Some maintenance agreements sold by Uniter were based on the usage of the covered equipment. This was managed and charged for using the machines Copy Count information. This data had to be gathered by contacting the end-user by phone and asking them to carry out a few checks on the machine to retrieve the count data. It was then recorded in a spreadsheet which was passed to the accounts department to raise the required invoices.

A new system was put in place which sent automatic emails to the end user notifying them that the copy count information was required. This email directed the user to a page on the public website where they could login and enter the copy count information required. As the model of the equipment was know, I was able to include instruction for the user to follow to obtain the counts. 

The data submitted would be validated against previous submissions to ensure that a higher number was entered compared to the previous submission. The user could also update the contact information if they were no longer responsible for that machine.

The accounts department would then use the data submitted to create the required invoices. The Helpdesk staff would also be able to use reports on the Intranet to monitor the users data entry and call any users where copy counts were overdue or where users were experiencing difficulty.