints out and issues certificates such as a resident card from a secure printing device installed in convenience stores or public facilities scattered in various places.

[0003] The service of providing various documents via a terminal device located in such a convenience store or a public facility is expected to develop as a service form suitable for the situation in Japan where such facilities are densely distributed. ing.

[0004]

Considering that a variety of documents are provided by the above-described system, in order for a user to obtain a desired document, a variety of information for specifying the document is transmitted in some form. It is necessary to inform the server device on the document providing side. If the document is a document requiring high security, user authentication is also required, and it is necessary to input authentication information to the server device. It takes a considerable amount of time to input such a large amount of information from, for example, a multifunctional printing / copier at a store.

[0005] The more convenient a service using a multifunctional printing / copier is, the more people will want to use it and become more crowded. In order to eliminate such crowds, measures such as increasing the number of units arranged in stores and the like are conceivable, but considering the general size of stores and the like, a large number of multifunctional printing devices and multimedia terminals are installed. I can not expect much.

Further, in such a system, it is necessary to input some information in order to specify a desired document. If this information is input on a printing device or a terminal at a store, the input information is stolen. It is possible that In particular, when there are many input items and it takes time to input, the possibility increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and in a system for transmitting a document from a predetermined server device to a printing device installed in a store or the like and printing out the document, a user of the printing device may be used. An object of the present invention is to reduce the number of input operations and to improve the crowded state of these printing apparatuses.

[0008]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a document providing apparatus for receiving a document reservation instruction including a user identifier and document designation information from a user via a communication network. A document storage unit that stores a document specified by the document specification information in association with the user identifier, and receives a document output instruction including the user identifier from the printing device via a communication network, and A document transmission unit that acquires a corresponding document from the document storage unit and transmits the document to the printing device via the communication network;
Is provided.

[0009] Further, a print service method according to the present invention comprises:
Receiving a document reservation instruction including a user identifier and document designation information from a user; storing a document specified by the document designation information in a predetermined storage unit in association with the user identifier; Receiving, via a communication network, a document output instruction including a user identifier, obtaining a document corresponding to the user identifier from the storage unit, transmitting the document to the printing apparatus via the communication network,
Printing out.

According to the present invention, a reservation of a document to be output from a user is accepted, and at the time of this reservation, document designation information for specifying the type of the document and its contents is obtained. In a printing device such as a terminal, there is no need to input such detailed document designation information.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the document storage means assigns code information to the document to be stored in response to a document reservation instruction, and transmits the code information to the user via the communication network. Further comprising a notifying unit, wherein the document transmitting unit corresponds to the code information notified from the printing device in association with the document output instruction from the user's documents stored in the document storing unit. Is extracted and provided to the printing device.

According to this aspect, by designating the code information, the user can individually designate the reserved documents to print out. Further, since the document cannot be taken out without knowing the document code, the document can be protected even if the user's password or the like is leaked.

[0013] In another preferred aspect, the document storage means acquires a document specified by the document reservation instruction from a predetermined document management host computer and stores it. In this way, the document storage means is for temporarily storing the reserved document until the user retrieves it. By separating the reserved document from the host computer, which is the backbone of document management, the document storage means can store the document group held by the host computer. Safety can be improved.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall image of a print document providing system according to the present invention. Here, an example of a framework in which a service provider B contracts an on-demand document providing service to a sales employee of a certain company A will be described. Documents provided to the sales staff of Company A by this system include those with low confidentiality such as general product leaflets and maps, and sales materials, invoices, transfer requests, contracts, etc. specialized for specific customers. There are various things, such as those that require a high degree of confidentiality. For example, if Company A is a life insurance company, the sales representative, a life insurance sales representative, will not only have a general insurance product brochure, but also a map showing the customer's address, documents showing the customer's existing contracts, and invoices. Use highly-private documents, such as documents, receipts, security documents, and insurance account statements for business operations.

Of course, in recent years, a sales style in which a notebook computer is carried in a sales activity and a sales presentation or a web page of various sales information is shown to the customer has become common. Many documents are required in the form of paper documents, such as documents that require customers to complete.

Such a paper document should be carried in advance when going to a sales activity. However, when a customer has a request for a document that he does not have at the time of the customer interview, or when he or she is not scheduled at the time of departure, Unscheduled documents may be required, such as when a customer is visited. In such a case, it is very time-consuming and inefficient to return to the office to retrieve the documents.

