INTELLIGENT AGENTS SUPPORTING ORDER PROCE SSING IN A SALES DEPARTMENT

Having started with a purchase order, the dialogue between customer an d supplier can evolve in many different ways. Application programs sup porting order processing have to manage all these dialogue patterns. A s a result, programming code is large, specific with respect to market and enterprise, and its maintenance is expensive. Using an object-ori ented model of all objects involved as the background, this article su ggests an intelligent agent, supporting order processing applications. The agent manages many different dialogue patterns and its maintenanc e is easy. The solution is based on the Conceptual Dependency Theory f rom Schank und Abelson. It is applicable to systems, having to carry o n a dialogue in similar situations.