The Total Economic Impact™ Of Optro

Organizations are facing increasing pressure to manage audit, risk, and compliance programs across growing control environments while improving efficiency, transparency, and accountability. However, many continue to rely on fragmented processes, manual coordination, and disconnected systems that limit visibility and consume valuable resources. Optro is a platform that standardizes governance processes, improves collaboration, increases automation, strengthens risk oversight, and reduces reliance on manual activities. As organizations expand adoption, they may use Optro to centralize governance activities and standardize workflows.

Optro is a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software platform that supports audit, risk management, compliance, and related oversight functions within an organization. The platform centralizes risk data, controls, evidence, and frameworks to enable teams to manage assurance activities using a shared system. It incorporates automation and AI-based analysis to support workflows such as control testing, issue management, and risk monitoring across different GRC programs.

Optro commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Optro.¹ The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Optro on their organizations.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed seven decision-makers at five organizations with experience using Optro. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the experiences of the interviewees and combined the results into a single composite organization, which is a US-headquartered public enterprise with an annual revenue of $10 billion, and has 10 risk managers on their internal team. Every year, the composite organization would use Optro to perform 60 audit projects, with over 1,500 control tasks. In the meantime, the composite organization would also follow 15 compliance frameworks.

Organizations adopted Optro with fragmented governance environments characterized by siloed teams, disconnected systems, manual reporting processes, and limited visibility into enterprise risk. Meanwhile, audit, compliance, risk, and control functions often maintained separate repositories, methodologies, and reporting structures, hindering collaboration and increasing the effort required to manage growing regulatory obligations. As compliance requirements expanded, teams struggled to scale operations without adding complexity and administrative burden.

Following implementation, interviewees established a centralized governance environment with standardized workflows, shared data, automated processes, and real-time reporting. As a result, organizations improved efficiency, strengthened cross-functional collaboration, increased visibility into risk and compliance activities, enhanced accountability, standardized governance practices, and created a more scalable foundation for managing audit, risk, and compliance programs as business and regulatory demands continued to grow.

Quantified benefits. Quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

• Increased compliance efficiency. The composite organization improves compliance efficiency by standardizing control management across regulatory frameworks, which saved 8 hours; and reducing duplicate testing and documentation activities, which saved 15 hours. Shared controls satisfy multiple requirements, while automated workflows streamline evidence collection, testing, and reporting. Over three years, the composite organization saves over $893,000 with compliance efficiency.

• Increased risk management efficiency by 40%. The composite organization improves risk management efficiency in four key ways: centralized risk information, automated reporting, standardized risk assessment workflows, and risk-based prioritization that directs attention to the highest-impact risks first. . GRC professionals spend less time on manual administration, stakeholder coordination, and reporting activities, while gaining greater visibility into enterprise risks and clearer risk ownership across teams. Over three years, the composite organization saves $812,000 with risk management efficiency.

• Improved audit management efficiency, resulting in 2,710 hours of time savings with audit planning, controls management, and control owner coordination. The composite organization improves audit management efficiency by standardizing audit planning, reusing historical audit information, automating control-testing workflows, and streamlining stakeholder communications. Auditors spend less time configuring tests, managing documentation, and following up with control owners. Over three years, the composite organization saves $277,000.

• Reduced audit review and reworking, resulting in 3,360 hours of time savings. The composite organization reduces audit review effort and rework by standardizing workflows, embedding review controls, and improving documentation consistency. Auditors spend less time validating procedures, correcting documentation issues, and resolving workflow omissions. Over three years, the composite organization saves over $343,000.

• Reduced co-sourcing spending by 60%. The composite organization reduces outsourced audit and compliance spending with Optro’s AI-driven testing capabilities to automate repetitive, rules-based control testing activities. Internal teams manage a larger compliance scope, while external specialists focus on complex, judgment-intensive work. Over three years, the composite organization saves over $716,000, allowing teams to shift budget away from basic execution and toward higher-value consulting, advisory services, and partner-led change management.

• Enhanced onboarding efficiency, resulting in 20 hours in time savings per new hire. Optro Academy standardizes workflows, records training content, and embeds guidance within the platform, which improved onboarding efficiency at the composite organization. New auditors, control owners, and stakeholders become productive more quickly with less reliance on one-on-one training. Over three years, the composite organization saves over $17,000.

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:

• Stronger collaboration across functions. The composite organization improves collaboration by establishing a shared system of record for controls, risks, issues, and remediation activities. Audit, risk, compliance, IT, and business teams work from consistent data, standardized processes, and common risk terminology. As a result, coordination improves, duplication decreases, and teams resolve issues more effectively together.

• Enhanced accountability and governance culture. The composite organization strengthens accountability by assigning clear ownership for controls, issues, findings, and remediation actions. Embedded workflows increase transparency into responsibilities and status updates across the organization. As a result, issues are addressed more quickly, governance discipline improves, and stakeholders develop greater ownership of risk management and compliance outcomes.

• Reduced administrative burden and cognitive load. The composite organization reduces administrative effort through automated reminders, task assignments, certifications, approvals, and workflow notifications. Audit, risk, and compliance professionals spend less time coordinating activities and tracking requests across multiple systems. As a result, teams focus more on risk analysis and decision-making while benefiting from simpler, more streamlined daily operations.

• Improved standardization and adoption of governance best practices. The composite organization standardizes audit, risk, and compliance processes through embedded methodologies, workflows, and governance frameworks. Teams follow consistent practices aligned with professional standards, improving communication and coordination across functions. As a result, governance activities become more repeatable, audit quality improves, and compliance with evolving standards requires less administrative effort.

Quantified costs. Quantified costs for the composite organization include:

• Optro platform licensing fees to access the solution. The composite organization invests $350,000 annually for full access to the Optro GRC Intelligence platform, which helps the composite organization with compliance, risk, and audit management. The annual licensing fees are based on overall deployment scope, active audit project volume, and managed control tasks. Over three years, the licensing fees total $914,000.

• Implementation and ongoing management costs. The composite organization uses both internal and external effort to support the implementation in the first six months. A small team of two employees is responsible for the ongoing maintenance. Over three years, it costs the composite organization over $277,000 on implementation and ongoing management.

The financial analysis that is based on the interviews found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $3.1 million over three years versus costs of $1.2 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.9 million and an ROI of 157%.