Avoided Unplanned Network Downtime

Evidence and data. Prior to implementing Cisco Meraki , interviewees described frequent and often prolonged unplanned network outages that disrupted operations, created uncertainty, and led to real financial losses.

Troubleshooting was slow and disjointed with IT teams forced to react to issues popping up unpredictably across infrastructure, network, and internet service provider (ISP) layers. In some cases, the interviewees’ organizations experienced hours-long monthly downtime, with network performance dipping as low as 70% availability. These disruptions had cascading impacts on everything from supply chain logistics to retail sales.

• For instance, the head of IT shared that production could be offline for hours and disrupt their IT organization’s whole supply chain. These disruptions came at a high cost. The head of IT shared, “We estimated the impact at around $30,000 per hour — and that’s just for our logistics unit, not even including retail sales.”
  
  With Cisco Meraki, the interviewees reported improvements in uptime and faster issue resolution. Through centralized visibility, built-in LTE failover, and the ability to push firmware updates remotely without needing hands-on reboots or field visits, teams regained control and could proactively manage incidents before they snowballed. The same interviewee stated, “Since using Cisco Meraki, we’ve had 99.99% uptime and that 0.01% is usually just firmware updates —Meraki makes it seamless.”

• Interviewees noted that this improved continuity was particularly critical in industries that rely on real-time digital transactions. The director of IT engineering at a hospitality organization noted how Cisco Meraki’s smart failover from primary broadband to LTE kept their organization’s restaurant operations running despite unpredictable outages: “If a circuit goes down, Cisco Meraki automatically switches us to LTE. That lets us stay online and continue taking digital orders through apps and delivery services,” he explained. “Before, we were completely at the mercy of the carrier. Downtime could last from an hour to days depending on the issue.”

• While not quantified, interviewees stated that even planned outages, such as firmware upgrades or configuration changes, became less disruptive. The senior network engineer at a retail organization shared that Cisco Meraki helped their organization cut its upgrade cycles from approximately 12 hours per cluster down to just 2 hours, freeing up engineering time for more strategic work. “It means we can now spend time on initiatives that increase stability or speed up project delivery,” said the interviewee.

• Beyond operational improvements, confidence in network reliability also reshaped how the interviewees’ organizations designed their environments. The senior network engineer at a retail organization described how increased wireless reliability meant they could reduce the number of wired connections per site from dozens to just two: “Previously, people insisted on wired drops because they didn’t trust wireless. Now, that’s changed.”

• Interviewees stated that the ability of Cisco Meraki to reduce both the frequency and severity of unplanned downtime allowed their organizations to maintain critical business continuity, avoid costly disruptions, and retain revenue.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• In the prior state, the composite organization experienced 60 hours of unplanned downtime annually due to Wi-Fi network issues.

• Based on 3,500 hours of annual operations (350 days, 10 hours per day), the composite organization generates $285,714 in revenue per hour.

• Not all revenue-generating activities are equally impacted by network downtime. As the composite organization typically operates across multiple sales and service channels — some of which may continue functioning during an outage — only a portion of total hourly revenue is at risk during network disruptions. As such, 40% of the composite organization’s total hourly revenue is directly impacted by unplanned network downtime. This percentage reflects the business functions that are heavily reliant on real-time network connectivity, such as digital transactions, point-of-sale systems, and customer-facing services.

• With Cisco Meraki, the composite reduced unplanned network downtime by 95%.

• The composite organization’s operating margin is 12%.

Risks. Profit gains from avoided unplanned network downtime may vary depending on the following:

• The number of network downtime hours per year in the prior state. This will vary depending on the type of legacy Wi-Fi networking solution and the relative sophistication of the network operations (NetOps) team.

• The organization’s annual revenue and the percentage of revenue affected by downtime.

• The organization’s operating margin.

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 $1.7 million.

Savings On Device Upgrades

Evidence and data. Prior to implementing Cisco Merakii), interviewees noted firmware upgrades were a time-consuming and labor-intensive process that often required IT teams to manually access each individual device, upload firmware files, initiate upgrades, and monitor progress to ensure success. This process typically took an hour per device depending on connection speed and required staff to remain onsite or on-call during off hours to oversee updates. For interviewees’ organizations that had dozens — or even thousands — of devices, this translated to significant downtime and lost productivity.

