Negotiation Support System: Academic Negotiation System (ANS)

Abstract

In the context of geographically dispersed organizations and increasing complexity of decision problems, the need to use communication and decision support systems is growing. Thus understanding the concepts and problems linked to those systems becomes crucial. In this paper Academic Negotiation System (ANS) is described. The system was designed as a convenient tool to train e-negotiations in educational environment, because solutions suitable for such environment and demonstration of problems and concepts related to e-negotiations have not been found. Basic concepts introduced in ANS include negotiation process, negotiation template, multi-attribute utility function, structured and unstructured exchange of offers. Implemented functions include tools both for communication and decision support.