US 7,127,433 B2Granted

Method for generating pay-per-page pricing data for managed printer services

AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

InventorJonathan Baker

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Abstract

A method is disclosed for generating pricing data for managed computer printer services for a user of a fleet of computer printer devices over a contract time period including first selecting between two possible pricing models, pay-per-page with minimums or pay-per-page with a fixed periodic payment. Variable costs comprising the costs of toner cartridges and preventative maintenance are computed for both monochromatic and color printers and these respective variables contribute to determine the total costing of both models. In the fixed periodic model the cost of hardware and a service fee also contribute to the final pricing figure. The toner portion of the variable costs element may be determined on the basis of predictions of page coverage for both mono and color printers, but may also be determined from historical averages resulting from actual measurement of the page coverage of printers in the fleet.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A computer implemented method for generating a price quote for a customer for a printer, having a toner carrying cartridge, within a managed print services group, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) calculating a first contribution to the per page pricing data by:
(1) determining a total number of pages that will be processed over a given time period,
(2) determining a user's page capacity for a single toner cartridge,
(3) calculating a total number of required toner cartridges for the given time period by dividing the determined total number of processed pages by the user's page capacity for a single toner cartridge,
(4) determining a given time period total toner cost,
(5) multiplying the given time period total toner cost by a selected toner finance rate for obtaining a discounted toner cost for the given time period,
(6) dividing the total number of pages that will be processed over a given time period by the discounted toner cost for the given time period,
(b) calculating a second contribution to the per page pricing data by determining a preventative maintenance cost per processed page for the printer,
(c) summing the first and second contributions to the per page pricing data, and
(d) generating a price quote from the per page pricing data.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/974,103Filed 11 Oct 2001
Published: US 2003/0115156 A119 Jun 2003
Granted: 24 Oct 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06Q 30/06
Commerce: buying, selling or leasing transactions
G06Q 30/0283
Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising: price estimation or determination
G07F 17/0014
Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services: for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere…
G07F 17/26
Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services: for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus