The Total Economic Impact™ Of Quid
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Quid
A Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study Commissioned By Quid, April 2025
Data, AI, and analytics drive better decisions, which in turn deliver better business outcomes. Forrester research finds companies that frequently use data and insights to make decisions can expect higher revenue growth than those that use them infrequently.1 Customers that leveraged Quid’s AI-driven platform unlocked valuable consumer and market intelligence, enabling faster, more informed decision-making and better business outcomes.
Quid is a consumer and market intelligence platform that delivers actionable insights to help organizations achieve business and growth targets. Quid is built on AI-driven models that ingest and draw connections between millions of diverse data points from consumer and market data sources, including social media platforms, forums, news sites, financial reporting, review sites, and internal sources. The platform leverages petabytes of data, a suite of tools, and AI-capabilities to analyze relevant data, contextualize trends, and draw actionable insights. With Quid, organizations gain a holistic view of their customers and markets, empowering them to make strategic, data-driven decisions that directly impact their business’ growth and improve brand health.
Quid commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Quid.2 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Quid on their organizations.
Return on investment (ROI)
314%
Net present value (NPV)
$2.69M
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four decision-makers with experience using Quid. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization with $10 billion in annual revenue.
Interviewees said that prior to using Quid, their organization’s analysts relied on a variety of tools, resources, and approaches to develop consumer and market insights, including social listening tools, homegrown news aggregators, research studies, web scraping, and manual aggregation and analysis of data. Prior approaches resulted in inefficient processes and difficulties with gaining real-time, holistic insights. Consequently, organizations struggled with slow time to insight, hindering their ability to quickly make informed decisions.
By partnering with Quid, the interviewees’ organizations unlocked consumer and market intelligence across diverse datasets and tools for in-depth analysis, equipping stakeholders across their businesses with better insights for decision-making. Key results from the investment include revenue growth, improved time to insight, and increased productivity.
Key Findings
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:
- An increase in top-line revenue growth of up to 0.15%. Quid informs decision-making in areas including product innovation and go-to-market (GTM) strategy. By enabling a holistic view of consumer and market intelligence across data sources — including social media platforms, news sites, and forums — and providing tools to extract granular insights, Quid helps the composite organization uncover new opportunities for innovation and respond to shifting customer and market dynamics with greater agility. These insights enable the composite organization to drive up to $15 million in annual incremental revenue. Over three years, the product and GTM improvements are worth $2.7 million for the composite organization.
- Time-to-insight improvement by 50%. Quid accelerates time to insight, improving productivity for the composite organization’s analysts and helping to drive faster, more informed decision-making. Instead of manually gathering, organizing, and analyzing information, analysts at the composite organization leverage the Quid platform to access comprehensive datasets and utilize AI-driven tools to summarize findings and drill more deeply into specific topics within their data. Over three years, the productivity improvement is worth $457,000 to the composite organization.
- Annual cost savings of up to $200,000 for legacy consumer and market research solutions. By adopting Quid, the composite organization retires its legacy social listening tool and reduces its reliance on commissioned research studies. Over three years, the cost savings total $388,000.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that provide value for the composite organization but are not quantified for this study include:
- Transparent AI that builds confidence. Quid’s conversational AI tools provide transparency into query processes, allowing users to understand how prompts are executed and validate the relevance of generated insights, which ensures confidence in the results.
- Enhanced decision-making. Powered by Quid, the composite organization delivers more granular and relevant analyses compared with its prior tools and research methods. Quid’s extensive datasets and tooling enable a deeper contextual understanding of trends and the specific factors influencing them, leading to better decision-making.
- Improved brand positioning. With Quid, the composite organization can leverage comprehensive consumer and market intelligence to gain a deeper understanding of market trends, customer sentiments, and competitive activity. This allows the composite organization to position itself more effectively by aligning strategies with evolving market dynamics.
Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:
- Quid licensing and services. The composite organization incurs less than $821,000 in fees from Quid for licensing and services.
- Implementation, training, and ongoing management. The composite organization incurs just under $35,000 in internal labor for implementation, training, and ongoing management.
The decision-maker interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $3.55 million over three years versus costs of $856,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $2.69 million and an ROI of 314%.
Key Statistics
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Return on investment (ROI)
314%
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Benefits PV
$3.55M
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Net present value (NPV)
$2.69M
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Payback
<6 months
Benefits (Three-Year)
Revenue growth Improved time to insight Cost optimization [CONTENT] [CONTENT] [CONTENT] [CONTENT] [CONTENT]
TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment in Quid.
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 Quid can have on an organization.
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Due Diligence
Interviewed Quid stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Quid.
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Interviews
Interviewed four people at organizations using Quid 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 Quid 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 Quid.
Quid 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.
Quid provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Consulting Team:
Kara Luk
Drivers leading to the Quid investment
Interviews
| Role | Organization Description | Annual Revenue | Geography |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior director of digital transformation | Communications firm | N/A | US headquarters, global operations |
| Senior director of e-commerce | Retailer | $648 billion | US headquarters, global operations |
| Director of deal technology | Professional services firm | Business unit: $1.2 billion | UK headquarters, global operations |
| Consumer insights and intelligence director | CPG supplier | $11.5B billion | US headquarters, global operations |
Key Challenges
Before adopting Quid, the interviewees’ organizations utilized a variety tools, resources, and approaches to develop consumer and market insights, including social listening tools, homegrown news aggregators, web scraping, research studies, and aggregation and analysis of data. The interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
- Business demands for consumer and market insights. Interviewees reported that stakeholders across their organizations needed consumer and market insights to inform decision-making for varying use cases. The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier noted that their organization’s stakeholders required insights on evolving consumer food preferences and sentiments toward larger social topics, such as environmental sustainability and health, to drive product innovation and further sales opportunities. The senior director of e-commerce at a retailer said their organization relied on insights about evolving product trends and competitor activities to inform its merchandizing and e-commerce strategies. The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm explained that news trend analysis was critical in shaping client communication strategies. Lastly, the director of deal technology at a professional services firm shared a unique deal origination use case in which market and social media data was combined to drive due diligence around potential acquisition targets for clients and secure contracts to manage the acquisition process. Across the interviewees’ use cases, key stakeholders requested relevant insights from consumer insights analysts and research teams, necessitating timely and accurate analyses of varying datasets.
- Significant effort to deliver insights. Interviewees shared that their organization’s analyst resources underwent significant effort to collect, aggregate, curate, and deliver insights to stakeholders. For example, the director of deal technology at a professional services firm reported that their organization utilized a homegrown application, social listening tool, and web scraping to gather various types of data around potential acquisition targets for prospects. This disparate data needed to be aggregated, fed into custom dashboards for visualization, and manually summarized for stakeholders. They said: “We had to cobble together analyses using visualization tools. We realized we needed a faster approach.”
- Prolonged time to insight. Keeping up with changing consumer preferences and market trends was critical for the interviewees’ organizations. However, the effort involved in gathering data from a variety of external and internal sources and then synthesizing, summarizing, and delivering insights for stakeholders required significant time and resources. Interviewees shared that this reduced their organization’s agility in discovering, understanding, and responding to emerging opportunities or issues. The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier shared that their organization had relied on vendor-led social media studies and internal research studies to investigate consumer preferences before Quid. Each study took at least one month to complete, delaying the ability to deliver actionable insights to stakeholders across the organization in a timely fashion.
- High data-gathering and research costs. Interviewees also reported costs associated with collecting consumer data and insights. The director of deal technology at a professional services firm shared that their organization had been spending approximately $500,000 annually with contractors to conduct web scraping. Similarly, the consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier noted that their organization commissioned at least six consumer research studies from vendors each year, with each costing between $30,000 and $50,000 per study.
Why Quid?
