A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Pipefy, August 2024
Organizations require automation to optimize their operations. Advances in digital process automation (DPA) software and low-code features can accelerate digital transformation. DPA software visually defines, continuously improves, and effectively manages process applications. By bridging the gap between people and system endpoints, DPA solutions help organizations streamline and automate processes, reduce manual effort, foster collaboration, accelerate agility, and drive productivity.
Pipefy is a low-code/no-code business process automation platform that supports businesses in automating and streamlining their processes, allowing users to create, implement, and customize workflows. Pipefy orchestrates simple and complex processes in a single platform, supporting different teams and departments.
Pipefy commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Pipefy.1 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Pipefy on their organizations.
Return on investment (ROI)
260%
Net present value (NPV)
$1.86M
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four representatives with experience using Pipefy. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization that is a global organization with headquarters in North America that generates $1 billion of annual revenue and has 5,000 employees.
Interviewees said that prior to using Pipefy, their organizations faced significant challenges in automating and optimizing tasks and processes. Their previous solutions were time-consuming and unable to adapt to specific needs, making it costly and challenging to cover the full range of desired automations. Moreover, scalability was an issue, leaving many critical processes to be performed manually or automated poorly across different business units. These limitations led to substantial manual efforts from business employees on repetitive tasks as well as significant IT development efforts on inefficient and localized automations.
After the investment in Pipefy, the interviewees’ organizations obtained a DPA platform that allowed them to automate a large array of manual tasks and complex processes across various departments and business lines. Key results from the investment include IT cost savings and avoidance, streamlined development, rapid automation deployment, and time efficiencies for business users impacted by the newly automated processes.
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $2.58 million over three years versus costs of $717,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.86 million and an ROI of 260%.
Time savings on automated tasks and processes
40%
“Pipefy is flexible and easy to integrate by IT and quick to adopt by end users. It also comes at a very competitive cost. It opens the door for our organization to embrace the concept of hyperautomation.”
Global portfolio product manager, professional services
Return on investment (ROI)
Benefits PV
Net present value (NPV)
Payback
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Pipefy.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Pipefy can have on an organization.
Interviewed Pipefy stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Pipefy.
Interviewed four representatives at organizations using Pipefy to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.
Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Pipefy and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Pipefy.
Pipefy reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.
Pipefy provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Consulting Team:
Alexis Ouelhadj
Ana Botelho
Role | Industry | Region | Revenue | Employees |
---|---|---|---|---|
Global portfolio product manager | Professional services | EMEA HQ; global operations | >$10 billion | >10,000 |
Digital transformation and innovation director | Professional services | Regional subsidiary; EMEA HQ; global operations | >$10 billion | >10,000 |
Head of application management | CPG | EMEA HQ; global operations | $1 billion to $10 billion | >10,000 |
Digital and IT process improvement coordinator | Industrial manufacturing | LATAM HQ; global operations | <$500 million | 5,000 to 10,000 |
Before adopting Pipefy, the interviewees noted their organizations faced challenges finding a dedicated, scalable, and modern process automation solution that could meet all their requirements. Many tasks were performed manually by line-of-business employees across departments, and the development of automated processes by the IT team was both time-consuming and expensive, resulting in lengthy rollout periods.
The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could:
“The main driver of choosing Pipefy is the ability to shift responsibilities to the business. With Pipefy, the business teams can start basic processes from scratch. We can be really agile, and they no longer need to reach out to IT to active or deactivate simple processes.”
Head of application management, CPG
“We brought Pipefy in as a flexible and fast solution to implement workflows and orchestrate decentralized processes.”
Digital transformation and innovation director, professional services
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. The composite organization is representative of the four interviewees, and it is used to present the aggregate financial analysis in the next section. The composite organization has the following characteristics:
Description of composite. The composite is an industry-agnostic organization with global operations that is headquartered in North America. The composite generates $1 billion in annual revenue with an employee base of 5,000 people.
Deployment characteristics. The composite deploys Pipefy for business processes automatization and orchestration across several teams and departments. IT develops 12 business processes per year with the solution, impacting directly a total of 180 line-of-business employees every year. It creates six automations per process per year on average. It has 80 Pipefy licenses in Year 1 that are applied to employees who can create processes and automations or work directly on the process resolution. Its number of licensed users increases in Years 2 and 3.
Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atr | Manual effort savings | $511,680 | $1,023,360 | $1,535,040 | $3,070,080 | $2,464,214 |
Btr | IT cost avoidance and savings | $34,391 | $48,235 | $62,079 | $144,705 | $117,769 |
Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $546,071 | $1,071,595 | $1,597,119 | $3,214,785 | $2,581,983 | |
Evidence and data. The interviewees mentioned that before the investment in Pipefy, their organizations faced scalability challenges to automate processes. As a result, line-of-business employees were burdened with manual tasks for simple and repetitive processes, such as sending emails, filling forms, and seeking approvals and updates, that could have otherwise been automated. Moreover, the solutions in place were outdated and lacked modern automation capabilities, requiring manual interventions even for automated tasks. The interviewees reported that with Pipefy, their organizations gained the ability to automate repeatable tasks and processes as well as more complex tasks with modern capabilities. As a result, they could streamline workflows, ensure consistency, and obtain efficient, scalable process automations across departments, resulting in what added up to significant time savings for business users in their day-to-day activities.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Risks. The improvement in manual efforts to create and track tasks will vary depending on:
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 20%) of $2.5 million.
40%
Reduction in manual workload with Pipefy’s automations
“With Pipefy, we can uncover new potential we couldn’t explore in the past.”
Head of application management, CPG
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A1 | Number of individual employees impacted by Pipefy | Interviews | 180 | 360 | 540 | |
A2 | Average number of daily manual tasks performed by employees automated by Pipefy | Interviews | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
A3 | Average time per manual task prior to Pipefy (minutes) | Interviews | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
A4 | Subtotal: Annual time spent per employee on automated manual tasks prior to Pipefy (minutes) | A2*A3*260 working days | 26,000 | 26,000 | 26,000 | |
A5 | Time reduction with Pipefy processes and automation | Interviews | 40% | 40% | 40% | |
A6 | Subtotal: Time savings per line of business employee with Pipefy (hours) | (A4*A5)/60 | 173 | 173 | 173 | |
A7 | Fully burdened hourly rate for line of business FTE | TEI standard | $41 | $41 | $41 | |
A8 | Manual efforts savings with Pipefy | A1*A6*A7 | $1,279,200 | $2,558,400 | $3,837,600 | |
A9 | Productivity recapture rate | Assumption | 50% | 50% | 50% | |
At | Manual effort savings | A8*A9 | $639,600 | $1,279,200 | $1,918,800 | |
Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
Atr | Manual effort savings (risk-adjusted) | $511,680 | $1,023,360 | $1,535,040 | ||
Three-year total: $3,070,080 | Three-year present value: $2,464,214 |
Evidence and data. Interviewees noted that Pipefy enabled their IT team to drastically reduce the effort required for developing solutions around processes and workflow automations. They highlighted Pipefy’s flexibility, integration capabilities, ease of use, and ability to replicate and configure existing processes and automations, thereby accelerating development. The low-code/no-code features of Pipefy also allowed IT to delegate some automation tasks to business users, reducing the IT team’s workload on low-complexity requests and enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks and projects, while also allowing their organizations to embrace the concept of citizen developers. Additionally, they retired some legacy solutions and manual workarounds that could no longer adapt to their automation needs.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Risks. The improvement in manual efforts to create and track tasks will vary depending on:
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 $118,000.
50%
Reduction in process automation development time
“With Pipefy, we are able to deploy much faster. Before, deployment required code release, so it often took a while before the users could put their hands on the solution. Now, we are able to clone workflows and configure them easily.”
