The Total Economic Impact™ Of 1Password Enterprise Password Manager

IT Operational Efficiency Lift

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that credential-related support activities consumed significant IT time before adopting 1Password Enterprise Password Manager. According to interviewees, password access issues, vault administration requests, onboarding and offboarding tasks, and credential-related troubleshooting generated recurring support workloads and delayed routine operational activities. Multiple interviewees connected centralized credential management, simplified permissions administration, and automated lifecycle controls with fewer support requests and faster resolution times. Interviewees also said improved usability reduced the volume of urgent access-related tickets, allowing IT teams to spend less time managing routine credential issues and more time on higher-value operational priorities.

• The CISO at an e-commerce organization estimated that password-manager-related support activity previously represented approximately $120,000 annually in help desk effort. Following deployment, password-related tickets became negligible, reducing the operational burden associated with supporting employees’ credential-management needs.

• The CIO at a professional services organization reported that password-related ticket resolution time decreased by 38%, response time improved by 49%, and first-contact resolution rates increased by 55%. Average closure times for password-related tickets fell from approximately 12 hours to 8 hours. Interviewees also noted that support requests became less urgent and less disruptive. The CISO at an e-commerce organization explained: “The nature of our tickets changed dramatically. Previously, users were opening urgent tickets because they couldn’t access passwords and couldn’t do their jobs. Today, most requests are routine permission or vault-management tasks.”

• The CISO at a technology organization reported a 70% reduction in credential-management-related support requests following deployment and estimated a 30% to 40% reduction in post-offboarding credential access requests because credential access became directly tied to lifecycle management processes.

• Interviewees also reported reducing the administrative burden associated with managing and supporting previous password management solutions. The CISO at an e-commerce organization noted: “The maintenance cost of our previous password manager was actually higher than the licensing cost. With 1Password, that support burden largely disappeared.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• 3,000 employees generate credential-related support requests annually.

• Each employee generates an average of two credential-related support requests per year.

• After EPM, credential-related support requests decrease by 70%.

• IT personnel spend an average of 20 minutes resolving each credential-related support request.

• For the remaining credential-related tickets, the composite reduces average handling effort by 35%.

• The composite has a 15% average employee attrition rate.

• The composite organization recaptures 75% of the time saved by avoided and streamlined support activities.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for an IT employee is $62.

• Credential-related offboarding effort decreases by 40%.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on the following:

• The volume of credential-related support requests prior to deployment.

• Existing efficiency of password and access-management processes.

• The degree of adoption and active use across employees.

• Employee turnover rates and offboarding volumes.

• IT labor costs and productivity recapture rates.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $190,000.

Improved Employee Productivity

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that employees frequently lost time locating passwords, accessing shared credentials, navigating non-SSO applications, waiting for credential-related support, and recovering access when credentials were unavailable. According to interviewees, broader deployment of 1Password Enterprise Password Manager reduced these workflow interruptions by making credentials easier to find, enter, and share securely. Multiple interviewees connected improved usability and automated credential access with fewer disruptions, lower friction, and faster access to the applications employees needed to perform their jobs. Interviewees emphasized that productivity improvements were most pronounced among employees who regularly interacted with multiple applications, shared credentials, or systems not integrated with single sign-on.

• The AI and security leader at a financial services organization reported that employees typically saved 30 to 40 seconds per credentialed login because they no longer needed to locate, remember, or manually enter passwords. The interviewee noted that employees routinely accessed multiple non-SSO applications each day — often two to four times daily — allowing these savings to accumulate over time. This interviewee explained: “With the browser extension and app, credentials are populated automatically. Employees don’t have to remember passwords, search for them, or risk locking themselves out.”

• The CIO at a professional services organization reported that approximately 20% of their employees were power users who regularly accessed a larger number of SaaS applications and shared credentials. This interviewee estimated that these employees saved about 5 hours per month through simplified credential management and reduced dependency on IT support. The same interviewee noted, “The user experience is as simple as the browser tools people were already familiar with but with enterprise-grade security behind it.”

• The CISO at an e-commerce organization reported that credential-related usability issues in the prior environment frequently prevented employees from accessing required applications and generated support requests. The interviewee noted that when those complaints disappeared after deployment, it represented a meaningful improvement in day-to-day employee workflows.

• Interviewees also described improvements in collaboration and authentication experiences. The CISO at a technology organization noted: “The passkey workflow is extremely clean and removes a lot of friction, especially on mobile devices.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• 2,700 nondeveloper employees use 1Password Enterprise Password Manager. Developers are accounted for in the next benefit section.

