Alert Management System
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a system for monitoring device status and for forwarding service notifications to customers. The system broadly comprises a first module for downloading and storing e-mail alerts from the customer's servers, a second module for interpreting the alerts and storing the alerts for action, and a third module for creating service calls and sending e-mail notifications.
1 . A system for monitoring device status and for forwarding service notifications to customers, said system comprising:
means for downloading and storing e-mail alerts from a customer device;
means for interpreting the alerts and storing the alerts for action; and
means for creating service calls and sending e-mail notifications.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said means for downloading and storing e-mail alerts comprises:
a system server housing an alert management database;
a customer server associated with said device;
a monitor associated with said customer server; and
said system server communicating with and receiving communications from said monitor.
3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein said monitor monitors a database to ensure that communications have been received from the customer.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein said customer device comprises one of a printer, an imaging device, mfps, and digital sender.
5 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein said system server includes at least one of a scanner module for downloading and storing e-mail alerts, a decoder module for interpreting alerts and storing the alerts for action, a handler module which looks for duplicates, creates service calls, and sends e-mail notifications, and a monitor module for monitoring said scanner module, said decoder module, and said handler module.
6 . The system according to claim 5 , wherein said means for interpreting the alerts and storing the alerts for action comprises said decoder module.
7 . The system according to claim 5 , wherein means for creating service calls and sending e-mail notifications comprises said handler module.
8 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein said customer server comprises a monitoring server which communicates with an e-mail server for sending out alerts and information about the status of the customer device.
9 . A process for monitoring a customer device comprising the steps of:
providing a customer server associated with said customer device;
sensing an issue with said customer device using said customer server;
using said customer server to send an e-mail to a system server which retrieves said e-mail and interprets the issue; and
using said system server to determine an action to be taken, creating a service call to correct said issue, and determining an action to be taken.
10 . The process of claim 9 , wherein said action determining step comprises determining to take no action at all.
11 . The process of claim 9 , wherein said action determining step comprises notifying service personnel.
12 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising determining whether the customer server has not sent alerts in a certain period of time.
13 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising determining whether a customer subscription has exceeded the number of notifications allowed.
14 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising sending an alert notification to a customer.
15 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising saving a service history of the customer device.
16 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising periodically checking all applications and determining that all applications have been checked.
17 . The process of claim 9 , further comprising checking for consumable alerts and determining an action to be taken or not taken with respect to consumables from said consumable alerts.
18 . The process of claim 17 , wherein said action determining step comprises placing an order for said consumables.