Global portfolio product manager, professional services
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
B1 | Number of hours IT spends to create a single process prior to Pipefy | Composite | 20 | 20 | 20 |
B2 | Reduction in development time IT dedicates to create a process with Pipefy | Interviews | 50% | 50% | 50% |
B3 | Number of new processes created with Pipefy | Composite | 12 | 12 | 12 |
B4 | IT labor cost avoidance with Pipefy (hours) | B1*B2*B3 | 120 | 120 | 120 |
B5 | Fully burdened hourly rate for a developer | TEI standard | $88 | $88 | $88 |
B6 | Subtotal: Processes development cost avoidance with Pipefy | B4*B5 | $10,560 | $10,560 | $10,560 |
B7 | Number of yearly process automations built with Pipefy | Interviews | 72 | 144 | 216 |
B8 | Average time spent by IT per automation prior to Pipefy (hours) | Interviews | 4 | 4 | 4 |
B9 | Reduction in time per automation with Pipefy (hours) | Interviews | 2 | 2 | 2 |
B10 | Reduction in IT dependency with Pipefy for process automations | Interviews | 15% | 18% | 20% |
B11 | IT time savings on process automations (hours) | ((B7*B8)-(B7*B9))* 100-B10 | 166 | 331 | 497 |
B12 | Subtotal: IT labor avoidance on process automations | B11*B5 | $14,573 | $29,146 | $43,718 |
B13 | Yearly cost of retired solutions | Interviews | $3,068 | $3,068 | $3,068 |
B14 | Consulting fees from previous environment | Interviews | $8,000 | $8,000 | $8,000 |
B15 | Subtotal: Legacy systems retirement | B13+B14 | $11,068 | $11,068 | $11,068 |
Bt | IT cost avoidance and savings | B6+B12+B15 | $36,201 | $50,774 | $65,346 |
Risk adjustment | ↓5% | ||||
Btr | IT cost avoidance and savings (risk-adjusted) | $34,391 | $48,235 | $62,079 | |
Three-year total: $144,705 | Three-year present value: $117,769 |
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
“Before, it was taking sometimes one to two months for a simple rule to be deployed because of the production process and release window. With Pipefy, it has immensely reduced. This has literally transformed the business and how we operate it.”
Global portfolio product manager, professional services
“Pipefy gave us visibility and control over our processes. We now have a centralized view of all the information, and we can track it, audit it, and scale and amplify our international presence.”
Digital and IT process improvement coordinator, industrial manufacturing
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Pipefy and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including the ability to cover new business processes as well as the ability to reproduce some existing workflows and processes across different countries, regions, and departments within an organization. All the interviewees praised Pipefy’s flexibility and integration capabilities, ultimately enabling them with great potential to explore new opportunities.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
“[With Pipefy], the opportunities are endless. … There are so many business processes we can optimize; it’s just a matter of priorities.”
Head of application management, CPG
Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ctr | Implementation costs | $121,571 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $121,571 | $121,571 |
Dtr | Internal labor dedicated to solution management | $0 | $165,038 | $191,404 | $217,965 | $574,406 | $471,979 |
Etr | License costs | $0 | $40,320 | $50,400 | $60,480 | $151,200 | $123,747 |
Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $121,571 | $205,358 | $241,804 | $278,445 | $847,177 | $717,297 | |
Evidence and data. Interviewees described the implementation and deployment of Pipefy. The cost of implementation included the following:
Modeling and assumptions. To calculate this cost, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Risks. This cost will vary with:
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $122,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 | IT developers on implementation team (FTEs) | Interviews | 2 | ||||
C2 | Fully burdened weekly rate for an IT developer salary | TEI standard | $3,520 | ||||
C3 | Implementation duration (weeks) | Interviews | 8 | ||||
C4 | Subtotal: Implementation labor costs | C1*C2*C3 | $56,320 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
C5 | Line-of-business FTEs trained during implementation | Interviews | 15 | ||||
C6 | Training duration (weeks) | Interviews | 4 | ||||
C7 | Time share dedicated to training | Interviews | 50% | ||||
C8 | Fully burdened weekly rate for a line-of-business user | Interviews | $1,640 | ||||
C9 | Subtotal: Training costs | C5*C6*C7*C8 | $49,200 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
C10 | One-time onboarding fee | Interviews | $4,999 | ||||
Ct | Implementation costs | C4+C9+C10 | $110,519 | $0 | $0 | $0 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
Ctr | Implementation costs (risk-adjusted) | $121,571 | $0 | $0 | $0 | ||
Three-year total: $121,571 | Three-year present value: $121,571 |
Evidence and data. Interviewees mentioned that there were internal labor efforts associated with the integration, monitoring, relationship management, and use of Pipefy.