• Employees save an average of 55 minutes per month through more efficient credential access and management with 1Password

• Employees recapture 25% of the time saved as productive work.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for nondeveloper employees is $45.

• Productivity gains remain consistent throughout the three-year analysis period

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on the following:

• The number of employees routinely accessing non-SSO applications.

• The frequency of credential-related activities and password lookups.

• Existing availability of single sign-on and password-management tools.

• Employee adoption and active usage rates.

• Productivity recapture rates across employee populations.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $748,000.

Developer Productivity Lift

Evidence and data. Interviewees described credential access as a recurring source of friction that extended beyond password management and into the software development lifecycle. Manual requests, locally stored secrets, and credentials embedded in scripts could slow development work and introduce avoidable security concerns into CI/CD pipelines. Interviewees said 1Password Enterprise Password Manager allowed development teams to bring secure credential access into the workflows and tools they already used. Developers could access approved credentials through centralized vaults and command-line workflows, while applications and automation could retrieve secrets at runtime through Connect Server. Interviewees noted that this reduced the need to stop development work to locate, distribute, or manage credentials manually, helping teams create more streamlined CI/CD workflows and maintain development velocity without treating security as a separate step.

The resulting value extended beyond credential management itself. Interviewees described more streamlined CI/CD workflows, reduced dependency on manual credential distribution, improved adherence to secure development practices, and less disruption to development teams when managing secrets and application credentials. Several interviewees emphasized that developers could spend more time building and deploying software and less time managing access logistics. They also highlighted the growing importance of these capabilities as AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, and nonengineering application builders become more common, noting that controlled credential retrieval and secrets management will be increasingly important for securing these emerging environments. Interviewees provided the following evidence:

• The AI and security leader at a financial services organization reported that development teams used 1Password to programmatically retrieve credentials and secrets at runtime rather than managing them manually. The interviewee explained: “Developers can retrieve credentials dynamically at runtime without storing them locally, sending them through email, or embedding them into scripts. That improves both productivity and security.”

• The CIO at a professional services organization estimated that developers saved between 2 and 6 hours per month because credential access and distribution workflows became more automated, reducing time spent managing access to development resources and secrets.

• The CISO at an e-commerce organization reported that command-line integrations unlocked workflows that development teams could not perform with their organization’s previous password management solution. The interviewee explained: “Some teams use the CLI [command-line interface], which wasn’t available in our previous solution. For those users, 1Password unlocked functionality they simply didn’t have before.”

• The AI and security leader at a financial services organization explained that development teams integrated secrets retrieval directly into CI/CD workflows. The interviewee noted: “For CI/CD pipelines, teams use 1Password to fetch and inject secrets programmatically. They no longer have to hard-code credentials, which was both a development burden and a security concern.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• 300 developers regularly use 1Password Enterprise Password Manager for credential and secrets management activities.

• Developers save an average of 165 minutes per month on credential-related activities, including retrieving, managing, and accessing credentials required for development and automation workflows.

• Only 50% of the recovered time is recaptured for productive work, consistent with Forrester’s standard productivity recapture methodology.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a developer is $78.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on the following:

• The number of developers actively using credential and secrets management capabilities.

• Existing maturity of development workflows and automation processes.

• The frequency of credential-related activities performed by developers.

• Adoption rates of developer-focused capabilities such as runtime credential retrieval and workflow integrations.

• The degree of existing standardization across development, DevOps, and automation teams.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $864,000.

Reduced Credential-related Security Risk

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that limited visibility into credential usage, password reuse, credentials stored outside approved systems, and unmanaged access to third-party applications increased their exposure to credential-related security incidents. According to interviewees, deploying 1Password Enterprise Password Manager improved credential governance by centralizing password storage, increasing visibility into credential risks, strengthening access controls, and reducing reliance on insecure practices such as password reuse, plaintext credential storage, and unmanaged password sharing. Multiple interviewees also connected credential monitoring capabilities, breach detection, and stronger authentication practices with a measurable reduction in credential-related exposure. Rather than eliminating security incidents, interviewees said the solution improved their ability to identify, govern, and reduce credential risks across employees and third-party applications.

• The CIO at a professional services organization reported a 60% reduction in reused passwords and a 40% increase in MFA adoption across third-party accounts. The interviewee said these improvements increased visibility into credential security and reduced exposure within applications outside their organization’s SSO environment. The same interviewee reported that credential-related exposure events declined from approximately 12 per year to roughly one annually after gaining visibility into third-party credentials and strengthening governance processes. As the interviewee noted, “Watchtower alerted us to exposed credentials before they turned into a breach of our internal systems.”

