The Smartsettle process goes through six phases:
1. Prepare for Negotiation
- Two or more parties wish to negotiate an agreement about certain matters.
- Parties may participate in orientation or training depending on the size and complexity of the case.
- Parties review and accept guidelines for conduct.
- Parties may engage a single Smartsettle facilitator to serve both of them or each have their own private facilitator.
2. Qualify Interests
- A Smartsettle facilitator sets up the case online and optionally gives access codes to each party.
- The facilitators help parties work together to discuss their interests and identify issues without making specific demands. Parties may meet online or face-to-face.
- Parties agree on a Framework for Agreement that represents unresolved issues.
3. Quantify Satisfaction
- Bargaining ranges are created with optimistic values from each party.
- The facilitator works independently with each party to elicit their confidential preferences.
4. Establish Equity
- Parties exchange information (may include telephone and/or face-to-face meetings) and offer visible or invisible concessions.
- Smartsettle generates suggestions based on party preferences and concessions.
- Equity is achieved when parties reach a tentative solution by agreeing on the same package.
5. Maximize Benefits
- Preference representations are refined with help from the facilitators.
- Optimization is used to generate improvements to the current tentative solution.
6. Secure Commitment
- When any party wishes to end the negotiation, the Framework for Agreement is filled out with the current solution, signed and implemented.