Negotiation can be taken as "an interpersonal decision-making process necessary whenever we cannot achieve our objectives single-handedly" (Thompson, 2005: 2). This means that "parties are committed to peaceful means for resolving their dispute"; they have "to make a decision about their interdependent goals or objectives" (Lewicki and Litterer, 1985). Computer and communications technologies such as phone, faxes, e-mail, internet, e-commerce, teleconferencing, instant messaging and other information systems embedded with sophisticated negotiation algorithm (Grunbacher (2003)) are being used in the process of negotiations by the organizations to achieve the goal of negotiation in their business deals. This paper deals with issues such as transparency in negotiations and e-negotiations versus auctions, negative and positive aspects of technology and human face-to-face negotiations. Last section presents a list of negotiation softwares and some major trends in the technology (Information Systems) in relation to e-negotiations.

Negotiation is a vital part of every day life of all of us. We do it everywhere: At work, at home, while shopping, or planning to buy something at the later stage. Whether we admit it or not, but we negotiate. The negotiation objectives may be sales negotiations, purchase negotiations, freight transportation negotiations, car purchasing negotiations, training charges negotiations, or salary negotiations. It is a means through which business partners arrive at an accord under setting of strategic dealings or may be self-determining decision-making situation or win-win state of affairs to all involved. The technologies such as phone, fax, pager, e-mail, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), which are basically a means of communication, help us in the process of negotiation. In addition to this, other technological components are various kinds of information systems for negotiation. However, use of technology is not prerequisite to conduct negotiations. But, computer and communication technologies in this era of information economy do play a special role in trading and therefore, in negotaions provide challenges and special opportunities for the manager as a negotiator while sitting at distance places.

In the past, in addition to usual application of communication technology such as e-mail, fax, teleconferencing etc., large numbers of negotiation information systems have been developed by academic researchers (in terms of algorithms) and by different vendors (in terms of final products). The major goal of these systems is to provide analytical support to enable negotiators do their job faster and in transparent manner. According to Starke and Rangaswamy (1999), the spectrum of negotaions systems includes: (1) expert systems that use accumulated knowledge to aid a party in preparing for a negotiation; (2) systems that combine technologies for individual Decision Support (DSS) and Group Decision Support (GDSS) and facilitate the actual negotiation process in multi-agent settings; and (3) "autonomous agents" that are programmed to negotiate on behalf of their human principals..