Company C was clearly the low cost winner. In a year's time the total cost for data enhancement would be $180,000 less than Company As price. To make a final decision the company analysts, the actual users of the data, were asked for their views.
When queried, the analysts building the models stated that the level of accuracy for the elements returned by Company A were within acceptable ranges and that the high match rate and number of elements returned were desirable.
Because they were using the data for modeling and not simply as a list file it was more important for them to have enough data to make their models perform properly. They were concerned that the low match rate of Company C would be detrimental to the accuracy of their models. They stated they would prefer Company As data to that from Company C if given the choice.
Decision
Company A was chosen as the winner of the contract because of its match rate, depth of elements returned, and good scores in all other areas. The difference in usability was deemed sufficiently large enough to warrant the choice of the higher-priced data from Company A, particularly in light of the views of the company analysts and their use of the data.