Patent ID: 8488161

Claim:
A management apparatus which manages department counter information received from a plurality of image forming apparatuses based on a transmission schedule set to each image forming apparatus using a database, the management apparatus comprising: a registration unit configured to associate (1) identification information of one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, (2) a department ID received from the one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, and (3) the department counter information corresponding to the department ID, wherein the registration unit registers (1)-(3) as information in the database; an identification unit configured to identify a plurality of image forming apparatuses which include overlapping department ID; a management unit configured to manage, when the plurality of image forming apparatuses identified by the identification unit is less than a predetermined maximum value, the plurality of image forming apparatuses identified by the identification unit in a group; a determination unit configured to determine a transmission schedule for each of a plurality of groups managed by the management unit so that the department counter information is transmitted from the plurality of image forming apparatuses belonging to each of the plurality of groups at intervals of at least a first time period; and a transmission unit configured to generate information for setting the transmission schedule for each of the plurality of groups determined by the determination unit to the image forming apparatuses belonging to each of the plurality of groups, and transmit the generated information to the image forming apparatuses belonging to each of the plurality of groups in response to a request therefrom, wherein, when the plurality of image forming apparatuses identified by the identification unit is equal to greater than the predetermined maximum value, the management unit manages the plurality of image forming apparatuses identified by the identification unit in a plurality of different groups, and wherein, when the plurality of image forming apparatuses identified by the identification unit are managed in the plurality of different groups by the management unit, the determination unit determines the transmission schedule for each of the plurality of groups such that transmission is performed at intervals of a second time period which is shorter than the first time period.