The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Intune
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Intune And The Intune Suite
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Microsoft, June 2024
End-user computing (EUC) professionals face a more sophisticated threat landscape, higher expectations for excellent digital employee experiences as two-thirds of organizations adopt flexible hybrid or anywhere first work, and internal pressure for increased productivity and cost-efficiency.1 Instead of using separate best-in-class tools to accomplish these goals, information technology (IT) and security teams can turn to a unified endpoint management (UEM) solution. Microsoft Intune, including the Intune Suite, may provide business value by consolidating costs, strengthening security, improving digital employee experiences, and simplifying endpoint management.
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based UEM solution for managing and protecting endpoints from the chip level of physical devices to cloud-based devices in a single console. The Microsoft Intune Suite unifies endpoint management and security solutions into one integrated platform with Intune. The core capabilities of Intune include cross-platform endpoint management, built-in endpoint security, mobile application management, endpoint analytics, Microsoft Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr), and more including available access to Copilot. The Intune Suite capabilities include remote assistance and control, endpoint privilege management, end-user experience monitoring, third-party application management, cloud certificate management, VPN for unmanaged devices, specialty device management, and more.
Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Intune, including the Intune Suite.2 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Intune on their organizations.
Return on investment (ROI)
181%
Net present value (NPV)
$11.36M
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed three representatives of organizations with experience using Intune and the Intune Suite. 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 20,000 employees and 30,000 endpoints.
Interviewees said that prior to using Intune, their organizations typically used targeted solutions for endpoint management, including on-premises tools, varying cloud solutions, and tools and processes built in-house. However, this approach left them with increasingly complex, data-intensive, and expensive IT environments that impacted productivity and added time to research and troubleshoot issues, security challenges, and difficulty meeting employee expectations for an excellent device experience regardless of form factor, operating system (OS), location, or ownership.
After adopting Intune, the interviewees were able to manage and secure their organizations’ endpoints within one platform. Key results from the investment include cost savings from licensing consolidation, strengthened security to protect company data, productivity gains for IT and security teams, better experiences for end users, and more.
Key Findings
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
- Consolidated vendor licenses, saving 38% of endpoint management licensing costs. By adopting Intune, the composite organization simplifies its complex endpoint management environment, which consists of on-premises infrastructure, associated maintenance costs, and multiple third-party tools. This results in $9.9 million in cost savings over three years.
- Strengthened security posture by reducing the risk of breaches by 15%. Intune reduces the composite’s risk of a breach from external sources and from lost/stolen assets. The organization does not need to rely on end users to keep devices compliant, and its EUC team updates endpoints more quickly and manages security through a single pane of glass that protects data and end users. Strengthening its security posture is worth $370,000 to the composite organization over three years.
- Enhanced end-user experience by increasing productivity by 30%. The migration to Intune enables the composite organization to improve digital employee experiences and realize corresponding productivity gains, which allows employees to flexibly and securely work anywhere on different devices without disruptions and slowdowns due to poor device performance or stability. These gains are driven by 80% faster new-device onboarding, 75% reduced device-failure triaging, 80% reduced endpoint-update downtime, and more. Over three years, this better user experience is worth $3.1 million to the composite.
- Increased EUC team, help desk, and security productivity by 29%. The composite’s IT and security team members benefit from managing and securing the organization’s endpoints with a single, unified tool that is directly integrated with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Security products as compared to using multiple point solutions from varying vendors. Furthermore, the composite’s help desk team reduces the number of tickets related to endpoint management by 25%, and its security team saves time with fewer incidents related to endpoint management. This allows these teams to focus on more important tasks. The three-year value of this productivity improvement is $4.3 million.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
- Support and ongoing product development. As a multibillion-dollar organization, the composite values Microsoft’s support as it adopts Intune and the Intune Suite. It then benefits from Microsoft’s ongoing product development.
- Improved vendor management. The composite organization benefits from having fewer vendors to manage. It now works only with Microsoft for support.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
- Licensing costs of $6.1 million. The composite organization holds a Microsoft 365 E3 license, which includes Intune. Therefore, instead of allocating the Microsoft Intune Plan 1 listed cost of $8 per user per month, Forrester assigned a cost of $2 per user per month for the estimated attributable portion of the total Microsoft 365 license. The composite organization also pays the listed Microsoft Intune Suite cost of $10 per user per month.