Interviewees stated that Cisco Meraki simplified the firmware upgrade process. Their organizations’ updates were managed centrally through the cloud-managed dashboard, where IT teams could schedule firmware pushes in batches during off-peak hours. Devices automatically downloaded and installed the latest version, reducing the need for hands-on intervention. If an issue occurred, interviewees noted that the devices were designed to revert to the last known good firmware, minimizing user disruption.

• The director of IT engineering in a hospitality organization explained how this automation was transformative for their organization: “The firmware upgrade process is so simple with Cisco Meraki, it’s been a game-changer and one of the top three benefits we’ve seen from the solution. Before, someone had to manually do it and babysit the process. Now, I just schedule it and walk away.” Each of this interviewee’s organization’s devices were updated three to four times a year, resulting in meaningful operational savings.

• Interviewees at a financial services organization echoed this sentiment, noting that even with over 12,000 Cisco cloud-managed networking devices, upgrades were completed in a week or two due to centralized templates and cloud-based management.

• Similarly, the senior network engineer at a retail organization emphasized that scheduled firmware pushes could run automatically overnight. The interviewee said: “Previously, someone would’ve had to upgrade the controller and validate each access point manually. Now, we push the update, go to bed, and it’s done by morning.”

• The interviewees also reported that the Cisco Meraki cloud-first architecture not only streamlined the upgrade process for their organizations but also reduced the operational burden on their IT teams. This enabled their organizations to reallocate time and talent toward more strategic initiatives.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• The composite organization upgrades all 1,600 of its Cisco cloud-managed networking devices four times per year.

• It took the composite organization 1 hour to upgrade a device prior to implementing Cisco Meraki.

• After implementing Cisco Meraki, it reduces the time spent on device upgrades by 90%.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for a network/IT engineer full-time employee (FTE) is $65.

Risks. Savings on device upgrades may vary depending on the following:

• The number of physical hardware devices at the organization.

• The time spent on device upgrades and the number of upgrades per year in the prior environment.

• The salary of affected FTEs.

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 $838,000.

Savings On Ongoing Configurations

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported substantial time and cost savings when managing ongoing configuration changes and firmware upgrades through the centralized CiscoMeraki platform. In the interviewees’ organizations’ legacy environments, configuration changes — such as modifying VLANs, firewall rules, SSIDs, or access policies — were manual, repetitive, and required deep technical expertise. These tasks had to be performed on a device-by-device basis, often using CLI or locally hosted management software, which made consistency and efficiency difficult to maintain at scale.

Beyond the time required, interviewees emphasized that this manual effort introduced significant risk: Small errors in configuration could lead to widespread outages, prolonged troubleshooting, or devices arriving onsite with incorrect settings — issues that one IT leader described as “bricking the equipment.” The lack of centralized visibility and automation in these environments not only slowed operations but also increased the likelihood of costly missteps.

Interviewees noted that centralized configuration capabilities from Cisco Meraki enabled faster, more accurate updates across distributed networks, while allowing their organizations to shift responsibility for these tasks from senior engineers to lower-cost support roles, delivering both operational and financial efficiency.

• The director of IT engineering at a hospitality organization noted that even small environment-wide changes, such as updating firewall rules or URL allow lists, required manual updates across up to 1,200 devices. They said: “That’s 5 minutes per device — around 100 hours total. Now, I just make one change to the template, and it pushes it to all restaurants. It’s fantastic.”

• The senior network engineer at a retail organization noted that their configuration changes once involved writing site-specific code and copying it across locations, introducing potential human error and taking days to complete. The interviewee said: “Maybe it’s a few days of someone’s week. Now, we write it once, validate it in the lab, and push it to production via the API — start to finish in under an hour.”

• The product manager for a financial services organization explained that applying configuration updates across 1,600 sites used to be a weeks-long process, stating: “Before, we had to send firmware to each switch manually. Now, one person tests, schedules the upgrade, and it’s done in a week.”

• The head of IT at another retail organization emphasized how Cisco Meraki helped eliminate the need for high-cost technical labor during configuration: “In our previous environment, configuration could take one to two full days, even with an experienced technician. Now we just use templates. A first-tier support person or even an electrician can plug in the device and the configuration is pulled automatically from the dashboard.”

• The interviewees also noted that Cisco Meraki reduced the frequency of manual configuration errors through automation, improved standardization across sites, and allowed senior IT staff to reallocate their time to higher-value work. The architect lead at a financial services organization explained: “There’s no error now. Each device pulls the correct configuration from the template automatically. I don’t even have to touch it.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• The composite organization performs one to two configuration changes per week per device. As such, the model assumes 1.5 configuration changes on average per device.

