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Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study 2026

Enterprise GRC that paid back in under 6 months

An independent Forrester study found MetricStream Enterprise GRC delivered 133% ROI and $4.8M total return for a composite organization based on customers in highly regulated industries.

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133%Return on Investment

$8.4M3-Year Benefits

$4.8MTotal Return (NPV)

<6Months Payback

The Total Economic Impact™ of MetricStream Enterprise GRC — Forrester Report
STUDY OVERVIEW

Why Legacy GRC Approaches are Failing

Scattered GRC data across spreadsheets, emails, and siloed tools

No unified taxonomy, no consistent risk scales, and no centralized visibility, making it impossible to enforce standards or collaborate across regions.

Extensive manual workflows create key-person risk

Siloed processes and individual expertise locked in people's heads, such as quarterly reports, require weeks of manual aggregation involving hundreds of employees.

Slow, reactive risk identification leading to regulatory penalties

Inability to link risks, controls, and incidents in real time resulted in repeated violations and damaged relationships with regulators and customers.

We shifted from very fragmented and low‑maturity processes to a system where all major GRC activities are centrally recorded and reported.

Head of Compliance Technology & Enablement

Insurance

FINANCIAL IMPACT

$8.4M in Quantified Benefits Over 3 Years

Forrester identified three major categories of risk-adjusted, present-value benefits for a global $20B financial services company.

133%
Three-year return on investment
$4.2M
Avoided GRC labor costs
$2.3M
Technology & infrastructure savings
$2.0M
Reduced risk of fines & reputational damage
RISK-ADJUSTED RESULTS

Three Significant Areas of Financial Return

Each benefit was risk-adjusted by Forrester to account for variability in organizational maturity, industry, and geography.

$4.2M

Avoided costs across all GRC-related activities

Centralizing data and workflows eliminated redundant data entry, reduced risk tracking by over 50%, and cut reporting time from weeks to days. Equivalent to avoiding 14 FTEs by Year 2 with no impact on coverage quality. Risk-adjusted down by 15% · 3-yr Present Value at 10% discount rate.

Risk-adjusted down by 15% · 3-yr present value at 10% discount rate.

$2.3M

Eliminated legacy technology and infrastructure costs

The composite organization deprecated multiple legacy GRC tools — including a legacy GRC solution, HR policy systems, and hundreds of intranet sites — saving over $300,000 and roughly 0.67 FTE per decommissioned tool.

Risk-adjusted down by 10% · 3-yr present value at 10% discount rate.

$2.0M

Reduced risk of regulatory fines and reputational damage

GRC modernization contributed to a 6.6% reduction in the probability of a regulatory violation directly attributable to MetricStream. For an organization facing $5M in annual penalties and $10M in reputational risk, this compounds significantly.

Risk-adjusted down by 20% · 3-yr present value at 10% discount rate.

BEYOND THE ROI MODEL

Strategic Business Outcomes Beyond the Financial ROI

While Forrester quantified the measurable financial impact, customers also reported significant strategic benefits that extend the value of the platform well beyond the ROI model.

A single source of enterprise truth

Unified GRC data across global operations creates greater consistency, transparency, and confidence in business decisions while eliminating fragmented reporting.

AI-ready by design

Structured, centralized GRC data provides the foundation for enterprise AI initiatives, enabling intelligent policy search, automated remediation recommendations, and AI-assisted control development.

Stronger collaboration across the organization

Standardized processes and shared visibility into risks, deficiencies, and remediation activities foster better coordination and faster decision-making across business units and geographies.

Sharper focus on what matters most

Consolidated risk and control libraries reduce duplication and compliance noise, allowing teams to focus on material business risks instead of administrative overhead.

Enhanced regulator and customer confidence

Real-time access to governed evidence and audit trails streamlines inspections, improves transparency, and strengthens trust with regulators, customers, and auditors.

Greater organizational resilience

Institutional knowledge is embedded within standardized workflows and centralized repositories, reducing dependency on individuals and ensuring continuity despite personnel changes.

WHAT CUSTOMERS SAY

What Customers Say

We now have a single, disciplined, end-to-end risk methodology and governance structure that actually works.

Head of Compliance Analytics

Banking

Reporting that once required 400 people to work on over two to three weeks is now done in one to two days because we have all the data at hand.

Head of Compliance Technology & Enablement

Insurance

Enterprise GRC has become the golden source of data for us. We are getting consistent, high-quality data across over 40 countries.

Head of Compliance Technology & Enablement

Insurance

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

The Forrester study found a 133% ROI, with a $4.8M net present value over three years and payback in under 6 months, based on a composite $20B financial services organization.
Forrester found $4.2M in avoided labor costs over three years, equivalent to 14 FTEs by Year 2, by eliminating redundant data entry, streamlining risk and policy management, and automating reporting that previously required hundreds of people working over two to three weeks.
Forrester attributes a 6.6% reduction in violation risk directly to MetricStream, one-third of a broader 20% improvement from GRC modernization overall. For the composite organization, this translates to $2.0M in risk-adjusted, present-value savings over three years.
Total three-year, risk-adjusted costs were $3.6M: $2.9M in licensing and support (~$1.1M/year), $440K in implementation, and $288K in administration and training.
Timelines ranged from under one year to 18 months, depending on scope. The recommended approach is agile delivery — two to three modules per quarter — with user onboarding beginning around the six-month mark.
The study was commissioned by MetricStream but independently researched and authored by Forrester Consulting, which maintains full editorial control. MetricStream provided customer names for recruitment but did not participate in the interviews.

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