- Deployment and training costs of $125,000. After deciding to adopt Intune and the Intune Suite, the composite organization’s EUC team invests time to effective deployment and training.
The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $17.63 million over three years versus costs of $6.27 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $11.36 million and an ROI of 181%.
Key Statistics
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Return on investment (ROI)
181%
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Benefits PV
$17.63M
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Net present value (NPV)
$11.36M
Benefits (Three-Year)
Consolidated vendor licenses Strengthened security posture Enhanced end-user experience Increased EUC team, help desk, and security productivityTEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Intune.
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 Intune can have on an organization.
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Due Diligence
Interviewed Microsoft stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Intune.
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Interviews
Interviewed three representatives at organizations using Intune to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.
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Composite Organization
Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.
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Financial Model Framework
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.
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Case Study
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.
Disclosures
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Microsoft 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 Intune.
Microsoft 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.
Microsoft provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Consulting Team:
Andrew Nadler
Marianne Friis
Drivers leading to the Intune investment
Interviews
| Role | Industry | Region | Endpoints | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile workplace product owner | Manufacturing | Global, headquartered in Europe | 600,000 | $275 billion+ |
| End-user compute manager | Manufacturing | Global, headquartered in North America | 175,000 | $25 billion+ |
| IT leader | Government | North America | 18,000 | $1 billion+ |
Key Challenges
Before deploying Intune and the Intune Suite, interviewees’ organizations used arrays of tools for endpoint management, including on-premises solutions, cloud-based products, and custom-built solutions and processes. Employees (including both information and frontline workers) flexibly transitioned back and forth between working remotely, in-office, and in between around the world as the organizations shifted policies. The organizations needed to support a wide range of devices, including different operating systems, device form factors, and device owners, all while under financial and economic pressure.
The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
- Security challenges and rising threats. Interviewees discussed how their organizations’ existing endpoint management solutions presented security challenges amidst a rising number of threats of increasing sophistication. They said it was a struggle to keep devices secure and in compliance in a timely manner, especially as employees worked remotely and traveled globally. The end-user compute manager at a manufacturing company said: “We didn’t have that [remote lock] ability before, and that was a real big pain for us. We ended our responsibilities [in a country] and [had to determine] how we were going to secure and make sure that devices are wiped and that we’re secure. That was a real pain.”
- Expanding remote, cloud, and global work environments. In parallel with security challenges and rising threats, interviewees discussed the impact of environments in which their organizations’ employees were increasingly working from anywhere and traveling globally for business with diverse EUC solutions. The organizations needed to balance maintaining positive and flexible digital employee experiences while maintaining secure endpoints, whether employee-owned or company-owned. This proved difficult with separate solutions for endpoint management, mobile device management, and more.
- Increasing IT complexity and cost pressures. Interviewees said that as their organizations used multiple different solutions in an attempt to secure and manage devices around the world in the face of rising threats, the complexity of the organizations and the associated IT costs increased. The interviewees explained that their organizations’ approaches impacted productivity as they managed and monitored multiple tools as opposed to using a single integrated platform. The organizations desired an integrated approach for device management and security to improve productivity and device health and performance. Furthermore, it was expensive to purchase separate licenses from multiple vendors.
Solution Requirements
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could:
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Provide cross-platform capabilities that match or exceed the functionality of their existing arrays of tools within one unified solution for:
- Endpoint management.
- Mobile management.
- Remote assistance and control.
- OS, driver, firmware, and third-party application patch management.
- End-user experience monitoring software.
- VPN for unmanaged devices.
- Endpoint privilege management.
- Cloud certificate management.
- Offer implementation support and ongoing product development.
| Intune Suite Capability | Function |
|---|---|
| Endpoint Privilege Management (EPM) | Allow non-admin users to complete tasks that normally require elevated privileges |
| Enterprise Application Management (EAM) | Simplify deployment of applications and updates to users and their devices |
| Advanced Analytics | Generate data driven insights and monitor endpoints to optimize performance |
| Remote Help | Secure help desk connections with role-based access controls |
| Tunnel for Mobile Application Management | Allow mobile devices to securely access on-premises resources via VPN without device enrollment |
| Cloud PKI | Simplify and automate certificate management in the cloud |
Composite Organization
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 three 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 organization employs 20,000 people globally, including both knowledge workers and frontline workers. It supports multiple device types, operating systems, and employees who work from varied locations. Fifty percent of the organization’s employees have managed mobile phones, and 100% of employees have either a desktop or laptop. Therefore, the company manages 30,000 endpoints, including 20,000 desktops and laptops and 10,000 mobile devices. Before using Intune and the Intune Suite, the company used an on-premises endpoint management solution along with varied endpoint management point solutions.