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a solution that could address their key challenges and selected Quid before it offered:
- A rich feature set. Interviewees shared that their organizations chose Quid because it offered a richer feature set and the ability to analyze data with greater granularity than that of previous tools and data resources. The director of digital transformation at a communications firm said: “After looking at demos, we felt that Quid gave us the best ability to slice and dice data in ways that led to the type of insights we were looking for. It gave us a lot of granularity. The feature set they offered was very different than the social listening tools we were using. It wasn’t just geared toward a social media manager. It was really designed with deeper research in mind.”
- An ability to analyze data across diverse sources. The Quid platform operates on advanced data models that ingest and summarize diverse datasets from social and market resources, enabling the interviewees’ organizations to quickly and comprehensively draw insights. The senior director of e-commerce at a retailer explained: “Quid has kind a unique value proposition. Natural language processing has been the core of Quid’s offering from the beginning. The ability to ingest unstructured text — whether it’s from social, news, blogs, 10-K reports, patents, or unstructured text that you input into the system — analyze it, and draw quick correlations and insights from it is unique.”
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 interviewees’ organizations, 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 is a global company that generates $10 billion in annual revenue and has 20,000 employees.
Deployment characteristics. Before adopting Quid, the composite organization utilized a legacy social listening tool, commissioned research studies, and analysis led by in-house analysts to develop consumer and market insights. Ten analysts at the composite organization gain access to the Quid platform and disseminate Quid’s insights to stakeholders across the business to inform product innovation, go-to-market strategy, competitive business response, and corporate brand health.
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite
Total Benefits
| Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atr | Revenue growth | $880,000 | $1,100,000 | $1,320,000 | $3,300,000 | $2,700,826 |
| Btr | Improved time to insight | $164,424 | $184,977 | $205,530 | $554,931 | $456,768 |
| Ctr | Cost optimization | $135,000 | $157,500 | $180,000 | $472,500 | $388,129 |
| Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $1,179,424 | $1,442,477 | $1,705,530 | $4,327,431 | $3,545,723 |
Revenue Growth
Evidence and data. Interviewees reported that Quid informed decision-making in areas including product innovation, merchandising strategy, deal origination, client messaging and campaign strategies, business development, and competitive response. By enabling a holistic view of consumer and market intelligence across various data sources and providing the ability to look granularly into evolving consumer sentiments, market trends, underlying drivers, and topic relevance over time, Quid helped interviewees’ organizations uncover opportunities and insights that would have been overlooked with their prior analysis methods and tools. Interviewees reported that their organizations experienced growth as a result, with improvements to annual revenue and gross merchandising value (GMV).
- The senior director of e-commerce at a retailer shared that their organization utilized Quid to inform its merchandising and e-commerce strategies. Leveraging Quid’s insights on evolving trends and consumer preferences, the retailer could better anticipate demand for trending products and brands, helping the organization optimize its product selection, promotions, and item discoverability. The interviewee shared that Quid’s insights helped drive millions of dollars in incremental GMV as a result: “With Quid, we’re identifying and actioning on [trending] items, bringing them into our marketplace, and then selling them. Additionally, we’re taking existing items that we had but historically weren’t that discoverable and making them more discoverable. It’s driving incremental GMV where that wouldn’t have been happening before.”
- The director of deal technology at a professional services firm shared that their organization leveraged Quid within its deal strategy practice to win new business, utilizing Quid’s intelligence to help identify acquisition targets for prospects and secure related advisory contracts. They estimated that this drove between $5 million and $7 million in incremental revenue each year. By analyzing Quid’s social media analytics against financial reporting metrics, deal originators at the interviewee’s organization could find new targets for clients to pursue. Additionally, teams in the practice leveraged Quid’s reporting during the pitch process to articulate the value of acquisition targets. The interviewee shared: “We use Quid’s insights to win deals. We’ve had leaders in our firm tell us that Quid has helped them identify targets that we would not have come across if it weren’t for these tools. They’ve reported that there’s at least $5 million per year in corporate finance mandates that we now win because we have these tools. It’s helping our deal originators find needles in the haystack.”
