1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a partner selecting method that select an optimum business partner capable of delivering prints (printed materials) in a short delivery time among business partners with which to place orders for individual process services, and to a storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the partner selecting method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as digital technologies such as personal computers (PCs) and the Internet have been widely used, the mainstream of prints such as those for sales promotions, brochures, and various business forms has been shifting from the conventional prints based on paper media to those based on electronic media. Paper-medium prints have been replaced by electronic data. For example, sales promotion prints have been replaced by electronic mail, brochures have been replaced with PDF (registered trademark) files, and invoices and checks have been replaced with document files.
In general, paper-medium prints, for which it is necessary to ask a printing company to do printing, cost more for the printing compared with electronic documents. Further, because of the necessity of printing, a certain period of time (delivery time) is necessary for printing and delivering prints before the overall process is completed. On the other hand, the merits of paper-medium prints have been appreciated. Paper-medium prints are acceptable to everyone irrespective of age and gender. Considering characteristics unique to paper-medium prints, such as readability, a sense of ease given to people, and an impression of printing and design so beautiful as to attract people's attention, paper-medium prints have no less merits than electronic documents.
Under these circumstances, printing companies have made various proposals using digital technologies in order to promote usage of paper-medium prints. One of such proposals is cloud printing (also referred to as “Web printing” or the like) that allows one-stop placement of an order for a print via a Web site or a Web browser. From the viewpoint of the ordering side (users), it is possible to easily place an order at any time. For example, a print is delivered to a specified delivery destination by only inputting (uploading) the print data of the print via a Web site, thus simplifying ordering work. Further, from the viewpoint of the order-receiving side (printing companies), it is possible to construct a scheme for performing business activities and providing prints with efficiency.
For example, a user accesses a Web site operated by a printing company or the like (as illustrated in FIG. 1), and places an order for a print by inputting information such as the kind, the number of copies, the shipping address of the print. It is also possible to optionally place a detailed order for special printing or a detailed order with delivery specifics. Examples of such orders may be “Make 20,000 copies of advertisements to be inserted in newspapers, and send 18,000 copies to Sendai and 2,000 copies to Tokyo in four days,” “Bind up a 100-page book and make 500 copies of it,” “Provide a full-color cover with a laminated surface,” and “Perform duplex printing with 90 monochrome pages and 10 color pages.”
Further, the way of inputting an original print differs depending on the kind of a print. For example, in the case of fixed-form prints such as business cards, post cards, and envelopes, a form is selected from several designs and templates provided on a Web site, and is edited as desired and input online. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2007-004348). Further, in the case of free-form prints such as company brochures and instruction manuals, a complete original (print data) created by a user is uploaded. Further, in other cases, a designer of a printing company creates a complete original (print data) including a design in response to the input of requests by a user who uses a design service.
In response to completion of the inputting of information, the cloud printing system calculates an estimated price and delivery time (deadline) in accordance with the details of the input order, and causes the estimated price and delivery time on the Web site. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2008-040878 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-339515.) On the other hand, in response to reception of the order via the Web site, the printing company immediately make arrangements up to completion of the delivery of prints, such as designing (if necessary), printing, and shipping.