Deployment characteristics. The composite organization rolls out Intune for 50% of its employees in Year 1 and for the remaining 50% by Year 2. It begins sunsetting its preexisting endpoint management solutions and hardware in parallel with the device rollout.
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite
Total Benefits
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Consolidated vendor licenses | $2,434,500 | $4,869,000 | $4,869,000 | $12,172,500 | $9,895,301 |
| Btr | Strengthened security posture | $91,095 | $182,188 | $182,188 | $455,471 | $370,263 |
| Ctr | Enhanced end-user experience | $766,018 | $1,532,037 | $1,532,037 | $3,830,091 | $3,113,568 |
| Dtr | Increased EUC team, help desk, and security productivity | $1,057,725 | $2,087,100 | $2,087,100 | $5,231,925 | $4,254,513 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $4,349,337 | $8,670,325 | $8,670,325 | $21,689,987 | $17,633,645 | |
Consolidated Vendor Licenses
Evidence and data. Interviewees discussed how their organizations were able to retire endpoint management solutions after switching to one UEM solution in Intune and the Intune Suite, yielding significant cost savings. Interviewees shared that by migrating to Intune, their organizations eliminated their third-party (i.e., non-Microsoft) endpoint management tools, including OS-specific tools and mobile device management. This often included costly on-premises hardware and the associated maintenance and support, depending on the prior state of the organization. Interviewees said that by investing in the Intune Suite, their organizations were able to retire an even greater number of tools, such as third-party remote assistance and control software and certificate management software. However, interviewees said these cost savings varied depending on what solutions their organizations used before migrating and their organizations’ deployment schedules.
- Interviewees highlighted the significant cost savings their organizations realized by migrating from a third-party on-premises endpoint management solution to Intune. The end-user compute manager explained: “The biggest savings were the data center, the hard physical footprint, not having a three- to four-year refresh cycle rate on the hardware, the data center maintenance, power consumption, and all that. That cost us between $350,000 and $400,000 annually to run and maintain. Then, you’re looking at $3 million to $4 million in hardware alone, refreshing every three to four years.”
- Interviewees also discussed their organizations’ cost savings from the various third-party point solutions they were able to retire, such as mobile device management (MDM) and remote assistance and control. The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “I was able to retire an MDM solution that cost us $3 or $4 per user. I don’t have that spend anymore because Intune covers that.” Separately, they added: “I have 400 licenses of [a remote assistance and control solution]. We will be saving on that. We’ll [also] be able to remove [on-premises certificate management] tools and [have] cost savings there.” These certificate management cost savings would include infrastructure and software costs.
- The IT leader of a North America government organization explained how the vendor consolidation benefits went beyond direct cost savings including both risk and productivity: “It [was] also managing risk. … It rolls into one pane of glass. No other product does all that together. You have to bolt on all those other ones, so there’s added costs to manage.” They also noted that device performance improved with fewer agents running on devices.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization previously used a third-party endpoint management solution that cost $21 per user per month. There were accompanying hardware and associated maintenance and support costs of $27 per user per month as the company deployed the solution on-premises.
- Before using Intune, the composite organization used all third-party vendor solutions to address its different endpoint management needs, including all six capabilities of the Intune Suite. The third-party tools covered include: MDM, third-party patch management, remote assistance and control, end-user experience monitoring software, VPN for unmanaged mobile devices, endpoint privilege management, and public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates. Forrester assumes the composite organization procures each third-party tool from a separate vendor.
- Before using Intune, the composite organization paid extra for a VPN to enable unmanaged mobile devices to access on-premises resources. This service is included as part of the Intune Suite. The VPN for unmanaged devices is modeled as the add-on price that a customer would pay to add this capability into its UEM stack. Typically, this solution is included in the more advanced enterprise tiers of third-party UEM tools, but it can also be bought standalone. In this case, Forrester modeled the difference between an enterprise tier including this capability and a standard tier to estimate the cost savings.
- Before using Intune, the composite organization used on-premises infrastructure to issue certificates to end-user devices. Because much of the capability is available via the cloud with the Intune Suite, the composite has faster setup, less maintenance, and less reliance on highly trained IT professionals with specialized expertise in certificate authority provisioning and management. Forrester assumes the composite organization realizes infrastructure and labor cost savings.
