For immediate release, April 4, 2016

US politics have never before seen so much theatre and uncertainty. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are neck and neck competing for the Democratic nomination. Sanders is beating everyone in the national polls but a clear path to the White House is far from certain. Donald Trump’s rise among Republicans is creating no end of controversy.

What if there was a better path forward through a negotiated coalition?  A new eNegotiation system, Smartsettle Infinity, which employs sophisticated optimization algorithms, is designed to solve such complex formal negotiation problems. Several volunteers recently applied Smartsettle to the challenge. The players imagined that Michael Bloomberg, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were willing to negotiate a coalition to effectively shut out Donald Trump in case he becomes the nominee. The issues were:

  • who will run for President,
  • who will be the VP, and
  • a platform on a dozen of the most important issues.

Each player independently played one of the three roles and modeled their private preferences from information that they could find on the Internet. Once the problem was modeled and preferences were well-represented, the negotiators were able to exchange comprehensive proposals in an interface that allowed them to be compared logically. Knowing what would satisfy the parties, the system was also able to generate suggestions of its own. After several sessions, negotiators reached a conclusion that they were all willing to endorse. They were willing to go forward with one voice that would capture the hearts and minds of the American people like never before.

The following screenshot shows the conclusion from Clint’s point of view (representing Clinton). Two packages are displayed. Package 6 was the original Baseline. Package 15 was the Improved Agreement, worth 71 points more to Clint. This gain was worth over half a billion dollars, more than most of the individual issues were worth. A similar gain was experienced by the other two parties. What such a result might be worth to the American public and to the world at large is immeasurable.

If you are involved in a negotiation that could benefit from Smartsettle we’d love to help.

Peter Holt (playing Clinton) “Not sure whether the real Hillary would approve of my positions but I’m sure she would have enjoyed the process. My Hillary was set on being President and Smartsettle accommodated her strategy. I knew where I was going to compromise and where I couldn’t and at no stage did I think the deal was unattainable”

Ron Cantelon (playing Sanders): “I found it a unique way to negotiate. You neither ran into opposing fences or had to drop yours to reach an agreement. You always had the feeling that a deal was not only possible but that it was the goal of all the participants.”

Keith Schulner (playing Bloomberg): “In my role as Bloom, I believed being the VP on the ticket with Clint would result in me becoming VP and being in the best position to help the USA. That was my main goal, and I was successful at reaching it. Smartsettle helped make that happen and helped me achieve better overall results, considering all the issues. ”

Ernest Thiessen (playing Lead Facilitator): “In spite of the tight timeline under which this simulation was performed, this was a genuine demonstration of how Smartsettle is able to guide multiple decision makers with conflicting objectives to a better place in a shorter time.”

Carissa Boynton, (playing Co-facilitator): “Smartsettle Infinity continues to amaze me with its power to tackle the big issues and resolve them in a timely fashion. I have no doubt that it will soon become the standard process for negotiations.”

Update on Aug 2, 2016: In Platform Negotiations with Clinton, Sanders is Finally Victorious