• A network/IT engineer spent 5 minutes on a configuration change per device prior to implementing Cisco Meraki.

• Once Cisco Meraki is implemented, the time spent per configuration change reduces by 90%.

• The organization is also able to reallocate this task to a network technician. The fully burdened hourly rate for a network technician is $24.

Risks. Savings on ongoing configurations may vary depending on the following:

• The number of physical hardware devices at the organization.

• The time spent on device configurations and the number of configurations per year in the prior environment.

• The salary of affected FTEs.

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 $1.5 million.

Savings From Reduced Network Ticket Support

Evidence and data. Interviewees across all four organizations reported that the Cisco Meraki platform reduced their network support burdens — most notably through a decrease in the number of tickets, faster resolution times, and fewer technician dispatches to remote locations. The interviewees noted these outcomes were made possible through the Cisco Meraki dashboard’s diagnostic capabilities, real-time visibility, and centralized remote management tools.

• In the interviewees’ organizations’ legacy environments, support teams were frequently operating blind. Without centralized visibility, identifying whether an issue was network-related often required hours of manual troubleshooting or a technician visit. The director of IT at a hospitality organization stated, “One of the biggest issues we had was ‘how do I troubleshoot something I can’t see?’” With unmanaged switches and daisy-chained hardware, the interviewees’ teams would oftentimes send third-party techs onsite, which would end up costing hundreds of dollars each visit.
  
  Cisco Meraki eliminated the need for many of those site visits by centralizing diagnostics in the cloud dashboard. Interviewees noted IT teams could now use built-in tools like remote packet capture, historical event logs, and real-time client monitoring to identify and resolve issues from anywhere. The director of IT noted: “Now I just log on, see which port someone is plugged into, and tell them to move the cable. Magic starts working. No need to send anyone out.”

• The senior networking engineer noted the shift to Cisco Meraki at their retail organization changed both the internal support load and user trust. They explained: “Pre-Cisco Meraki, it could take a couple of days just to figure out what was going on. Now it’s under an hour. We can show users exactly what’s happening and that builds confidence that if it’s a network issue, we’ll catch it — if not, we can prove it quickly.” They added that escalations to the networking team dropped from daily to a handful each month.

• The head of IT reported that their retail organization experienced a dramatic drop in ticket volume overall. They said, “As of this year, across all our locations, we’ve had only 13 network-related tickets. That is all due to comprehensive visibility and reliability from Cisco Meraki, which allows us to quickly identify whether a problem stems from coverage, client roaming behavior, or physical hardware — all from the dashboard.”

• Several interviewees also said their organizations avoided additional staffing as their environment grew. The head of IT stated, “We’ve expanded our network footprint, but we haven’t added engineers.”

By reducing ticket volume, accelerating root-cause identification, and removing the need for most onsite troubleshooting, interviewees stated that Cisco Meraki cloud-managed networking enabled leaner, more agile support operations and delivered measurable cost savings across the board.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• In the prior state, the composite organization encountered 40 network-related IT tickets per week for the 50 weeks of operations (2,000 per year).

• It took a network IT engineer an average of 2 hours to resolve each ticket in the prior state. This average is influenced by the time taken to resolve tickets that require a field visit.

• For 40% of these tickets, a technician had to be sent onsite to address the network issue. The cost of a technician trip equates to $500.

• With the improved visibility and enhanced diagnostic capabilities of Cisco Meraki, the composite organization reduces the number of network tickets by 80% and a network IT engineer resolves the remaining tickets 80% faster.

• By being able to resolve issues from anywhere, the composite organization reduces the need to send a technician onsite by 75%.

Risks. Savings from reduced network ticket support may vary depending on the following:

• The number of network-related IT tickets per year in the prior environment.

• The time required to investigate and remediate network-related IT tickets in the prior environment.

• The number of tickets for which a technician had to be sent onsite and the cost per technician trip.

• The salary of affected FTEs.

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 $1.5 million.

End-User Time Savings From Reduced Network Issues

Evidence and data. Interviewees’ organizations saw fewer disruptions to end-user productivity when using Cisco Meraki, primarily due to a reduced volume of network-related support tickets. Interviewees shared that prior to CiscoMeraki, network issues — ranging from poor connectivity to intermittent application access — frequently required end users to stop working, document the issue, and submit a ticket. During that time, not only was their own productivity impacted, but coworkers also often experienced the same issue before a resolution was in place.