- The composite organization’s cost savings scale proportionally with its Intune deployment rate, with cost savings at 50% of their potential in Year 1 and 100% of their potential in years 2 and 3.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
- The cost of the organization’s preexisting endpoint management solutions.
- Any client management infrastructure costs, depending on whether the organization’s prior client management solution was deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
- The speed at which the organization sunsets its preexisting endpoint management solutions, which may be affected by the length of those existing contracts and its Intune deployment schedule.
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 $9.9 million.
Consolidated Vendor Licenses
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Client management software | Composite | $210,000 | $420,000 | $420,000 | |
| A2 | Client management infrastructure | Composite | $270,000 | $540,000 | $540,000 | |
| A3 | MDM software | Composite | $150,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | |
| A4 | Remote assistance and control software | Composite | $120,000 | $240,000 | $240,000 | |
| A5 | Third-party application patch management software | Composite | $180,000 | $360,000 | $360,000 | |
| A6 | End-user experience monitoring tool | Composite | $750,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 | |
| A7 | VPN for unmanaged mobile devices | Composite | $300,000 | $600,000 | $600,000 | |
| A8 | Endpoint privilege management | Composite | $525,000 | $1,050,000 | $1,050,000 | |
| A9 | Certificate management software | Composite | $200,000 | $400,000 | $400,000 | |
| At | Consolidated vendor licenses | A1+A2+A3+A4+A5+ A6+A7+A8+A9 | $2,705,000 | $5,410,000 | $5,410,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Atr | Consolidated vendor licenses (risk-adjusted) | $2,434,500 | $4,869,000 | $4,869,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $12,172,500 | Three-year present value: $9,895,301 | |||||
Strengthened Security Posture
Evidence and data. Interviewees confidently stated that adopting Microsoft Intune and the Intune Suite strengthened the security posture of their organizations and reduced the likelihood of a breach as compared to their prior endpoint management solutions and environments. Their organizations no longer had to rely on end users to keep devices compliant while their IT and security teams could update endpoints more quickly and easily while managing security and devices through a single pane of glass protecting data and end users.
- The IT leader of a North American government organization shared: “With Intune, we’ve reduced security breaches. So, [for] incidents that could have occurred without the Intune Suite, they would have been much larger costly incidents. … Some of them would have [resulted in our] complete company [being] down for multiple weeks or months. Fairly significant cyber risks are mitigated [with Intune].”
- The mobile workspace product owner for a global manufacturing organization said, “The Microsoft Cloud ecosystem with conditional access is so much harder to be attacked in comparison to your on-prem server.”
- The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization specifically called out the remote lock functionality for managing a global fleet of devices: “If we have a [compromised] device, we can shut that down immediately, wipe that device, and remove it from the system altogether. Before, if it wasn’t touching our network, it may not have received those commands. [It is a] huge reduction in [our] threat vector.”
- Interviewees shared the corresponding risk reduction. The mobile workplace product owner for a global manufacturing organization said: “If you do everything up front, investing in platform security updates, and making sure that devices are not compromised, it’s around a 5% [reduction to] your attack vectors. If you’re going to a cloud environment, and if it’s just a small company … [it will be a] 25% to 40% [reduction in] attack vectors.”
- The end-user compute manager for a global manufacturing organization said: “[The risk reduction is] 20% to 30%. It would be substantial versus where we were.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The likelihood of the composite organization experiencing one or more breaches per year is 90%.3
- The mean cumulative cost of breaches for the composite organization is $6,085,000.4
- The composite’s percentage of breaches originating from external attacks or lost/stolen assets is 59.3%.5 Forrester excluded other originations such as internal incidents.
- Forty-four percent of these breaches are addressable with UEM solutions.6
- Intune reduces the composite’s risk of breaches originating from external attacks by 15% as compared to its prior environment.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
- The state of the organization, the likelihood that it will experience a breach, and the cost of those breaches.
- The ability of the organization to deploy and manage Intune and the Intune Suite.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $370,000.
