The Total Economic Impact™ Of Tanium Converged Endpoint Management (XEM)

Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Tanium XEM

A Forrester Total Economic ImpactTM Study Commissioned By Tanium, December 2023

Security and IT pros are struggling to keep pace with an expanding attack surface. Hybrid work, the rise of bring-your-own-device, rampant cloud adoption, and a continued interest in the internet of things (IoT) is making vulnerability and patch management more difficult than ever.1  Tanium aims to help organizations overcome this challenge through its XEM platform approach, which provides organizations with real-time visibility and control of their endpoint environment, while maintaining security controls and performance.

The Tanium XEM platform identifies, prioritizes, and remediates IT and security issues in real time from a single console. IT and security teams are enabled to control all endpoints in their environment through streamlined workflows, and increased efficiency, and reduced complexities through the displacement of multiple point solutions. Furthermore, organizations can track and reduce their endpoint risk over time, reclaim unused software assets, and reduce the likelihood of a breach or fine.

Tanium commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying the  Tanium XEM Platform. The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Tanium XEM on their organizations.2

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed five customers with experience using Tanium XEM. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results of organizations ranging from 2,200 to 140,000 endpoints into a single  composite organization, which has 40,000 employees and 48,000 endpoints.

Interviewees said that prior to using Tanium XEM, their organizations had multiple complex and decentralized solutions along with manual processes throughout their endpoint management workflows. However, prior attempts to manage their endpoint environment yielded limited success, restricting visibility into their endpoint environment and security vulnerabilities. These limitations led to high costs in software licensing and tools, overworked FTEs, security incidents or breaches, agent bloat that reduced device performance, and time-consuming data reconciliations across disjointed tools.

After deploying Tanium XEM, the interviewees were able to automate and centralize their endpoint management processes. Key results from the investment include software reclamation savings, endpoint management efficiency savings, risk mitigation cost avoidance, and tool consolidation savings.

Key Findings

Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

  • Successful reclamation of unused, rarely-used or unauthorized software titles with Tanium XEM on 90% of endpoints. Across 48,000 endpoints in the composite organization, 20% have reclaimable software. Tanium XEM enables the successful reclamation of these licenses through the solution’s comprehensive visibility and control over endpoints. Over three years, reclamation savings with Tanium XEM are worth more than $4.8 million.
  • Increased endpoint management efficiency by 60%. The composite organization realizes efficiencies enabled by Tanium XEM on its endpoint management team by automating activities like software deployment, patching, and security assessments. Efficiencies scale over time as users increasingly utilize Tanium XEM, resulting in 60% efficiencies gained by the end of Year 3. Over three years, endpoint management efficiency savings are worth more than $1 million.
  • Reduced software vulnerabilities by 97% through improved patching. The composite organization improves its security posture with Tanium XEM by automating patch deployment, assessing vulnerabilities, and leveraging real-time data. Improvements in OS and third-party software patching with Tanium lead to a 97% reduction in software vulnerabilities. Over three years, risk mitigation cost avoidance is worth more than $7.9 million.
  • Improved endpoint management and security tool consolidation by 70%. Tanium XEM's platform approach and comprehensive coverage (across a range of Use Cases, such as asset management, compliance management, incident response, patch management, threat protection, and data discovery) consolidates endpoint management and security tools. Over three years, tool consolidation savings are worth more than $4.1 million.

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

  • M&A efficiency and cost savings. Tanium XEM’s capabilities enable organizations to fully understand and integrate endpoint environments after an acquisition. Tanium XEM improves the efficiency of M&A IT integration activities by 70% and avoids technical debt by identifying redundant solutions.
  • Unique technical account manager (TAM). Tanium’s unique support model, included in the price of the software, enables organizations to optimize the platform and take advantage of its full capabilities. The Tanium TAM builds a bridge between an organization and the vendor to ensure success with the platform.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

  • Licensing. Licensing is based on the Core tier and additional solutions that cover areas such as asset management, compliance management, incident response, patch management, threat protection, and data discovery. Pricing is based on the number of endpoints.
  • Internal implementation and training. Internal implementation and training costs include several months spent by two FTEs from the endpoint management team to fully deploy the solution. There are 30 users who spend 8 hours each on training. Organizations implementing a cloud-based installation may find the installation time significantly reduced.
  • Internal ongoing management. The composite organization has two FTEs dedicating 50% of their time toward the ongoing management of the Tanium XEM on-prem solution. While some organizations deployed Tanium XEM on-prem, other organizations may deploy it as a cloud-based solution. This would reduce overall ongoing support costs.

The representative interviews and financial analysis found that the composite organization experiences benefits of $18.07 million over three years versus costs of $5.5 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $12.57 million and an ROI of 228%.

Reduction in software vulnerabilities with Tanium patching

97%

“Tanium XEM has positive command and control over your entire enterprise. You have all sorts of different operating systems, environments, regional pieces, and political shenanigans that will stand in your way of being able to have full command and control over your entire enterprise. Tanium XEM solves that problem in a way that no other vendor really does.”

Cyber principal, insurance

Key Statistics

  • icon icon

    Return on investment (ROI):

    228%
  • icon icon

    Benefits PV:

    $18.07M
  • icon icon

    Net present value (NPV):

    $12.57M
  • icon icon

    Payback:

    Less than 6 months

Benefits (Three-Year)

Successful software reclamation Increased endpoint management efficiency Reduced software vulnerabilities Improved endpoint management and security tool consolidation

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 Tanium XEM.

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 Tanium XEM can have on an organization.

  1. Due Diligence

    Interviewed Tanium XEM stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Tanium XEM.

  2. Interviews

    Interviewed five representatives at organizations using Tanium XEM to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.

  3. Composite Organization

    Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.

  4. 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.

  5. 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 Tanium 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 and an ROI calculator powered by Forrester available through Tanium to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Tanium XEM.

Tanium 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.

Tanium provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.

Consulting Team:

Nikoletta Stergiou

Adam Birnberg

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