Patent ID: 8844014

Claim:
A method for accessing a document-processing device, comprising: receiving, at the document-processing device, a request to access two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, wherein the document-processing device is one or more of a printer or a multi-function peripheral (MFP); the document-processing device reading authentication data from an authentication token, wherein the authentication token is a portable physical object associated with a user that issued the request; the document-processing device determining, based on the authentication data, whether the user has sufficient user access privileges to perform the request by: sending, to an authorization server, a request for user access privileges for the user, receiving, from the authorization server, a response that includes user access data that indicate user access privileges for the user for each of the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, retrieving device access data for the document-processing device, wherein the device access data indicate access privileges that are required to access each of the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, determining whether the user has sufficient user access privileges to perform the request to access the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device by comparing the user access privileges for the user for each of the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device indicated by the user access data to the access privileges that are required to access each of the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, as indicated by the device access data; determining that the user has sufficient user privileges to perform the request to access the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device if, for each function from the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, the user access privileges for the user for the function, as indicated by the user access data, satisfy the access privileges that are required to access the function, as indicated by the device access data; and upon determining that the user has sufficient user access privileges to access the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device, the document-processing device allowing access to the two or more functions supported by the document-processing device.