- The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm shared how Quid was used to demonstrate the organization’s expertise and analysis capabilities during new business proposals: “Quid is a piece that is oftentimes used in our business development process, whether it’s giving our team an understanding of a prospect’s environment or even incorporating the research into proposals. During the proposal process, we show them how we use it to understand their world, and I can certainly say that it’s helped demonstrate our value proposition.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization generates $20 billion in annual revenue before the Quid investment.
- The organization measures an increase in top-line growth directly attributable to Quid of 0.1% in Year 1, 0.125% in Year 2, and 0.15% in Year 3.
- The organization has a profit margin of 11%.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The following factors may impact this benefit:
- The volume of revenue generated before Quid.
- An organization’s profit margin.
- The frequency and proficiency with which Quid users leverage the platform.
- Economic conditions that may impact an organization’s ability to generate revenue.
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $2.7 million.
Revenue Growth
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Annual revenue | Composite | $10,000,000,000 | $10,000,000,000 | $10,000,000,000 | |
| A2 | Revenue improvement attributable to Quid | Interviews | 0.100% | 0.125% | 0.150% | |
| A3 | Incremental revenue | A1*A2 | $10,000,000 | $12,500,000 | $15,000,000 | |
| A4 | Operating profit margin | NYU Stern School of Business | 11% | 11% | 11% | |
| At | Revenue growth | A3*A4 | $1,100,000 | $1,375,000 | $1,650,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||
| Atr | Revenue growth (risk-adjusted) | $880,000 | $1,100,000 | $1,320,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $3,300,000 | Three-year present value: $2,700,826 | |||||
Improved Time To Insight
Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that Quid accelerated time to insight, improving productivity for analyst resources and enabling faster, more informed decision-making. Instead of manually gathering, organizing, and analyzing data from various sources, analysts at the interviewees’ organizations leveraged Quid to access aggregated consumer and market data across relevant topics and themes. With real-time consumer and market data points automatically accessible through the Quid platform, as well as AI-enabled search and summary capabilities, analysts at the interviewees’ organizations experienced a reduction in the effort required to gain a deep understanding of various research topics and uncover underlying patterns, correlating factors, and other contextual information necessary to deliver actionable insights. Interviewees shared the following use cases:
- Avoided manual work. The director of deal technology at a professional services firm reported a 20% efficiency improvement for its research team with Quid. They said: “Our research teams before would have had to go to a website, download a bunch of data, throw it into a data automation tool, and throw it into a dashboard to present an analysis. Now, we just have an API that they hit. It gives them a nicely formatted chunk of data, and Quid churns out a templated analysis. It absolutely saves time.” The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm explained that their organization had recently began using Quid to deliver custom newsletters summarizing relevant news stories and emerging trends for clients and internal stakeholders, saving hours of manual work: “We were spending 2 or 3 hours every morning manually going through a client’s news, summarizing the most important trends, contextualizing what’s going on, and delivering it to our internal teams and clients. We’ve translated that workflow into an output in Quid, which we are planning to start using across every single client.”
- AI features. Interviewees highlighted how AI features in Quid drove productivity for analysts. Instead of combing through data points, analysts at the interviewees’ organizations leveraged Quid’s AI-summary tool to extract relevant insights from their data, helping them to quickly digest datasets and produce summaries for stakeholders. Similarly, analysts leveraged AI-enabled Quid’s chat to drill down into more specific research topics. The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm said: “We used Quid’s AI tools across workflows and use cases, from landscape analyses to more immediate reports on what was happening. It speeded up time to insight by up to 50%.”
- Avoided effort for consumer research projects. The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier described how the time required to develop consumer research studies compared to using Quid: “When we conducted consumer research studies, it would cost $20,000 and we would have to put together a questionnaire, launch the survey, analyze the results, and put together a report. The whole process could take several months. Using Quid, we can typically pull together those insights in two days.”
