Patent ID: 7148985

Claim:
A method of managing print services comprising: identifying, from a plurality of printers, at least one printer intrinsically capable of performing a requested print job by a requested deadline, determining whether sufficient scheduling space is available on the at least one intrinsically capable printers to perform the requested job by the deadline, and in the event sufficient scheduling space is not available: (a) retrieving data relating to at least one candidate print job scheduled for commencement on one of the at least one intrinsically capable printers prior to the deadline; (b) allocating a value for each of the at least one candidate print job in respect of which data is retrieved; (c) in the event a candidate print job has a lower value than the requested job, cancelling the lower value candidate job and scheduling the requested job for completion by the deadline; and (d) in the event all candidate print jobs have a higher value than the requested job, establishing at what price the requested job has a higher value than at least one candidate print job.