Improved Security And IT Operations Efficiency

Evidence and data. Interviewees and survey respondents reported that their organizations experienced a strengthened security posture after implementing Education Plus, pointing to features such as centralized visibility and controls, proactive threat detection and remediation tools, advanced device and endpoint management, AI‑powered threat detection, actionable analytics and insights, Zero Trust access controls, and DLP tools. These capabilities reduced exposure to spam, phishing, malware, and ransomware, and decreased the time required to detect, investigate, and respond to threats. As a result, Education Plus made their environments easier to manage. Interviewees and most survey respondents saw improvements in IT efficiency, with survey respondents estimating an average time savings of 15% across their IT teams due to Education Plus.⁹

• The cloud applications engineer noted that Education Plus improved their organization’s security and made their engineers more efficient: “For example, we were able to audit every external file share across 60 million files and identify those with PII set to public. Education Plus let us use custom DLP detectors to label those files as confidential and block external sharing attempts.”

• Interviewees emphasized Education Plus’s centralized visibility and control as a key security benefit. The technology advisor said, “[With Education Plus], we can run so many security reports.” The cloud applications engineer added: “Being able to build custom dashboards [in Education Plus] is incredibly helpful. I really appreciate the ability to have different metrics as graphs and clicking on one of those to launch the investigation tool and perform actions directly in the investigation tool. I probably use that once a day.”

• Survey respondents reported reductions in malicious activity with Education Plus, including average decreases in spam of 56%, phishing of 42%, malware of 30%, and ransomware of 21%.¹⁰ The cloud applications engineer added, “There’s probably a 70% decrease in spam just due to the [Education Plus] tools and a 50% decrease in the labor that goes into investigating phishing attacks.”

• Survey respondents also reported that Education Plus strengthened their organizations’ security operations by improving the efficiency of threat‑management workflows. On average, survey respondents reported that Education Plus decreased time to detect threats by 36%, time to investigate by 26%, and time to respond by 16%.¹¹

• Interviewees also emphasized the importance of deploying AI responsibly and at scale in K-12 environments and credited Google with enabling them to do so. The head of digital said: “[Google’s work to make AI safe and compliant for student use] is what enabled us to create a paper [promoting the use of Gemini for Education and NotebookLM] for our leadership team and an opt-in option for schools. There are other suppliers that can’t offer the assurances needed. We felt an urgency and moral imperative to provide safe access to our students [so they could] learn about how to use these tools safely.”

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

• There are 30 employees on the IT team.

• Due to Education Plus, these 30 IT employees see time savings of 15% on average.

• The fully burdened annual salary for IT employees is $125,000.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Risks. The benefit of improved security and IT operations efficiency will vary based on:

• The tools and solutions used prior to Education Plus.

• The extent to which the organization leverages the security features of Education Plus.

• The size and skill set of the IT team.

• The average annual fully burdened salary of an IT team employee.

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 $629,000.

Security Tools And Storage Cost Savings

Evidence and data. Given the expanded security controls available with Education Plus, interviewees and survey respondents reported direct cost savings from consolidating, retiring, or avoiding third‑party security tools, such as those used to protect content and documentation, secure communications, manage identity and access, defend against malware and ransomware, filter spam, and enforce DLP.

• Interviewees described Education Plus as a cost-effective means to obtain the security tooling they needed, eliminating the need to procure separate single-use solutions. A survey respondent who served as an IT and security decision-maker reported, “[The primary quantifiable benefit of Education Plus is that] security expenses shrink due to the built-in protection tools.”

• Interviewees and survey respondents also noted the additional storage available with Education Plus, and 68% of survey respondents identified it as a benefit.¹² The cloud applications engineer explained: “Because of the additional storage for each user account [with Education Plus], we’ve had no storage problems. It’s nice to not have to worry about storage being full, and there’s absolutely a cost savings from not having to get storage from elsewhere.” The teaching and learning lead added: “Storage is certainly not a concern [with Education Plus]. We have enough for our needs.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews and survey, Forrester assumes the composite organization consolidates or retires security and storage solutions, saving $240,000 annually.

Risks. The benefit of security tools and storage cost savings will vary based on:

• The cost of legacy solutions and how quickly they are consolidated or retired.

• The extent to which the organization fully leverages Education Plus’s built‑in security and storage capabilities to replace or avoid third‑party tools.

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 $537,000.

Collaboration And Learning Tools Cost Savings

Evidence and data. At interviewees’ and survey respondents’ organizations, Education Plus served as a comprehensive platform for communication and collaboration that enabled cost savings from retiring or consolidating legacy tools, such as those used for learning and collaboration, translation and accessibility, e-signature, videoconferencing, AI assistance, and plagiarism detection.

• Education Plus served as the primary collaboration platform at interviewees’ organizations, eliminating the need for alternatives. The head of digital remarked, “There’s a benefit of moving to Education Plus where suddenly your entire organization is connected.”

• The cloud applications engineer reported that having originality reports, practice sets, AI tools, and translation capabilities all built into Education Plus eliminated the need to purchase additional tools for those functions and resulted in measurable cost avoidance. A survey respondent who served as an information security decision-maker added, “Lower software expenses by consolidating multiple tools [is a primary benefit of Education Plus].”