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- Prior to implementing Quid, the composite organization had 10 analysts that each spend 1,040 hours annually on consumer and market analysis.
- Quid improves time to insight by 40%, 45%, and 50% in Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The time savings ramp over time as analysts improve their efficiency in using Quid.
- The average fully burdened hourly salary of an analyst is $62.
- Analysts recapture 75% of time savings toward productive activities.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The following factors may impact this benefit:
- The number, role, and salary of resources responsible for consumer and market research.
- The amount of time resources spent on consumer and market analysis before Quid.
- Proficiency in using Quid.
- The degree to which time savings are recaptured productively.
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 $457,000.
Improved Time To Insight
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Analysts | Composite | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
| B2 | Hours spent on consumer and market analysis per analyst before Quid | Interviews | 1,040 | 1,040 | 1,040 | |
| B3 | Improved time to insight with Quid | Interviews | 40% | 45% | 50% | |
| B4 | Hours saved on analysis | B1*B2*B3 | 4,160 | 4,680 | 5,200 | |
| B5 | Average fully burdened hourly salary of an analyst | Composite | $62 | $62 | $62 | |
| B6 | Productivity recapture rate | TEI methodology | 75% | 75% | 75% | |
| Bt | Improved time to insight | B4*B5*B6 | $193,440 | $217,620 | $241,800 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓15% | |||||
| Btr | Improved time to insight (risk-adjusted) | $164,424 | $184,977 | $205,530 | ||
| Three-year total: $554,931 | Three-year present value: $456,768 | |||||
Cost Optimization
Evidence and data. Interviewees shared that their organizations saved costs in the following areas by adopting Quid:
- Commissioned research studies. The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier noted that, in addition to conducting research in-house, their organization also relied on vendors to conduct consumer and market research. The interviewee reported that these studies were conducted at least six times per year, with each costing $30,000 to $50,000. By adopting Quid, the organization eliminated the need for these expensive research studies and associated costs.
- Social listening and news aggregation solutions. Both the director of deal technology at a professional services firm and the senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm shared that their organizations retired legacy social listening tools, avoiding associated licensing costs. Additionally, the interviewee at the professional services firm reported that their organization had built and relied on a homegrown news media aggregator before Quid. This tool cost over $10,000 per month to support and provided significantly less functionality compared to that of Quid.
- Web-scraping projects. The director of deal technology at a professional services firm said that their organization also paid vendors for customer web-scraping projects before Quid, which cost more than $500,000 per year and also posed legal risks.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization replaces its legacy social listening tool and reliance on commissioned research studies by adopting Quid, avoiding $150,000, $175,000, and $200,000 in associated costs during Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Avoided costs ramp over time as the composite organization conducts increasing volumes of research with Quid.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The following factors may impact this benefit:
- An organization’s use of social listening tools prior to Quid and associated costs.
- An organization’s use of vendor research prior to Quid and associated costs.
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 more than $388,000.
Cost Optimization
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Avoided spend on legacy research solutions | Interviews | $150,000 | $175,000 | $200,000 | |
| Ct | Cost optimization | C1 | $150,000 | $175,000 | $200,000 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↓10% | |||||
| Ctr | Cost optimization (risk-adjusted) | $135,000 | $157,500 | $180,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $472,500 | Three-year present value: $388,129 | |||||
Unquantified Benefits
Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
- More informed and relevant decision-making. Interviewees shared that their organizations’ analysts and researchers could deliver more granular analyses with Quid compared to other tools and research methods, enabling more relevant and informed decision-making. The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm shared: “Other social listening tools are more engagement-focused, whereas with Quid, you have the ability to slice and dice data layers and drill down into what’s being said, who’s saying it, and what factors are driving a particular conversation. Knowing how trends are deeply connected becomes a really important data point for the work we do.” The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier said: “We help stakeholders be more confident in their decision-making because the information that we source from Quid can be more adaptive to what they are asking about compared to custom research or syndicated reports that our competitors use. With Quid, we can deliver differentiated and more relevant data to answer a question.”
