Patent ID: 8463898

Claim:
An information collecting apparatus comprising: a collecting unit configured to execute a collecting process of collecting maintenance information for each of a plurality of network apparatuses connected to a network; a transmission unit configured to execute a transmitting process of transmitting the maintenance information collected by said collecting unit to a predetermined server apparatus on the network; a determination unit configured to determine, from among the plurality of network apparatuses, a substitute apparatus configured to execute, instead of the information collecting apparatus, the collecting process and the transmitting process based on the maintenance information collected by said collecting unit; a first requesting unit configured to request, in a case where said collecting unit cannot continue the collecting process, the determined substitute apparatus to execute the collecting process and the transmitting process; and a second requesting unit configured to, in a case where the determined substitute apparatus does not accept the request from said first requesting unit, request the plurality of network apparatuses other than the information collecting apparatus and the determined substitute apparatus to transmit their own maintenance information to the predetermined server apparatus and not via the information collecting apparatus.