Therefore, the system according to the present embodiment provides a service in which a salesperson can obtain a desired paper document at the nearest store 40. Here, the printing device 45 placed in the store 40 is not only a document providing service to the company A salesperson,
It is generally used for a printing service and a copying service for other documents, and it is required that a desired document can be obtained quickly and as easily as possible. In many cases, the printing device 45 is incorporated in a multimedia terminal, and in such a case, a higher use frequency is expected. The system according to the present embodiment is for responding to such a request.

In the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, the service provider B has partnered with the company C, which operates a convenience store chain / franchise, and installed a printing device 45 for a document providing service at each of the stores 40 of the member stores of the company C. ing. The printing device 45 can be connected to the authentication server 22 of the service provider B via the Internet 50. The exchange of information between the printing device 45 and the authentication server 22 is protected by encryption or the like, and uses the Internet 50, but secures a secure communication path as a whole. Of course, the Internet 50
Alternatively, both may be connected by a dedicated communication network.

The service provider B has an authentication server 22 and a reservation receiving server 20.

The reservation receiving server 20 is a server that receives a document output reservation from a sales representative of Company A, for example, provides a web page for document reservation, and receives data input by the sales representative. When a document is needed, the company A sales person accesses the reservation reception server 20 via the Internet 50 from the portable terminal 10 or the like, and reserves the required document. The reservation receiving server 20 transmits information relating to the reservation of the salesperson to the document providing management server 30 of the company A. The reservation information transmitted at this time is also protected by encryption.

The authentication server 22 is a server that performs user authentication in response to a document output request from a user via the printing device 45. The authentication server 22 determines whether the user of the document output request source is an authorized person (in this case, a salesperson of Company A). If the request is from a salesperson of Company A, the request is sent to the document providing management. The document is transmitted to the server 30 and acquired.

Document providing management server 30 managed by company A
Is a server that manages the provision of documents to sales personnel. The host computer 32 is a backbone system for document management work in Company A, and the original document of a required document (or basic data for creating the document) is stored and managed by the host computer 32. The document providing server 30 acquires the document reserved by the sales representative from the host computer 32 and temporarily stores the document, and in response to a valid document output request via the printing device 45, the document via the authentication server 22 Is provided to the requesting printing device 45.

The document acquisition process in the system according to the present embodiment is divided into a reservation phase and an output phase.

<Reservation Phase> FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the processing procedure of the reservation phase. The procedure of the reservation phase is as follows.

(1) First, a salesperson who is a user accesses the reservation receiving server 20 using his / her own portable terminal 10 and requests a page for inputting reservation contents.

(2) The reservation reception server 20 transmits the input page 12 to the portable terminal 10 in response to the request.

(3) The salesperson inputs necessary items to the input page 12 and transmits the input data to the reservation receiving server 20.

The items to be entered here are the user ID and password of the sales representative, the customer code of the sales target customer, the type of desired document, the output destination, and the like. "User I
"D" and "password" are used for identification of a salesperson and access authentication. The “customer code” is a code assigned to the customer, and needs to be input when acquiring a document (for example, contract information or an invoice) specialized for the customer. Conversely, when requesting a general leaflet that does not depend on the customer, it is not necessary to specify the customer code. The "document type" is designated by selecting a required document type from the listed document types, such as "map" and "existing contract inquiry". The selection is made by checking the check box on the left of the character string representing the document type. In the case of the mobile terminal 10, the cursor can be moved to a line of a desired document type, and a selection operation can be performed by performing a predetermined selection operation there. The “output destination” is a designation column of the printing device 45 or the store 40 for printing out the reserved document, and the identification name of the printing device 45 or the store 40 is input.
Here, a web page for searching for the nearest printing device 45 or store 40 is sent from the reservation receiving server 20 to the mobile terminal 1.
It is also preferable that the output destination is designated as 0 and the output destination can be specified using the page.

Depending on the type of desired document, it may be necessary to enter information to be printed on the printed document. For example, a quote or the like requires a product desired by the customer and optional information on the product. When requesting this kind of document, the publication information is also transmitted to the reservation receiving server 20.

The input of data to the reservation receiving server 20 can be realized by, for example, CGI technology.

(4) Upon receiving the input data for document reservation, the reservation receiving server 20 first performs an authentication process by comparing the user ID with the password. If the input source is determined to be a valid salesperson by this authentication, a document code is assigned to the requested document, and this document code is transmitted to the portable terminal 10 of the salesperson.

