Patent ID: 11972156
Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. A method in an information processing apparatus for acquiring and managing device information including at least the number of sheets printed by a printing device, the method comprising:
performing an acquisition process to acquire the device information at a predetermined frequency from a printing device connected to a network;
for a printing device on which the device information is acquired in the acquisition process out of printing devices that were detected in the network, accumulating the device information in association with an execution date and time of the acquisition process;
for a printing device on which the device information is not acquired in the acquisition process out of printing devices that were detected in the network, additionally associating and accumulating information indicating that the printing device on which the device information is not acquired is not in connection;
generating a list including the printing devices that were detected in the network;
setting a group composed of a plurality of printing devices designated from the list; and
creating a report including the device information on the printing device on which the device information is acquired and the device information on the printing device on which the device information is not acquired and the execution date and time of the acquisition process based on the accumulated information for the printing devices included in the list,
wherein the report is created for the printing devices included in the list and the group, and
wherein the report on the group is a report in which information combining respective pieces of information accumulated for respective printing devices included in the group is created as information on the group.