With Cisco Meraki, interviewees said their IT teams proactively monitored network performance and resolved many issues before end users were even aware of them. Real-time diagnostics across access points, switches, and security appliances — viewable in the Cisco Meraki dashboard — enabled rapid root-cause detection. Additionally, automated alerts, anomaly detection, and built-in assurance tools helped the interviewees’ organizations’ IT teams respond faster and more precisely, reducing the need for manual intervention. These AI-powered capabilities minimized downtime, reduced ticket volumes, and improved overall user experience, particularly in environments with limited IT staff.

The senior networking engineer at a retail organization noted visibility into user experiences helped shift the internal culture from reactive support to proactive assurance. The interviewee said, “We don’t get pinged nearly as often anymore because we see things in the dashboard before they become an issue.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes the following:

• The number of tickets that are automatically or expediently identified and resolved with the help of Cisco Meraki is 1,600 tickets.

• In the prior state, end users spent an average of 45 minutes dealing with reporting, waiting for, and incorporating fixes related to these tickets.

• Fifteen end users are impacted by a given IT ticket.

• The average fully burdened hourly rate for a business user FTE is $40.

Risks. End-user time savings from reduced network issues may vary depending on the following:

• The number of network-related IT tickets per year in the prior state.

• The time end users spend dealing with the logistics and resolution of network-related tickets.

• The number of users affected by the issue being reported.

• The salary of affected FTEs.

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 $1.7 million.

Cost Savings From Retiring Legacy Solutions

Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that implementing Cisco Meraki allowed their organizations to retire multiple legacy networking solutions, resulting in direct cost savings from hardware, licensing, and third-party service fees. While the dollar amounts varied, all interviewees highlighted the financial and operational efficiencies gained by consolidating tools into the Cisco Meraki dashboard.

• The interviewees from a financial services organization shared that prior to Cisco Meraki, they were paying for both dedicated multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) connections and individual site changes managed by a third party. The architect lead stated: “We paid each intervention on each site for each switch. Now we’re just paying for one change but it modifies thousands of devices at the same time.” With the switch to internet-based connectivity and SD-WAN policies enabled through Cisco Meraki, they were able to decommission their MPLS and internet protocol (IP) VPNs, reducing monthly connectivity costs by over two-thirds, from roughly $2,000 per site to just a few hundred dollars. “Way less expensive and way more bandwidth,” added the financial analyst.

• The head of IT at a retail organization added that when their organization migrated to Cisco Meraki, no additional third-party tools were required to support the deployment, stating, “It’s just Cisco Meraki.” The interviewee noted this further eliminated the need for bolt-on management or monitoring tools.

• Interviewees also noted that consolidating multiple tools and retiring outdated hardware allowed their organizations to realize both hard savings and operational efficiencies. With fewer contracts to maintain, fewer systems to manage, and lower ongoing support costs, Cisco Meraki enabled a simplified and more cost-effective network infrastructure.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester assumes it shuts down its previous network management and monitoring systems when it rolls out the Cisco Meraki solution.

Risks. Cost savings from retiring legacy solutions may vary depending on the following:

• The type of legacy tools and systems used to manage the network.

• The organization’s timeline for its adoption of the Cisco Meraki solution and its commitment to transitioning away from previous systems.

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 $134,000.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved security. Prior to implementing Cisco Meraki, the interviewees’ organizations frequently struggled with fragmented or manual approaches to network security. These environments often relied on multiple point solutions, such as separate routers, firewalls, and filtering systems, that required extensive manual configuration and offered limited scalability. Security policies were not applied uniformly across locations, leading to inconsistencies and potential vulnerabilities.
  
  Interviewees noted Cisco Meraki helped their organizations improve their security posture through centralized policy management, built-in threat detection, and seamless integration with broader security tools like Cisco Umbrella and Cisco ISE. The director of IT engineering at a hospitality organization shared: “I can do my web filtering. I can do my IDS [intrusion detection system] and IPS [intrusion protection system]. I need to make a change, and it goes — I don’t have to log on to each device.” This not only reduced the time spent managing security configurations for the interviewees’ organizations, but it also reduced the risk of misconfigurations and noncompliant local changes.
  