• The AI and security leader at a financial services organization reported that prior to 1Password there was no formal process for managing standard-user credentials, leading employees to store passwords locally or in plaintext locations. The interviewee estimated that onboarding more than 20,000 employees onto 1Password substantially reduced organizational exposure to credential compromise and explained: “With more than 20,000 employees onboarded, we’ve significantly reduced the risk associated with passwords being stored outside a secure vault. Our goal is to extend that protection across the organization.”

• The CISO at a technology organization reported that credential hygiene improved because employees had a simpler way to generate and store strong, unique credentials. The interviewee explained, “The things you stop worrying about are weak passwords and password reuse because users have an easy way to generate strong, unique credentials.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:

• The organization faces an average annual breach exposure of nearly $2.1 million.⁴

• Seventy-seven percent of breach exposure is associated with external attacks, remote-environment attacks, and internal incidents that involve credentials.⁵

• Twenty-five percent of that credential-related exposure is addressable through enterprise password management.

• Improved credential governance, password hygiene, visibility, and access controls reduce addressable credential-related risk by 20%.

Risks. The scale of this benefit may vary from organization to organization based on the following:

• Existing credential governance and password management maturity.

• The percentage of applications operating outside single sign-on environments.

• The frequency of password reuse and unmanaged credential storage.

• Adoption rates and credential-management policy compliance.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $158,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees described additional benefits from 1Password Enterprise Password Manager that were valuable to their organizations but were not quantified for this study. These benefits extended beyond the operational and productivity improvements included in the financial analysis and contributed to broader security, governance, and employee outcomes.

• Increased readiness for AI, automation, machine identities, and democratized development. Interviewees anticipated that the growth of AI systems, automation platforms, low-code development, and nonhuman identities would create new credential-management requirements. As more employees, business users, and AI-powered systems build applications and workflows, their organizations may need a scalable way to securely manage, retrieve, distribute, and govern access beyond traditional workforce use cases. Interviewees discussed the potential to expand 1Password EPM beyond password management to support AI agents, automated workflows, and emerging development environments that depend on secure access to credentials and sensitive resources. As the AI and security leader at a financial services organization explained, “As we develop our agentic AI framework, 1Password is expected to play a role in securely managing and retrieving credentials for those environments.”

• Enhanced employee experience and security culture. Interviewees reported that 1Password EPM made secure credential management easier and more intuitive for employees, reducing frustration while improving access to business applications. Several interviewees noted that strong usability drove adoption and helped employees embrace secure practices without disrupting their day-to-day work.
  Beyond workplace productivity, interviewees also highlighted the value of extending password management capabilities into employees’ personal lives through EPM’s included personal and family accounts. They explained that these accounts helped employees build stronger security habits outside of work while increasing the perceived value of the investment as an employee benefit. The CISO at a technology organization told Forrester: “The personal and family accounts are a bigger value than most people realize. They help employees build better security habits beyond work.”

• Improved developer experience. Interviewees reported that 1Password Enterprise Password Manager reduced friction between security requirements and development workflows. They described improved developer satisfaction because secure credential and secrets management could be integrated into existing tools and processes rather than creating additional work. Several interviewees noted that the solution helped developer teams adopt secure practices without feeling constrained by security controls.

• Stronger compliance, audit, and regulatory support. Interviewees said that centralized credential management improved visibility, governance, and oversight of credential access across their organizations. This strengthened support for audit processes and compliance initiatives while reducing the effort required to validate access controls and credential ownership. A CISO at an e-commerce organization reported reducing the effort associated with quarterly compliance and audit activities by several hours.

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Enterprise Password Manager and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Just-in-time credential access and credential brokering. Several interviewees described continuing to mature their organizations’ identity and access strategies beyond traditional password management. Their organizations may expand the use of 1Password EPM to support more dynamic credential distribution, temporary access scenarios, secure runtime credential retrieval, and credential brokering across employees, applications, and automated workflows. As their organizations reduce reliance on static credentials, interviewees saw opportunities to extend 1Password’s role in securely delivering access when and where it is needed.

• Support for passwordless authentication strategies. Several interviewees described passwordless authentication as a strategic priority over the coming years. Their organizations may expand their use of 1Password EPM to support passkey management, distribution, and adoption as they reduce reliance on traditional passwords. Interviewees viewed passwordless authentication as an opportunity to further improve user experience while strengthening security controls. The AI and security leader at a financial services organization explained, “As we move toward a passwordless strategy, 1Password is one of the key technologies being considered to securely manage and distribute passkeys.”