Strengthened Security Posture
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Likelihood of experiencing one or more breaches per year | Forrester research | 90.0% | 90.0% | 90.0% | |
| B2 | Mean cumulative cost of breaches | Forrester research | $6,085,000 | $6,085,000 | $6,085,000 | |
| B3 | Percent of breaches originating from external attacks and lost/stolen assets | Forrester research | 59.3% | 59.3% | 59.3% | |
| B4 | Percent of breaches originating from external attacks and lost/stolen assets addressable with UEM solutions | Forrester research | 44.0% | 44.0% | 44.0% | |
| B5 | Subtotal: annual risk exposure from external attacks and lost/stolen assets | B1*B2*B3*B4 | $1,428,928 | $1,428,928 | $1,428,928 | |
| B6 | Reduced risk of breaches from external attacks and lost/stolen assets with Microsoft Intune as compared to prior environment | Interviews | 15.0% | 15.0% | 15.0% | |
| B7 | Percent of end-users with a Microsoft Intune-managed endpoint | Composite | 50% | 100% | 100% | |
| Bt | Strengthened security posture | B5*B6*B7 | $107,170 | $214,339 | $214,339 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | |||||
| Btr | Strengthened security posture (risk-adjusted) | $91,095 | $182,188 | $182,188 | ||
| Three-year total: $455,471 | Three-year present value: $370,263 | |||||
Enhanced End-User Experience
Evidence and data. Beyond cost savings from consolidation, interviewees told Forrester that Intune provided end-user productivity and digital employee experience benefits. They said their organizations gained the ability to more easily support flexible hybrid or anywhere-first work on a variety of device types and operating systems with fewer agents on each endpoint. They explained that end users benefited from reduced device downtime, faster new-device onboarding, faster ticket resolution, improved device performance, and more.
- The IT leader of a North American government organization said: “We track device performance and device degradation performance [with Intune]. So, when we see [an error,] we have automation. It automatically [creates a] ticket for our frontline staff to go help that user so there will be an improvement to the end-user experience. … They don’t have to wait to call in when they’re not busy. We’re sending out a just-in-time delivery to fix them.”
- The mobile workplace product owner of a global manufacturing organization said: “[End users] see an improvement with less downtimes and more service availability.”
- The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “Our user experience is significantly changed with Intune. We enabled Autopilot within Intune, and that has probably been by far the most significant improvement to the workforce. It used to be a 2- or 3-hour PC setup process. … Now that we’ve rolled out Autopilot, we can set up a PC in under 30 minutes out of the box. … That has been significant for our end users, especially from an onboarding perspective. … I’m able to get these individuals on working much, much quicker.”
- The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “Reduced downtime [is a benefit]. The ability to keep the update rings fresh with either OS and driver and security patches that are coming on time is keeping systems running much smoother. Our devices sometimes would fluctuate between 1% and 5% failure rates, and now we’re around 1% to 2%.”
- The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “I don’t have to rely on the end user to be a significant participant in the updating and maintenance of the PCs. … The real maintenance is drivers and BIOS (basic input/output system). For us to be able to do that without the user’s interaction is significant. I’m not having a user have to take downtime to do an update. I do that update for them, and then they just reboot and away they go.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- Without Intune, the composite organization’s end users would have 83,125 hours of lost productivity due to security incidents. This is based on 3.4 hours of lost productivity per security incident and 48,897 security incidents.7
- Without Intune, the composite organization’s end users would have 3 hours of downtime per year due to updates per desktop or laptop and 1 hour of downtime per year per mobile device.
- Without Intune, 30% of the composite’s employees would have 1 hour of downtime for ticket resolution related to endpoint management.
- Without Intune, 30% of employees would spend 3 hours onboarding new devices per year.
- Without Intune, the composite organization would have a 5% device failure rate, and each failure would result in 1 hour of downtime.
- The average blended fully burdened hourly rate for an end user is $43.
- The composite recaptures 50% of end-user hours for productive use.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
- The size of the organization, the corresponding number of end users, and the Intune deployment schedule.
- The prior state of the organization without Intune, its device management policies, and its change management capabilities.
- The roles and fully burdened salaries of the end users.
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 $3.1 million.
