Patent ID: 8424063

Claim:
A workflow management apparatus which manages a workflow for executing processing in accordance with work items representing operations, the workflow management apparatus comprising: a generator configured to generate a folder for a specific work item to be processed by an image processing apparatus; a registration unit configured to register information on a location of the folder generated by the generator as a sending destination of the content generated by the image processing apparatus in accordance with the specific work item; a storage unit configured to store the content supplied from the image processing apparatus in the folder serving as the sending destination of the content; a log obtaining unit configured to obtain a plurality of job logs each of which corresponds to a job processed by the image forming apparatus and includes information on a user who operated the image processing apparatus and information on the user's operation; a selecting unit configured to select a job log corresponding to the content stored by the storage unit from among the plurality of job logs obtained by the log obtaining unit; a specifying unit configured to specify a user who issues an instruction of the sending of the content in accordance with the job log selected by the selecting unit; an authority determination unit configured to determine whether the user specified by the specifying unit has authority to access the specific work item to be processed by the image processing apparatus in accordance with information on the specific work item; and an association unit configured to associate the content stored in the folder by the storage unit with the specific work item corresponding to the folder when the determination unit determined that the user specified by the specifying unit has authority to access the specific work item to be processed by the image processing apparatus, wherein the image processing apparatus which includes a program used to execute the workflow acquires the specific work item from the workflow management apparatus and processes the specific work item by using the program without sending the content to the folder generated by the generator, while the image processing apparatus which does not include the program sends the content to the folder thereby the specific work item is processed on the content at the workflow management apparatus.