Patent ID: 8917408
Filing Date: 2014-12-23
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for responding to a detected defect in an office device, comprising: establishing vendor communication with a plurality of office devices overseen by a customer, the plurality of office devices including a first device group in which office devices are vendor supported devices according to a service agreement between a vendor and the customer, and a second device group in which office devices are not now and have not been previously vendor supported; detecting, with a processor, a defect in at least one of the plurality of office devices; determining, with the processor, that the at least one of the plurality of office devices in which the defect is detected is an office device belonging to the second device group; automatically generating, with the processor, a proposal of options for actions to be undertaken by the vendor to correct the detected defect; forwarding the automatically generated proposal of options for vendor action to the customer; receiving, with the processor, a response from the customer to the proposal indicating which of the options for vendor action the customer selects; and directing, with the processor, completion by the vendor of the customer selected vendor action to address the defect, the automatically generated proposal of options for vendor action being contained in an email that is generated and automatically dispatched to an authorized representative for the customer and that includes notification to the customer of the nature of the detected defect, cost data associated with each of the options for vendor action to correct the detected defect, and a scheme by which the customer selects one or more of the options for vendor action, and the options for vendor action including a request to convert the office device in which the defect is detected from belonging to the second device group to belonging to the first device group.