Enhanced End-User Experience
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Lost productivity due to security incidents without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Forrester research | 83,125 | 166,250 | 166,250 |
| C2 | Percent of time saved addressing endpoint-related incidents with Microsoft Intune | B3*B4*B6 | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| C3 | Downtime due to updates without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Composite | 34,500 | 69,000 | 69,000 |
| C4 | Percent of reduced endpoint update downtime with Microsoft Intune | Assumption | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| C5 | Downtime spent on ticket resolution without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Composite | 3,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| C6 | Faster ticket resolution with Microsoft Intune | Interviews | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| C7 | Time for new device onboarding without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Composite | 9,000 | 18,000 | 18,000 |
| C8 | Faster new device onboarding with Microsoft Intune | Interviews | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| C9 | Downtime due to device failure without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Composite | 750 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| C10 | Reduced device failure triaging with Microsoft Intune | Interviews | 75% | 75% | 75% |
| C11 | Average fully burdened hourly rate for an end user | TEI standard | $43 | $43 | $43 |
| C12 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI standard | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| Ct | Enhanced end-user experience | ((C1*C2)+(C3* C4)+(C5*C6)+(C7*C8)+(C9*C10))*C11*C12 |
$851,131 | $1,702,263 | $1,702,263 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||
| Ctr | Enhanced end-user experience (risk-adjusted) | $766,018 | $1,532,037 | $1,532,037 | |
| Three-year total: $3,830,091 | Three-year present value: $3,113,568 | ||||
Increased EUC Team, Help Desk, And Security Productivity
Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that there were productivity gains for their organizations’ IT and security teams. They cited less-complex environments in which they and their colleagues used a single pane of glass to oversee, secure, and manage endpoints; time savings from retiring in-house solutions in addition to on-premises hardware; BIOS, OS, and application update time-savings with automation; and quicker support ticket resolution. With these productivity gains, interviewees said EUC employees gained the ability to focus on more valuable tasks and secure endpoints more quickly.
- The IT leader of a North American government organization said: “Intune has better consistent reporting across the fleet for compliance and security and auditing reasons. It’s saving an FTE 20 to 30 hours a month.”
- Interviewees also noted fewer tickets and quicker ticket resolution. The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “We were running around 25,000 to 30,000 tickets a month overall at my service desk. Now, we’re running about 20,000 to 22,000 tickets.” The IT leader of a North American government organization shared, “We’ve seen a 30% reduction in call times across the help desk since we implemented Intune to do software installs.”
- The IT leader of a North American government organization added: “[With tech-stack consolidation,] you’re not managing multiple products and multiple vendors if things don’t work. There is a sizable benefit to that.”
- Interviewees discussed how managing updates with Autopatch for operating systems and drivers was easier and faster. The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization said: “[Updates are] much faster in Intune. Within two to three days, I can get to 90% [compliance or more]. [Those are] time savings for my teams. We spend a lot less time packaging because the Intune Suite allows us to pull prepackaged [updates,] and we can set up update rings on those. It’s much easier. It takes a few minutes versus almost a day. [We are] saving $5,000 a day just in labor costs.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- Microsoft Intune enables varied time savings for the composite organization’s EUC, help desk, and security teams, and they productively redeploy that time at different rates given the nature of their roles. In particular, the composite organization's security teams benefit from easier investigations through integrated security and management.
- The composite organization has eight EUC team FTEs utilizing Intune in Year 1. This number increases to 15 FTEs in years 2 and 3 as the number of employees and endpoints on Intune doubles.
- Without Intune, the composite organization would average 9.6 hours of help desk labor per employee per year.
- The composite organization has 10 security team FTEs utilizing Intune in Year 1. This number increases to 20 FTEs in years 2 and 3 as the number of employees and endpoints on Intune doubles.
- The fully burdened annual compensation for an EUC-related role is $126,000.
- The fully burdened annual compensation for a help desk-related role is $67,500 ( $32 per hour).
- The fully burdened annual compensation for a security-related role is $142,000.
Risks. This benefit may vary based on:
- The organization’s number of users and endpoints and its Intune deployment schedule.
- The number of EUC, help desk, and security team members along with their roles and their associated fully burdened salaries.
- The amount of help desk labor required without Intune.
- The prior state of the organization and its ability to realize productivity gains and productively redeploy them to its team.
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 $4.3 million.