  Interviewees noted their organizations also benefited from faster threat mitigation. With automated firmware updates, cryptographic firmware signing, and mutually authenticated device-cloud communication, Cisco Meraki delivered security without burdening the interviewees’ organizations’ teams with operational overhead.
  
  These security enhancements could also help reduce the risk of costly breaches. According to Forrester’s Security Survey, 2024, Security decision-makers reported that, on average, their organization incurred $2.7 million in total cumulative costs for all the breaches they experienced in the past 12 months.³ Furthermore, breach-related costs have been steadily rising, driven by more complex attack surfaces and the increasing cost of response and recovery. By improving policy consistency, automating firmware security, and enabling proactive threat detection, Cisco Meraki helped the interviewees’ organizations mitigate these risks while maintaining agility at scale.

• AI-driven network optimization and policy consistency. Interviewees reported that AI-powered capabilities — such as AI-radio resource management (AI-RRM), Intelligent Capture, AI Packet Analyzer, and anomaly detection — proactively surfaced unusual behavior and optimized wireless performance before it became a business disruption. Meanwhile, templates and configuration automation from the Cisco Meraki dashboard ensured that consistent policies and segmentation rules were applied universally, not manually reconstructed site by site.
  
  For many interviewees’ organizations, Cisco Meraki consolidated security capabilities into a single appliance. As the architect lead at a financial services organization noted, “We probably had to deploy a router, firewall, maybe another system. … Now, it’s concentrated in one box.” This consolidation resulted in improved visibility, easier management, and fewer points of failure.

• Enhanced governance. The Cisco Meraki dashboard provided the interviewees’ organizations with a single pane of glass for managing devices, configurations, lifecycle status, and user access across sites. This visibility enabled IT teams to enforce consistent segmentation, track end-of-life hardware, quickly verify that device settings are aligned with internal policies or regulatory expectations, and essentially standardize governance across thousands of devices. The financial analyst at a financial services organization said: “The inventory is clear. … We know how many devices we have and when the software or hardware is end-of-life.”
  
  Another interviewee stated their organization used policy controls in the Cisco Meraki dashboard to implement security-driven segmentation across its network, isolating sensitive systems, such as point-of-sale terminals, from less critical infrastructure. The director of IT engineering stated: “We’re able to segment our networks so one set of computers can’t talk to another. If one segment gets compromised, it can’t take down the rest of the business.”
  
  The senior network engineer noted their retail organization highlighted how improved consistency and policy enforcement helped in strategic contexts like negotiating cybersecurity insurance. The interviewee shared: “We’ve been able to demonstrate how we consistently deploy, keep up on best practices, and address vulnerabilities. That puts us in a stronger position when we go to negotiate rates. More insurers are willing to work with us.”

Flexibility

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

• Increased analytics resulting in better business decisions. Interviewees noted that using the Cisco Meraki platform’s extensibility through APIs, turnkey applications, and integrated analytics tools unlocked new business outcomes and more data-driven decision-making. In many cases, these capabilities allowed small or resource-constrained IT teams to extend the value of their network infrastructure beyond traditional connectivity.
  
  The head of IT at a retail organization reported that Cisco cloud-managed MV smart cameras became a foundation for retail intelligence. By integrating the cameras with EveryAngle, a Cisco Networking App Marketplace partner, the interviewee’s organization was able to obtain precise foot traffic and customer demographic data. Previously, their legacy system would overcount visitors, registering employees or customers reentering multiple times. With EveryAngle’s analytics layered on the Cisco Meraki platform, they could train the system to exclude such noise. The head of IT said: “Now we’re only focusing on actual paying customers coming into the store. That number is what we can base our retail decisions on — whether a location is successful or not.”

The interviewees from a financial services organization reported that telemetry data from Cisco cloud-managed wireless and switching infrastructure helped surface underused wired ports, prompting potential decommissioning of redundant ethernet switches. The financial analyst explained: “The data helped us see how many people were using the ethernet cables. We haven’t acted on it yet, but it’s something we wouldn’t have been able to detect with the previous infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, the director of IT engineering said their hospitality organization used robust Cisco Networking APIs to develop an internal provisioning portal. This enabled zero-touch provisioning and lifecycle management for restaurant locations without relying on third-party platforms. The interviewee said: “When a new restaurant opens, we hit ‘go’ in our portal and it provisions the entire network in the Cisco Meraki dashboard automatically. We also use it to decommission locations, which helps us stay clean and lean.”

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).