Modeling and assumptions. To calculate this cost, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Risks. This cost will vary with:
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $472,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D1 | IT project manager headcount for ongoing integration, monitoring, and relationship management (FTE) | Interviews | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
D2 | Fully burdened annual salary for an IT project manager | TEI standard | $126,419 | $126,419 | $126,419 | ||
D3 | Line-of-business managers monitoring the solution and processes (FTE) | Interviews | 0.25 | 0.5 | 0.75 | ||
D4 | Fully burdened annual salary for a line-of-business manager | TEI standard | $90,917 | $90,917 | $90,917 | ||
D5 | Number of hours spent by line-of-business users to create automation | B10*B7*2 hours | 22 | 52 | 86 | ||
D6 | Fully burdened hourly rate for a line-of-business users | A7 | $41 | $41 | $41 | ||
Dt | Internal labor dedicated to solution management | (D1*D2)+(D3*D4) +(D5*D6) | $150,034 | $174,003 | $198,150 | ||
Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
Dtr | Internal labor dedicated to solution management (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $165,038 | $191,404 | $217,965 | ||
Three-year total: $574,406 | Three-year present value: $471,979 |
Evidence and data. The interviewees described the existing licensing costs attributed to Pipefy as comprehensive and cost-effective. They mentioned that Pipefy’s licensing cost structure was based on the number of licensed users who could create and modify automations, processes, and rules.
Modeling and assumptions. To calculate this cost, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
Risks. This cost will vary with the number of licenses and respective fees to Pipefy.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 5%) of $124,000.
“Pipefy has a fair license model. Only the people who are actually doing the work are licensed; the people triggering a process are not subject to a license.”
Head of application management, CPG
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E1 | Number of licenses | Composite | 0 | 80 | 100 | 120 | |
E2 | Monthly price per license | Interviews | 0 | $40 | $40 | $40 | |
Et | License cost | E1*E2*12 months | $0 | $38,400 | $48,000 | $57,600 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Etr | License cost (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $40,320 | $50,400 | $60,480 | ||
Three-year total: $151,200 | Three-year present value: $123,747 |
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the composite organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total costs | ($121,571) | ($205,358) | ($241,804) | ($278,445) | ($847,177) | ($717,297) |
Total benefits | $0 | $546,071 | $1,071,595 | $1,597,119 | $3,214,785 | $2,581,983 |
Net benefits | ($121,571) | $340,713 | $829,791 | $1,318,674 | $2,367,608 | $1,864,686 |
ROI | 260% | |||||
Payback | <6 months | |||||
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire organization.
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”
The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PV of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.
The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made unless other projects have higher NPVs.
A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.
The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.
The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
Related Forrester Research
A Buyer’s Guide To Digital Process Automation, Forrester Research, Inc., February 9, 2024.
Use 10 Criteria To Choose Your Process Automation Platform, Forrester Research, Inc., June 2, 2023.
1 Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
Forrester provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders deliver key transformation outcomes. Fueled by our customer-obsessed research, Forrester’s seasoned consultants partner with leaders to execute on their priorities using a unique engagement model that tailors to diverse needs and ensures lasting impact. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting.
© Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.
Cookie Preferences
Accept Cookies
Decline
Close
This website uses cookies to deliver functionality and enhance your experience. GDPR requires that we obtain your consent before activating these cookies. Please accept the use of cookies or review your cookie settings now.
A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile
device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions (data inputs, website
navigation), so you don’t have to re-enter data when you come back to the site or browse from one page to
another.
Behavioral information collected by our web analytics vendor is used to
analyze data pertaining to visitor trends, plan website enhancements, and measure overall website
effectiveness. We may also use cookies or web beacons to help us offer you products, programs, or services
that may be of interest to you and to deliver relevant advertising. We may use third-party advertising
companies to help tailor website content to users or to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may also
employ cookies and web beacons to measure advertising effectiveness.
Please accept cookies and the collection of behavioral information to receive
full functionality and enhance your experience. If you decline cookies, some features of the website may not
function normally.
Please see our
Privacy Policy for more information.