The document code is a code for distinguishing the document data temporarily stored in the document providing management server 30. Therefore, the document code only needs to guarantee uniqueness within that range. This document code is basically irrelevant to the identification code of the original document stored in the host computer 32. Even if the original document is the same, a different document code can be assigned each time a document is reserved. it can. In the document providing management server 30, a storage term is set for the document, and the document is discarded if a print output request does not come within the term. Therefore, the expiration date of the document code is also linked to the storage expiration date.

(5) The reservation receiving server 20 converts the document code given in correspondence with the document reservation into the input data (ie, user ID, customer code, document type,
Document providing management server 3 together with the output destination, publication information, etc.)
Send to 0.

(6) The document provision management server 30 requests the host computer 32 for a document specified by the customer code and the document type included in the input data. When the posting information is input, the information is also sent to the host computer 32. Here, the access authority to the document of the reservation-source sales person is checked, it is determined whether or not the document specified by the combination of the customer code and the document type is accessible, and the reservation is accepted only when the access is possible. It is also preferable to do so. Of course, this judgment
A system configuration such as that performed by the reservation reception server 20 or the host computer 32 is also possible.

(7) The host computer 32 transmits the data of the document corresponding to the request to the document providing management server 30. If there is publication information, a customized document is created based on the information and transmitted to the document provision management server 30. For example, in a bill, a fixed form is stored in the host computer 32, and the information requested by the user (sales representative) is combined with the form to combine the information on the bill, so that the document requested by the user can be obtained. Created.

The document providing management server 30 receiving this
Stores the document data in association with the document code and the user ID of the requesting salesperson as shown in FIG. 3, and waits for a document output request for the document from the printing device 45. When the sales person specifies the output destination at the time of the reservation, the identification information of the output destination is also managed in association with the document data and the document code.

The above is the processing flow of the reservation phase. In the above example, the reservation receiving server 20 assigns the document code. However, the document providing management server 30 assigns the document code, and notifies the portable terminal 10 of the sales clerk via the reservation receiving server 20. You may do so.

If the salesperson makes a reservation for document output in this way, he or she can go to the store 40 designated as the output destination and obtain the document in the form of a paper document.

<Output Phase> Next, referring to FIG.
The processing procedure of the output phase will be described.

The sales staff of the company A stores 40
Then, an operation unit such as a touch panel attached to the printing device 45 is operated to input a document output request (S10). This output request is sent to the user I
D, password, and the document code acquired at the time of reservation are input. These data are input from, for example, a keyboard (or a software keyboard) provided in the operation unit.

Here, a configuration is also possible in which an IC card reader is provided in the printing device 45, and the salesperson inputs the user ID by causing the card reader to read the ID card. In this case, if reading / writing of the ID card from the portable terminal 10 is possible, the document code can be written to the ID card and read by the card reader of the printing device 45. In addition, the mobile terminal 10 and the printing device 45
Is equipped with a wireless LAN function such as Bluetooth (Bluetooth).
It is also possible to transmit and input the user ID and the document code to.

This output request is sent to the authentication server 22 via the Internet 50. At this time, the identification information of the printing device 45 that has received the request is also added to the authentication server 2.
Sent to two sides. Of course, at this time, the transmission information such as the user ID is protected by encryption or the like. Upon receiving the output request, the authentication server 22 checks the user ID contained therein.
By comparing D with the password, it is determined whether the requesting user is a valid access authority (S1).
2). If it is determined that the user is a valid authority, the document request management server 30 requests the data of the document requested by the user (S14). At this time, the document provision management server 30 stores a user ID, a document code, and the like.
Give the information needed to identify the document. If the requesting user is not an authorized person, processing such as returning a predetermined message to the effect that the user authentication has failed to the requesting printing device 45 is performed (not shown). And the authentication server 2
2 records that the output request has been accepted in the access log (S30). This access log is a log that records the fact that the output request has been accepted, and the requesting user I
Information such as D, document code, reception date and time is recorded.

Upon receiving the document request from the authentication server 22, the document providing management server 30 searches the reserved document temporarily stored therein for a document corresponding to the request (S).
16). At this time, the document providing management server 30 refers to a database of stored documents as illustrated in FIG. 3 to search for a data entry having a user ID and a document code that match the request from the authentication server 22, and retrieves the document data. get.