- Improved brand positioning. The senior director of e-commerce at a retailer shared that Quid improved their organization’s brand positioning by helping maintain awareness around evolving consumer preferences, highlighting product demand trends, and ensuring that in-demand products are more discoverable for customers. They shared: “Having more items that would be constituted as trending positions our brand in a stronger way that drives more customer lifetime value. It creates an environment where our company can be seen more as a destination for having the right trending assortment.”
- Transparent AI. Quid’s conversational AI tools offered transparency into query processes, allowing users to understand how prompts are executed and validate the relevance of generated insights, which ensured confidence in the results. The managing director of digital transformation at a communications firm said: “I appreciate the transparency of Quid’s AI functionalities and how it shows its work in how it’s executing prompts. This transparency is a nice confidence boost and ensures that it isn’t going rogue or hallucinating.”
Flexibility
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Quid and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:
- Ongoing feature enhancements. Quid continues to release enhancements and new features, increasing potential value and return on investment for the interviewees’ organizations. The senior director of digital transformation at a communications firm said: “The infrastructure they’ve built to support their AI roadmap and vision of utilizing more and more data is something that really excites me, given the way we do our research. We avoid just taking social media comments or survey results at face value, as they can be wrong or lack context. Instead, we strive to take all available inputs, examine them through the right lens, and apply the correct methodology so we can get the right answers for our clients. Quid’s product vision aligns very closely with that and what we seek to offer our clients.”
- Outcome-engineering solutions. Following the interview period for this study, Quid introduced enhancements to its delivery model. As part of its new business model, Quid operates tools on behalf of customers, engineering custom models aligned with specific customer use cases and desired business outcomes, using AI and analytical engineering to identify trends and correlations, delivering insight briefs and data feeds, and offering self-service capabilities to enable internal stakeholders to surface insights from the platform. This new model offers the interviewees’ organizations potential improvements to efficiency and decision-making. For example, the retail organization engaged with Quid under this new model, with Quid delivering custom insights to the organization’s stakeholders to help them align merchandising and digital marketing campaigns with current trends in a way that better resonates with their customers and makes it easier for customers to find the products they seek.
The concept of flexibility is 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dtr | Quid licensing and service costs | $0 | $330,000 | $330,000 | $330,000 | $990,000 | $820,661 |
| Etr | Implementation, training, and ongoing management | $14,564 | $8,184 | $8,184 | $8,184 | $39,116 | $34,916 |
| Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $14,564 | $338,184 | $338,184 | $338,184 | $1,029,116 | $855,577 |
Quid Licensing And Service Costs
Evidence and data. The interviewees’ organizations paid fees to Quid comprising licensing and service costs. Licensing costs were determined based on multiple factors, including the number of users, the specific products used within the platform for their use cases, and the volume of data consumption. Interviewees’ organizations incurred fees for Quid services including dashboard configuration, analyst support, and foreign language support. Since the Forrester conducted the customer interviews for this study, Quid’s product delivery model has evolved; thus, pricing may vary from what is modeled in this study. Contact Quid for additional details.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- The composite organization incurs $300,000 in licensing and services fees from Quid.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The following factors may impact this benefit:
- The number of Quid users.
- An organization’s use cases, Quid products licensed, and volume of data consumption.
- The choice to leverage Quid services.
- Ongoing changes to Quid’s product and pricing.
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 $821,000.
Quid Licensing And Service Costs
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Quid licensing and services costs | Interviews | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | ||
| Dt | Quid licensing and service costs | D1 | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | ||
| Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
| Dtr | Quid licensing and service costs (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $330,000 | $330,000 | $330,000 | ||
| Three-year total: $990,000 | Three-year present value: $820,661 | ||||||
Implementation, Training, And Ongoing Management
Evidence and data. The interviewees’ organizations incurred costs in the following areas:
- Implementation labor. The Quid platform is accessible through a web browser; therefore, interviewees reported that there was no technical implementation effort required to enable user access. Instead, implementation efforts focused on configuration and testing of custom dashboards associated with each organization’s use cases. Interviewees shared implementation timelines ranging from a few weeks to three months.
