SMART CONFIGURATOR

A tool for smart system configuration assists in needs assessment, product/options selection, pricing, and distribution. The tool recommends a system configuration that most nearly meets a customer's needs, based upon the results of an interactive customer product selection session in which the customer progresses through a dialog that is implemented in a series of cascading style sheets. The tool is customizable to meet customer-specific requirements. A proposal template is provided to collect customer input and merge customer responses during the product selection session into fields within a proposal template. The tool is written in client-side JavaScript and Dynamic HTML. Product pricing information provided by the tool is readily updated, for example using push technology.