Patent ID: 7617399

Claim:
An information providing device arranged in a multi-function peripheral system including multiple image formation applications and a platform, the platform including an OS and at least one control service to control execution of a requested processing according to a function call from one of the image formation applications, the information providing device comprising: a provider association unit configured to associate a plurality of information providers, including first and second information providers the plurality of information providers providing respective user information items, the provider association unit comprising: a first unit causing the first information provider to receive a first user information item, stored in a first information management unit, in response to a user information receiving request; a second unit causing the second information provider to receive a second user information item, correlated with the first user information item and stored in a second information management unit, in response to a predetermined identification data; and a third unit configured to generate an authentication merge ticket including data indicating at least one of an authentication provider name, a term of validity of the ticket, an authentication domain name, and user attributes, the authentication merge ticket being a unified information item generated by combining the first user information item and the second user information item based on the predetermined identification data; and an interface configured to transmit the authentication merge ticket to a computer remote from the information providing device via a network.