If the request includes information on the output destination, the document providing management server 30 changes the output destination to the output destination of the document specified at the time of reservation (server 30).
Has this information), and if the two do not match, the document can be withdrawn. This is a measure to improve security. That is, with such a configuration, even if a third party knows the user ID and the document code of the salesperson in some way,
If you do not know the output destination specified at the time of reservation, you cannot get the document.

When the data of the requested document is obtained, the document providing management server 30 encapsulates the document data using a predetermined encryption protocol or the like (S18), and transmits it to the requesting authentication server 22. (S20). Due to the encapsulation of the document, the contents of the document of the company A become invisible to the company B managing the authentication server 22.

The authentication server 22, which has received the encapsulated document data from the document provision management server 30, transmits the document data to the printing device 45 that has issued the output request (S2).
2).

The printing device 45 decodes the received encapsulated document data and prints it on a predetermined sheet (S24). At this time, if the document content is printed with a user ID or date added thereto or printed with a digital watermark, unauthorized secondary use can be prevented or psychologically deterred. Can be.

The authentication server 22 is provided with an MIB (Management I).
Information on the state of the printing apparatus 45 can be acquired using an information base (Nformation Base) or the like. With this mechanism, it is possible to know whether or not printing of the transmitted document has been completed normally. Then, when it is detected that the printing has been performed normally, the fact is recorded in the output log (S32).

The output log records a user ID, a document code, information on the number of printouts, an output destination store, an output date and time, and the like. This output log can be used for billing to Company A. That is, the paper output to the salesperson is considered to be a service provided to the company A, and the service provider C
The service fee to be received by the company store 40 (and the service provider B) is calculated from the output log. In this case, B
The company can calculate a reward for each of the stores 40 of the company C from the output log, and make a substitute bill to the company A instead of the company C. In this case, a structure is possible in which the company A pays the amount of compensation for each store 40 to the company C headquarters in response to the request, and the company C headquarters distributes the compensation to the stores 40.

In this billing process, the accuracy of billing can be improved by comparing the output log with the access log. For example, if there is no record corresponding to the output record of the output log in the access log, the output may have been made by some kind of fraud, and the output is not charged to Company A as it is, but is sent to the investigation. And the like. That is, the access log and the output log can be automatically collated. If there is a discrepancy between the two logs as a result of the automatic collation as described above,
Alarm processing such as recording the fact in a predetermined log can be performed.

In the output phase, when the printing of the document is completed, the data of the document temporarily stored is deleted from the document providing management server 30. As a result, even if a third party who knows the document code or the like from the input operation of the sales person at the printing device 45 tries to obtain the document illegally, such a thing becomes impossible. Of course, the data handling of the printed output document in the document providing management server 30 depends on the document management policy of the company A, which is the owner of the document, and once output, the document is deleted immediately. Is not required.

The system configuration and processing contents of the present embodiment have been described above. In the system according to the present embodiment, at the stage of reserving a document from the mobile terminal 10 or the like, information necessary for specifying the document, such as the document type and the customer code, and the publication information (the desired product in Information)
Therefore, in the printing device 45 (or multimedia terminal) of the store 40, it is only necessary to input relatively few data such as a user ID and a document code. As a result, the operation time of the user at the printing device 45 is reduced, and congestion of the printing device 45 can be reduced. In addition, information necessary for specifying the document and information to be posted in the document are stored in the store 40.
Since it is not necessary to use the printing device 45 placed in a facility where privacy is difficult to maintain, the confidentiality is improved.

If the user ID and the document code are input using an ID card or a wireless LAN function instead of the keyboard, the user (salesperson) 's printing device 4 can be used.
This further reduces the time and effort of input operations to the printer 5, which helps to reduce the congestion of the printing device 45. Further, at the time of inputting, the possibility that a nearby person can see the user ID or the document code can be reduced.

Further, in the above example, the user (sales person) specifies the output destination store 40 or the printing device 45 at the time of reservation, but if the output destination is not specified, the authentication server 2 is used.
The document can be acquired by an arbitrary printing device 45 that can be connected to the printer 2. Of course, in this case, the document security is lower than when output is specified.

In the above example, a document code is issued at the time of document output reservation, and the user is requested to specify the document code of the desired document at the time of output request, but this is not essential.
A document management form in which the document provision management server 30 manages a temporarily stored document only by associating a user ID with document data without issuing a document code is also conceivable. In this management mode, when the printing device 45 requests document output, the user only needs to input a user ID (and authentication information such as a password). In this case, if a plurality of documents corresponding to the same user ID are stored in the document provision management server 30, all of them are sent to the printing device 45 at once and printed out. In this management mode, the user cannot individually specify a document to be printed from among the reserved documents, but can be used without any inconvenience in operations such as reserving and acquiring a required document each time. . Further, if the document output once is deleted from the server 30, there is no waste such as repeatedly printing the same document.