Increased EUC Team, Help Desk, And Security Productivity
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | EUC FTEs who manage endpoints with Microsoft Intune | Composite | 8 | 15 | 15 |
| D2 | Percent of time saved on endpoint management with Intune as a modern management UEM solution and the Intune Suite as a single-vendor platform | Interviews | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| D3 | Average blended fully burdened salary for an EUC team member | TEI standard | $126,000 | $126,000 | $126,000 |
| D4 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI standard | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| D5 | Subtotal: Endpoint management time savings | D1*D2*D3*D4 | $252,000 | $472,500 | $472,500 |
| D6 | Help desk time without Microsoft Intune (hours) | Composite | 96,000 | 192,000 | 192,000 |
| D7 | Ticket reduction with Microsoft Intune | Interviews | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| D8 | Average blended fully burdened hourly rate for a help desk team member | TEI standard | $32 | $32 | $32 |
| D9 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI standard | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| D10 | Subtotal: Reduced support needs | D6*D7*D8*D9 | $614,400 | $1,228,800 | $1,228,800 |
| D11 | Security FTEs who manage security incidents with Microsoft Intune | Composite | 10 | 20 | 20 |
| D12 | Percent of time saved per FTE who addresses endpoint-related incidents with Microsoft Intune | B3*B4*B6 | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| D13 | Percent of time saved per FTE who manages the security environment with Microsoft Intune | Assumption | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| D14 | Fully burdened salary for a security operations analyst | TEI standard | $142,000 | $142,000 | $142,000 |
| D15 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI standard | 75% | 75% | 75% |
| D16 | Subtotal: Avoided endpoint-based incident investigation and remediation cost and improved security management | (D11*D12*D14*D1 5)+(D11*D13*D14 *D15) | $308,850 | $617,700 | $617,700 |
| Dt | Increased EUC team, help desk, and security productivity | D5+D10+D16 | $1,175,250 | $2,319,000 | $2,319,000 |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||
| Dtr | Increased EUC team, help desk, and security productivity (risk-adjusted) | $1,057,725 | $2,087,100 | $2,087,100 | |
| Three-year total: $5,231,925 | Three-year present value: $4,254,513 | ||||
Unquantified Benefits
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
- Support and ongoing product development. The composite organization benefits from Microsoft’s support and the ongoing development of Intune and the Intune Suite. Interviewees highlighted Microsoft’s support, particularly for the adoption process, which was important for their enterprise organizations. Beyond that, interviewees shared how Microsoft listened and incorporated their feedback into the ongoing product development, including the new Intune Suite modules. The mobile workplace product owner of a manufacturing organization said, “[Microsoft is] doing a profound implementation [supporting us], and they’re always improving the product.”
- Improved vendor management. Interviewees discussed how there were additional productivity gains from vendor consolidation even if they didn’t quantify them. The composite organization saves time by reducing the number of vendor relationships and contracts it has to manage because of Intune. It now benefits from working with a single vendor and support source.
Flexibility
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Intune and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
-
Opportunities for increased integration with Microsoft solutions and continued security digital transformation. Interviewees highlighted how their organizations had opportunities to realize further benefits from Intune’s integration with Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security, and more, and they said this could help progress their organizations’ digital transformations. The IT leader for a North American government organization explained the value of integration for their organization’s migration to Zero Trust: “Our biggest benefit is landing on products that all work well together to better manage our Zero Trust rollout.”
The interviewee noted their organization benefits from using Microsoft Security Copilot with Intune. They said: “We already are on the EAP (early access program) for Security Copilot, and we are evaluating that. We’ve seen process improvements, enhancements, and time reduction.”
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
Quantified cost data as applied to the composite
Total Costs
| Ref. | Cost | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etr | License costs | $0 | $1,512,000 | $3,024,000 | $3,024,000 | $7,560,000 | $6,145,695 |
| Ftr | Deployment and training | $75,555 | $50,325 | $2,550 | $2,550 | $130,979 | $125,328 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $75,555 | $1,562,325 | $3,026,550 | $3,026,550 | $7,690,979 | $6,271,023 | |
License Costs
Evidence and data. Interviewees’ organizations held Microsoft 365 licenses, which includes the Microsoft Intune core capabilities. Alternatively, organizations without sufficient licensing can purchase Microsoft Intune Plan 1 for $8 per user per month to obtain the same core capabilities. Interviewees said their organizations purchased Microsoft Intune Suite (priced at $10 per user per month) as an add-on. This gave their organizations access to the Intune Suite modules, such as Microsoft Intune Endpoint Privilege Management.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- In Year 1, the composite organization deploys Intune to 50% of employees and endpoints. This number rises to 100% of employees and endpoints by Year 2.
- The composite organization holds a Microsoft 365 E3 license.
- Although the composite does not need to pay for Microsoft Intune Plan 1 with its Microsoft 365 E3 license, Forrester allocated a cost of $2 per user per month for Intune as a portion of the total Microsoft 365 license cost.
- The composite organization pays the Microsoft Intune Suite cost of $10 per user per month.
