Patent ID: 8120799

Claim:
A method for selecting a provider with an imaging device, said method comprising: receiving display menu content from a remote computing device (RCD) at an imaging device (IDev) web service, wherein said display menu content comprises a prompt for user input identifying a descriptor related to a provider resource on said RCD, wherein said display menu content comprises instructions for displaying said display menu content on an IDev display and wherein said display menu content is a markup language message in a simple object access protocol (SOAP) format and wherein said descriptor describes an IDev part or function; displaying said prompt for user input on a user interface (UI) display of said IDev; receiving input data at said imaging device (IDev) in response to said displaying, said input data identifying said descriptor; sending said descriptor to said RCD, wherein said RCD has access to said provider resource comprising provider data correlated with descriptors; receiving said provider data from said RCD at said IDev web service, wherein said provider data was generated via said provider resource by correlating said descriptor with said provider data and wherein said provider data consists of a provider location, pricing data, availability data and contact data and wherein providers in said provider resource are filtered according to location data, pricing data and availability data to determine said provider data and wherein said provider data consists of a report containing a plurality of eligible providers and their location, availability, contact information and pricing data; accessing independent provider web sites to obtain detailed provider information for providers identified in said report; filtering data in said report according to said detailed provider information; automatically selecting a provider from said filtered provider data; and sending an order to said selected provider, from said IDev, in response to receipt of an initiate send command at a document filing API on said IDev, said initiate send command originating from said RCD, said initiate send command identifying file parameters consisting of resolution, file format, a destination derived from said contact data, send time, sender identification, filename, subject and message.