• The head of digital highlighted the value of added Classroom capabilities with Education Plus, stating, “The [advanced teaching and learning tools in] Classroom that we get through Education Plus like Read Along are a really powerful way to get our teachers access to these tools at scale, across more than a thousand classrooms.” The teaching and learning lead said, “My colleagues love Read Along and think it’s sensational.”

• Interviewees reported that Meet met their organizations’ videoconferencing needs. They spoke highly of the additional features included with Education Plus, including breakout rooms, polls, attendance tracking, noise cancellation, and the support of larger meeting sizes.

• The technology advisor said: “The possibility to record in Meet and have a large number of participants is important. Meet is intuitive and easier to use than alternatives — we hear this a lot.” The teaching and learning lead added: “Breakout rooms are used a lot. Meet is certainly one of the tools that’s used extensively.”

Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews and survey, Forrester assumes the composite organization consolidates or retires collaboration and learning solutions, saving $200,000 annually.

Risks. The benefit of collaboration and learning tool cost savings will vary based on:

• The cost of legacy solutions and how quickly they are consolidated or retired.

• The extent to which the organization fully leverages Education Plus to replace or avoid third‑party tools.

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 $448,000.

AI-Augmented Assistance For Nonteaching Staff

Evidence and data. Interviewees and survey respondents reported that administration and nonteaching staff benefited from Education Plus, as it allowed them to communicate and collaborate in real time and use Gemini and NotebookLM to improve the efficiency and quality of their work. Interviewees said Education Plus enabled their organizations to securely and effectively use AI tools. Respondents reported that nonteaching employees leveraging Gemini and NotebookLM saved more than 3 hours per week on average.¹³ Nonteaching employees used Gemini and NotebookLM to automate administrative tasks, streamline data analysis and reporting, create content, and summarize documents. Interviewees emphasized that secure AI was critical for their organizations, and that Education Plus enabled them to adopt these tools across the school system with the security, data privacy protections, and control over organizational data they required.

• Survey respondents highlighted a wide range of Gemini use cases across administrative and support roles, including classifying incoming support tickets to speed up response times, structuring compliance processes, assisting with staff orientation and training, and streamlining data retrieval, analysis, and reporting.

• Beyond time savings, interviewees said Gemini improved employee decision‑making and creativity. The teaching and learning lead noted, “Gemini is used for creativity and as a springboard to develop new ways of thinking and doing.”

• Interviewees described Gemini as an assistant that helped administrators and staff improve the quality of their work and operate with greater confidence. The cloud applications engineer added: “Our leadership uses Gemini before sending out announcements and statements to make sure they’re complete and framed properly.” Moreover, Gemini integrated with apps like Docs, Slides, Classroom, Forms, and Vids for greater availability and ease of use.

• Interviewees said staff leveraged NotebookLM to quickly and accurately understand and act on complex information in a single, trusted environment. Interviewees and survey respondents highlighted NotebookLM use cases such as managing institutional reports more effectively, accelerating the completion of compliance and accreditation processes, identifying key dates and scheduling approaches, and providing stakeholders with more coherent and complete case files.

• A survey respondent who served as an IT decision-maker said, “NotebookLM empowers our administrators to make faster, research-driven decisions.” Another survey respondent in school leadership added, “Lower-level staff now access policies without confusion [given NotebookLM].”

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

• In Year 1, there are 100 nonteaching employees who are power users of the AI capabilities in Education Plus. This expands to 150 power users in Year 2 and 200 power users in Year 3.

• Due to AI capabilities in Education Plus (e.g., Gemini, NotebookLM, and Gemini in Docs, Slides, Classroom, Vids, and Forms), these employees save 3 hours per week on average.

• The fully burdened hourly rate for nonteaching employees is $30.

• The productivity recapture rate for employees is 50%. This means employees convert 50% of their saved time into productive time.

Risks. The benefit of AI-augmented assistance for nonteaching staff will vary based on:

• The extent of Gemini and NotebookLM adoption.

• The tools and AI capabilities available to employees prior to the adoption of Education Plus.

• The number of nonteaching employees and their fully burdened hourly salary.

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 $739,000.

Benefits To Teachers And Students

Interviewees and survey respondents mentioned the following benefits to teachers and students, though they are not quantified in the ROI analysis:

• Enhanced teacher experience. Interviewees and 76% of survey respondents said that Education Plus enhanced teacher productivity, allowing teachers at their organizations to work efficiently and effectively with collaboration, productivity, and AI tools across the Education Plus suite.¹⁴ Interviewees and survey respondents emphasized the value of the AI tools in Education Plus, and survey respondents reported average time savings of over 4 hours per week for teachers due to Gemini and NotebookLM.¹⁵ Teachers used Gemini and NotebookLM to reduce administrative work, accelerate the preparation of lessons and classroom materials, support day‑to‑day planning, and close knowledge gaps.

