Abstract: This invention concerns an equipment supply method in which a high degree of reliability is assured and in which unscheduled visits by maintenance engineers to end users may be minimized. In a first step, the method comprises making an assessment of predicted user demand over a given time period for equipment usage. In a next step, an oversupply function is applied to the predicted user demand over the given time period to provide a safety factored predicted demand function. From the safety factored predicted demand, a number of equipment units required for supply is calculated and the equipment units supplied to the user. Equipment usage is then monitored over the given time period and if actual user demand deviates from predicted user demand during the time period, then the number of equipment units supplied to the user is modified at the next convenient opportunity.

Abstract: An information technology network comprises a plurality of printers and at least one computing entity which serves as a print manager. Print jobs are distributed speculatively to a plurality of printers, which determine locally whether to proceed with the allocated job. Duplication of a job, by two or more printers is prevented by an appropriate communication protocol between printers.

Abstract: An information technology network comprises a plurality of printers and at least one computing entity which serves as a print manager. The print manager is adapted to process print jobs by distributing the ripping process between two or more different printers, and then returning disparately ripped data to a single printer for physical marking of documents with indicia in accordance with the ripped data.

Abstract: Conflict between contemporaneous print jobs in an in information technology network is resolved by providing each print job with a priority value. A print manager determines whether a requested job has a higher priority than a current job, and interrupts the current job as appropriate. Data processed in the current job at interrupt is either stored if space is available, or dumped if space is not.