Web enabled expert systems using hyperlink-based inference

With the proliferation of the WWW, providing more intelligent Websites has become a major concern in the e-business industry. Recently, this trend has been even more accelerated by the success of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in terms of product recommendation, and self after service, etc. As a result, many e-companies are eager to embed Web-enabled, rule-based systems, i.e. that is, expert systems, into their Websites, and several well-known commercial tools to facilitate this are already available in the market. So far, most of those tools are based on CGI, but CGI-based systems inherently suffer from problems related to overburdening, when there are too many service demands at the same time. To overcome the limitations of the existing CGI-based expert systems, we propose a new form of Web-enabled expert system that uses a hyperlink-based inference mechanism. In terms of burden to the Web server, our approach has proven to outperform the CGI-based approach theoretically as well as empirically. For practical purposes, our approach is implemented in a software system, WeBIS. and uses a graphic rule editing methodology, Expert's Diagram, that is incorporated into the system to facilitate rule generation and maintenance. WeBIS is now successfully operating for financial consultation on the Website of a leading financial consulting company in Korea. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.