Patent ID: 7330843

Claim:
A managing method for ordering a composition of a plurality of units to form a composite apparatus which is a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printing machine, or a composite machine comprising multiple of said machines, through an ordering apparatus and for managing said ordered composite apparatus, the method comprising: causing said ordering apparatus to receive unit information for specifying units constituting an actual composite apparatus, which is the copying machine, the facsimile machine, the printing machine, or the composite machine comprising multiple of said machines, and create composite state information for specifying a composite state of units based on the received unit information, according to a predetermined rule; causing said actual composite apparatus, when said actual composite apparatus is actually set up by actual units and the power is switched on, to recognize unit information for specifying actual units to be actually composed itself, and create composite state information for specifying a composite state of actual units based on the recognized unit information, according to the same rule as said predetermined rule; causing said actual composite apparatus to inform the composite state information to said ordering apparatus; and comparing the composite state information created by said ordering apparatus and the composite state information informed by said actual composite apparatus.