- Pricing and licensing may vary. Contact Microsoft for additional details.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
- The number of users and the deployment schedule.
- Pricing discounts.
- Licensing choices.
- Licensing and pricing changes.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $6.1 million.
License Costs
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Users | Composite | 10,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 | ||
| E2 | Allocated Intune licensing cost per user per month | Composite | $2 | $2 | $2 | ||
| E3 | Intune Suite price per user per month | Microsoft | $10 | $10 | $10 | ||
| Et | License costs | E1*(E2+E3)*12 months | $0 | $1,440,000 | $2,880,000 | $2,880,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
| Etr | License costs (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $1,512,000 | $3,024,000 | $3,024,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $7,560,000 | Three-year present value: $6,145,695 | ||||||
Deployment And Training
Evidence and data. Interviewees indicated that Intune was easy to deploy. They said their organizations methodically rolled it out across their businesses over time. Due to how early they adopted the Intune Suite, they typically adopted the Intune Suite modules over time as Microsoft continued development. The interviewees’ organizations also allotted time for training team members for Intune and the Intune Suite modules.
- The IT leader of a North American government organization explained: “Implementation is easy. It’s about testing and making sure you don’t cause business disruptions. When we implement to production, we don’t do all devices [at once]. We’ll do [a few,] evaluate, and then slowly roll it out. It’s not en masse to all 18,000 assets. ... The delay is … the nature of managing risk.”
- The end-user compute manager of a global manufacturing organization shared: “The other benefit was the ability to move quickly and get set up. Adopting what we had in the SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) environment and moving that to Intune was easy.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization initially deploys Intune to 50% of employees and endpoints with 750 hours of implementation labor. The composite then spends an additional 750 hours of labor to deploy Intune to the remaining 50% of employees and endpoints in Year 1.
- Each EUC FTE receives 10 hours of training for Microsoft Intune and 2 hours of training per Microsoft Intune Suite module. One hundred help desk team members also receive two hours of training each for Remote Help. New team members are trained in years 2 and 3 as 10% of employees turnover.
Risks. This cost may vary based on:
- The deployment schedule, the number of endpoints and employees deployed to, the number of Intune Suite modules deployed, and the corresponding labor effort required.
- The roles required for implementation and training and the fully burdened hourly salaries for those roles.
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 $125,000.
Deployment And Training
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Implementation time (hours) | Interviews | 750 | 750 | 0 | 0 | |
| F2 | Training time (hours) | Interviews | 376 | 0 | 38 | 38 | |
| F3 | Average blended fully burdened hourly rate for an EUC team member | TEI standard | $61 | $61 | $61 | $61 | |
| Ft | Deployment and training | (F1+F2)*F3 | $68,686 | $45,750 | $2,318 | $2,318 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
| Ftr | Deployment and training (risk-adjusted) | $75,555 | $50,325 | $2,550 | $2,550 | ||
| Three-year total: $130,979 | Three-year present value: $125,328 | ||||||
Consolidated Three-Year Risk-Adjusted Metrics
Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
Total costs Total benefits Cumulative net benefits Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3-
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.
Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted Estimates)
| Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total costs | ($75,555) | ($1,562,325) | ($3,026,550) | ($3,026,550) | ($7,690,979) | ($6,271,023) |
| Total benefits | $0 | $4,349,337 | $8,670,325 | $8,670,325 | $21,689,987 | $17,633,645 |
| Net benefits | ($75,555) | $2,787,012 | $5,643,775 | $5,643,775 | $13,999,008 | $11,362,622 |
| ROI | 181% | |||||
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact
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.
Total Economic Impact Approach
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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 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.
Appendix B: Supplemental Material
Related Forrester Research
The Forrester Wave™: Unified Endpoint Management, Q4 2023, Forrester Research, Inc., November 20, 2023.
The Future Of Endpoint Management, Forrester Research, Inc., June 6, 2022.
Appendix C: Endnotes
1 Source: The Unified Endpoint Management Landscape, Q3 2023, Forrester Research, Inc., July 17, 2023; The Endpoint Security Landscape, Q2 2023, Forrester Research, Inc., March 21, 2023; Master The Messy Middle Of Hybrid, Forrester Research, Inc., September 28, 2022.
2 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.
3 Source: Forrester Analytics Business Technographics Security Survey, 2023.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Source: Forrester Consulting Cost Of A Cybersecurity Breach Survey, Q1 2021.
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