Further, in the above embodiment, an example in which the company B manages the reservation receiving server 20 and the authentication server 22 and provides a service to the company A which manages the document providing management server 30 and the host computer 32 is provided. Took
This is only an example. For example, those servers 20,
Of course, there may be a case in which Company A manages all of 22, 22, and the host computer 32. It is also possible for Company B to manage the document provision management server 30.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a reservation phase.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of a document storage mode in a document provision management server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a processing procedure of an output phase.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 10 mobile terminal, 20 reservation reception server, 22 authentication server, 30 document provision management server, 32 host computer, 40 store, 45 printing device, 50 Internet.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 3/12 G06F 3/12 K F term (Reference) 2C061 AP01 CL10 HH03 HJ06 HJ08 HK04 HK11 HN05 HN06 HN15 HQ14 2C087 AB06 BD01 BD07 BD42 BD46 BD53 2C187 AE06 5B021 AA01 BB01 BB02 EE02 NN18

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A means for receiving a document reservation instruction including a user identifier and document designation information from a user via a communication network, and a document for storing a document specified by the document designation information in association with the user identifier Receiving a document output instruction including a user identifier from a storage unit and a printing device via a communication network, obtaining a document corresponding to the user identifier from the document storage unit, and A document providing device, comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the document storage unit assigns code information to the stored document in response to the document reservation instruction,
Further comprising means for notifying the user of the code information via the communication network, wherein the document transmission means selects one of the user's documents stored in the document storage means in association with the document output instruction. 2. The document providing device according to claim 1, wherein a device corresponding to the code information notified from the printing device is extracted and provided to the printing device. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit configured to receive a designation of a printing apparatus as an output destination of the document from a user in association with the document reservation instruction, and to store information on the designation of the output destination. Determines whether the printing device that has transmitted the document output instruction matches the specification of the output destination corresponding to the document related to the instruction, and transmits the document to the printing device only when it matches. Claim 1.
Document providing device as described. 4. The document providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said document storage unit acquires a document specified by said document reservation instruction from a predetermined document management host computer and stores the document. 5. A means for creating an access log for recording reception of a document output instruction from each printing apparatus; means for creating an output log for recording print output of a document transmitted to each printing apparatus; 2. The document providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for comparing the log with the output log and performing a predetermined alarm process when there is a discrepancy between the two records. 6. A document designated by the document reservation instruction,
Means for creating by combining data transmitted from the user in association with the instruction and predetermined form information corresponding to the document, and storing the created form information in the document storage means. The document providing device according to claim 1. 7. A printing device arranged at each base, and a document providing device connected to the printing device via a communication network, wherein the document providing device is provided from a user to a user via a communication network. A reservation receiving unit that receives a document reservation instruction including an identifier and document specification information; a document storage unit that stores a document specified by the document specification information included in the received document reservation instruction in association with the user identifier; Receiving a document output instruction including a user identifier from the printing device via a communication network, obtaining a document corresponding to the user identifier from the document storage unit, and transmitting the document to the printing device via the communication network; An output instruction receiving unit that receives an input of a document output instruction including a user identifier from a user and transmits the input document output instruction to the document providing device. And an output unit for printing out a document transmitted from the document providing apparatus in response to the instruction. 8. A step of receiving a document reservation instruction including a user identifier and document specification information from a user, and storing a document specified by the document specification information in a predetermined storage unit in association with the user identifier. Receiving a document output instruction including a user identifier from the printing device via the communication network, acquiring a document corresponding to the user identifier from the storage unit, and transmitting the document to the printing device via the communication network. And a print output method. 9. The storage means assigns code information to the document to be stored in response to the document reservation instruction, and notifies the user of the code information via the communication network.
9. The print service method according to claim 8, wherein a user can specify an output document by using the code information. 10. A printing apparatus as a destination of the document is received from a user in association with the document reservation instruction, and the printing apparatus that is the source of the document output instruction outputs an output corresponding to the document related to the instruction. 9. The print service method according to claim 8, wherein it is determined whether or not the document matches the above specification, and only when the document matches, the document is transmitted to the printing apparatus.