In the early 1980s, one of the largest computer firms, Digital Equipment Corporation began to use XCON, the first commercially successful Expert System . XCON allowed DEC to configure computer systems for specific customer needs. At first, many at DEC were sceptical that this would work, but since the expert system was developed, it has saved DEC an estimated $25 million per year
Before XCON, when ordering a Mainframe computer from DEC, every cable and connection and bit of Software had to be ordered separately. (Computers and Peripherals were not sold complete in boxes as they are today). The sales people were not always very technically expert. This meant that companies, colleges and universities, who ordered this kind of computer, used to find that they had the hardware without the correct cables, the printer without the correct driver, the processor without the correct language chip and so on. This meant delays and caused a lot of customer dissatisfaction and resultant legal action.
So DEC developed an expert system which interacted with the sales person and asked the critical questions before printing out a coherent and workable system specification/order slip. This is what was delivered and the rate of successful installations soared.
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