Patent ID: 8059974

Claim:
An image forming apparatus capable of communicating, via the internet, with an external monitoring device for monitoring operating states of a plurality of image forming apparatuses, comprising: a storage unit adapted to detect an operating amount of a part included in the image forming apparatus and store information about the operating, amount in relation to the part; an informing unit adapted to inform the external monitoring device of a request for acquiring a first consumed level of the part calculated by the external monitoring device, the request containing the information about the operating amount of the part; an acquiring unit adapted to acquire the first consumed level of the part and a value to be used to calculate a second consumed level of the part from the external monitoring device, as a response to the request for acquiring the first consumed level of the part sent by said informing unit; a calculation unit adapted to calculate the second consumed level of the part based on the information about the operating amount stored in said storage unit and the value acquired by said acquiring unit to be used to calculate the second consumed level of the part; and an output unit adapted to output the first consumed level in relation to the part when said acquiring unit has acquired the first consumed level of the part from the external monitoring device and output the calculated second consumed level in relation to the part when said acquiring unit cannot acquire the first consumed level of the part from the external monitoring device, wherein the value to be acquired by said acquiring unit and used to calculate the second consumed level of the part is updated in the external monitoring device every time the external monitoring device acquires information about operating amount of the part from any one of the plurality of image forming apparatuses of which the operating statuses are monitored by the external monitoring device.