Patent ID: 7359940

Claim:
A cooperative processing apparatus comprising: a sending and receiving unit that sends and receives cooperation information in which a flow of services are described, the flow of services are to be performed on document data by a plurality of cooperative processing apparatuses in a cooperative manner and a processing result of a service to and from other cooperative processing apparatus; a service processing unit that performs a service according to the cooperation information; and a control unit for performing: a first control of controlling, when receiving cooperation information, the service processing unit to perform the service according to the cooperation information; a second control of sending back, to a cooperative processing apparatus which has sent the cooperation information, a processing result indicating whether the service processing unit has performed the service normally or abnormally, and, if the service processing unit has performed the service normally, copying the cooperation information and controlling the sending and receiving unit so that it sends a copy of the cooperation information to a next cooperative processing apparatus that is to perform a next service according to the cooperation information; and a third control of controlling the sending and receiving unit so that if an abnormality occurs in the next cooperative processing apparatus after the next cooperative processing apparatus receives the cooperation information, the sending and receiving unit sends a copy of the cooperation information to a substitute cooperative processing apparatus capable of performing a substitute service for the next service.