  • Survey respondents reported robust adoption of AI tools among teachers, with an average of 59% using Gemini or NotebookLM daily or weekly.¹⁶
  • Interviewees emphasized that Gemini provided time savings for overworked teachers. The cloud applications engineer said: “Gemini can easily make a teacher 25% more productive. Gemini jump starts creating templates, generating ideas, and making concepts more interesting to students.”
  • Survey respondents further reported that Gemini improved clarity, made complex topics easier to approach, and created lesson plans and rubrics to support teachers.
  • Interviewees emphasized that AI tools augmented, rather than replaced, teacher ability. Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents said Gemini and NotebookLM moderately or significantly empowered teachers.¹⁷

• Survey respondents said NotebookLM helped teachers reduce the time spent finding reference materials, improve curriculum review workflows, and devote more attention to student engagement.

• The cloud applications engineer elaborated: “Teachers create notebooks in NotebookLM to curate content right in there and share with their entire class. They don’t need to go to the copy center or send a bunch of links. They can fire away from there — add sources, remove them, [and] manipulate them in any way they want. That gets them a long way toward teaching them. Education Plus has given us a lot of better tools.”

• Interviewees also noted that Gemini helped teachers re-level content for differing student needs. The cloud applications engineer said: “Using Gemini and NotebookLM is a huge win. It gives teachers the ability to differentiate assignments and create curriculum that appeals to different learning styles, backgrounds, and demographics.”

• The teaching and learning lead added: “We always talk about meeting students at their point of need, and we are finally actually giving teachers tools that will enable them to do that. ... We hear stories about how [Gemini and NotebookLM] spark teacher imagination and creativity.”

• Interviewees also noted that Education Plus helped reduce teacher burnout. The teaching and learning lead said: “NotebookLM and Gemini help with the workload reduction piece. It’s the ability to have a little assistant helping you.”

• Interviewees also emphasized the value of Education Plus’s broader teaching tools. The head of digital said, “We’re at scale with Classroom, so all teachers can share content, post assignments, and keep students oriented through course material.”

• Improved student learning. Interviewees and survey respondents reported that Education Plus provided students with clearer and easier to access learning resources, supported comprehension of challenging material, and gave teachers tools to tailor instruction to diverse learning needs. This helped strengthen classroom learning and the broader student learning experience. Seventy‑six percent of survey respondents said Education Plus enhanced the student learning experience, and 72% said Gemini and NotebookLM moderately or significantly improved student outcomes.¹⁸

  • Interviewees highlighted Education Plus tools that support classroom learning, such as originality reports and Read Along. The head of digital said: “We’re starting to really see [unlimited] originality reports be beneficial, particularly in the era of AI. Read Along is absolutely fantastic, particularly for our primary schools but also in our secondary schools where students need extra support with reading. It’s a really powerful tool.”
  • The cloud applications engineer added: “Read Along is huge. We use that a ton, especially for our English language learners and special education students. Read Along and translation are probably the most heavily used tools on the student end.”
  • Interviewees also emphasized the importance of providing students with responsible, age‑appropriate access to AI and noted that Google is one of the few vendors offering tools suitable for their students. The teaching and learning lead said: “AI is a bit like the advent of the internet all over again, and we’re aspirational about providing access to students. We need to incorporate it into the curriculum and help students learn. Google is one of the very few that have offered these tools for all ages.”
  • The cloud applications engineer added that Google’s approach to owning and securing its own models contributed significantly to confidence in student use: “That Google is not using somebody else’s model is a huge confidence builder. They’re using their own model and their own infrastructure. That gives me a lot more assurance that data is not going to be leaked out or shared.”

• Survey respondents reported that students used Gemini to quickly access accurate information, clarify complex topics, and transform disorganized material into clear summaries and notes.

• Interviewees and survey respondents reported that NotebookLM helped students better understand material using trusted sources. Education and IT decision‑makers responding to the survey described students benefiting from NotebookLM as follows:

  • “Assists students in learning using reliable sources.”
  • “Effective in generating student-friendly summaries from complex documents.”
  • “Students receive simplified notes for difficult chapters more easily.”
  • “Helps in creating individualized review sessions before assessments.”

• Interviewees shared that familiarity with Education Plus tools helped students transition effectively to higher education. The teaching and learning lead noted: “Students find the transition to university really easy as a result of using Google. We hear those sorts of stories all the time.” The technology advisor added: “Students like Google a lot.”

• Interviewees further noted that Education Plus exposed students to tools they are likely to use later in life, including modern AI tools. The cloud applications engineer said: “Education Plus proves a nice, simple, safe space for students. I think it’s a lot better than a bespoke AI suite for kids. Nobody is going to grow up and use that. They’re going to use a tool like Gemini.”

Flexibility

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

• AI and education leadership. Interviewees expressed confidence in Google’s pace of innovation and its long‑term commitment to supporting K-12 teaching and learning. They believed Education Plus would continue to evolve with responsible, age‑appropriate AI tools and capabilities.

• Ongoing innovation and feature expansion. Interviewees noted that Education Plus delivers increased value over time due to consistent product enhancements and the frequent addition of new AI capabilities to the platform.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).