- Training. Interviewees noted that their organization’s analysts typically required 8 hours of training to gain familiarity with using the Quid platform.
- Ongoing management. The consumer insights and intelligence director at a CPG supplier reported 2 hours of ongoing management effort per week involving dashboard updates, assistance with training for new users, and system hygiene. The senior director of e-commerce at a retailer said they spent approximately 5% of their workload managing the Quid platform.
Modeling and assumptions. Based on the interviews, Forrester assumes the following about the composite organization:
- A total of 120 hours are dedicated by senior-level resources for the implementation of Quid. The average fully burdened hourly cost of these resources is $69.
- In the initial period of the investment, all 10 of the composite organization’s analysts participate in 8 hours of training. Two new analysts participate in training during Year 1 through Year 3 of the investment, accounting for turnover.
- The average fully burdened hourly burdened hourly cost of an analyst is $62.
- A total of 104 hours are dedicated annually to ongoing management of Quid by an analyst resource.
Risks. Forrester recognizes that these results may not be representative of all experiences. The following factors may impact this benefit:
- The number of Quid users.
- An organization’s use cases for Quid and the time required configure for Quid for these use cases.
- Training and ongoing management requirements.
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 less than $35,000.
Implementation, Training, And Ongoing Management
| Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Internal labor hours dedicated to Quid implementation | Interviews | 120 | ||||
| E2 | Average fully burdened hourly salary of internal labor involved in implementation | Composite | $69 | ||||
| E3 | Subtotal: Internal implementation labor cost | E1*E2 | $8,280 | ||||
| E4 | New Quid users participating in training | Composite | 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| E5 | Hours of training per new Quid user | Composite | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | |
| E6 | Average fully burdened hourly salary of an analyst | B5 | $62 | $62 | $62 | $62 | |
| E7 | Subtotal: Training costs | E4*E5*E6 | $4,960 | $992 | $992 | $992 | |
| E8 | Ongoing management hours | Interviews | 104 | 104 | 104 | ||
| E9 | Hourly burdened cost of internal labor involved in implementation | Composite | $62 | $62 | $62 | ||
| E10 | Subtotal: Ongoing management costs | E8*E9 | $6,448 | $6,448 | $6,448 | ||
| Et | Implementation, training, and ongoing management | E3+E7+E10 | $13,240 | $7,440 | $7,440 | $7,440 | |
| Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
| Etr | Implementation, training, and ongoing management (risk-adjusted) | $14,564 | $8,184 | $8,184 | $8,184 | ||
| Three-year total: $39,116 | Three-year present value: $34,916 | ||||||
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 | ($14,564) | ($338,184) | ($338,184) | ($338,184) | ($1,029,116) | ($855,577) |
| Total benefits | $0 | $1,179,424 | $1,442,477 | $1,705,530 | $4,327,431 | $3,545,723 |
| Net benefits | ($14,564) | $841,240 | $1,104,293 | $1,367,346 | $3,298,315 | $2,690,146 |
| ROI | 314% | |||||
| Payback | <6 months |
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 solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
Total Economic Impact Approach
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Benefits represent the value the solution delivers to the business. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and costs, allowing for a full examination of the solution’s effect on the entire organization.
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Costs comprise all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the solution. The methodology captures implementation and ongoing costs associated with the solution.
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Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. The ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
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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: Endnotes
1 Source: Improve Your Organizational Health With Analytically Informed Decisions, Forrester Research, Inc., October 29, 2024.
2 Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists solution providers in communicating their value proposition to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of business and technology initiatives to both senior management and other key stakeholders.
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