Patent ID: 8621110

Claim:
An image forming apparatus capable of communicating with a document management server, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor and memory coupled to each other and cooperating to act as: a transmission unit which transmits information of a document designated in the image forming apparatus and information indicating a function of the image forming apparatus to the document management server to request determination processing for determining whether or not the image forming apparatus is capable of processing the designated document; a first reception unit which receives a determination result of the determination processing; a determination unit which, when the determination result indicates that the image forming apparatus is not capable of processing the designated document, determines whether the document management server is outside a firewall that the image forming apparatus is inside of; an acquisition unit which, when said determination unit determines that the document management server is outside the firewall, acquires information about a function of another image forming apparatus; a second transmission unit which transmits information about the function of the other image forming apparatus to the document management server; a second reception unit which receives a list including at least one suitable image forming apparatus which is determined by the document management server from among image forming apparatuses based on the function which have been informed to the document management server and a file format of the designated document, wherein the suitable image forming apparatus is capable of converting the file format of the designated document; a display unit which displays the list; and a direction unit which directs a suitable image forming apparatus selected from the list to acquire the designated document from the document management server and perform printing processing for the acquired document.