The Total Economic Impact™
Of Dropbox
Cost Savings And Business Benefits
Enabled By Dropbox
OCTOBER 2022

A FORRESTER TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ STUDY COMMISSIONED BY DROPBOX

Table Of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................. 1

Consulting Team: Richard Cavallaro
Carmen Serradilla Ortiz

The Dropbox Customer Journey ............................ 6
Key Challenges ...................................................... 6
Investment Objectives ............................................ 7
Composite Organization ......................................... 7
Analysis Of Benefits ................................................ 9
Improved Individual Productivity ............................ 9
Improved Team Collaboration .............................. 11
Reduction In Rework ............................................ 13
Facilitated User Management .............................. 15
Improved Content Governance ............................ 17
Unquantified Benefits ........................................... 19
Flexibility ............................................................... 19
Analysis Of Costs .................................................. 20
Dropbox Subscription Fees .................................. 20
Initial And Ongoing Dropbox Management .......... 21
Financial Summary ................................................ 22
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact ................... 23
Appendix B: Endnotes .......................................... 24

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THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOXExecutive Summary
Dropbox improves productivity for users at the individual and team levels, accelerating
the benefits of key workflows and projects while providing a better employee experience.
Administrators benefit from an improved ease of managing users and permissions via
centralized administrative tools — all while improving governance of critical content, files,
and intellectual property through activity monitoring, alerting, and security capabilities.

Information and frontline workers all need to capture
their ideas, plans, decisions, and observations into

KEY STATISTICS

some type of document — whether in a brief,
presentation, spreadsheet, chat, wiki, photo, or
image. Content platforms equipped with secure
sharing capabilities, task tracking, e-signatures, andmore, are increasingly important in workflows

Return on investment (ROI)

Net present value (NPV)

requiring collaboration across internal and external375%$1.07M

stakeholders as hybrid work becomes increasingly
common.1
Dropbox is a content service platform that enables
secure file sharing and collaboration across internaland external users, teams, and workflows — all while
maintaining an easy-to-manage and governanceminded admin experience. Dropbox commissioned
Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic
Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential
return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize
by deploying Dropbox. The purpose of this study is toprovide readers with a framework to evaluate thepotential financial impact of Dropbox on theirorganizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks
associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed
five representatives with experience using Dropbox.
For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated
the interviewees’ experiences and combined theresults into a single composite organization, a small
to medium-size business (SMB) with 1,000 total
employees (300 of which are Dropbox users).

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Prior to using Dropbox, friction existed throughout thefile sharing and collaboration experience. Users andteams often struggled to locate or access files thatthey needed to collaborate on, while file size
limitations, several disparate content management
solutions, and prevalent rework further diminished theexperience. On the admin side, managing
permissions for collaborators (internal and external)
was becoming an increasingly arduous task.
Ensuring good content governance and security amid
increasingly external collaboration was becoming
nearly impossible, exposing the organizations toexternal risks.
By adopting Dropbox, productivity for users increased
at the individual and team levels, which accelerated
the benefits of key workflows and projects whileproviding a better employee experience. IT (or teamlevel) administrators benefited from an improved
ease of managing users, permissions, and security
via centralized administrative tools, activity
monitoring, and alerting capabilities.

1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Dropbox offers our users
productivity and efficiency,
improving time to market for thedeliverance of products, messaging,and ultimately business.
— SVP of worldwide sales, software

KEY FINDINGS
Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted
present value (PV) quantified benefits for the•organization. With improvements to the ease ofcomposite organization include:•navigating files and collaboration across the

Improved user productivity valued at overorganizations, the composite organization sees

$530,000 over three years. By adopting

redundant work within Dropbox workflows

Dropbox, the composite organization’s key users

disappear.

and teams reclaim hundreds of hours per week
attributable to functionality from Dropbox.
••

Avoided content administration totaling
hundreds of hours. Dropbox facilitates user

Faster team collaboration by 10%,access and permissions management through aaccelerating over $395,000 in project-related

centralized admin console. The composite

benefits. The composite organization

organization experiences improved ease ofexperiences efficiencies at the team level

managing users while ensuring accurate

resulting from its Dropbox adoption. Teamspermissions and adherence to content

whose projects and workflows benefit most fromgovernance policies.

Dropbox features complete work faster andaccelerate the benefits associated with these

A 90% reduction in rework across the•

A 5% cost avoidance to the annualized cost ofdata leakage. Dropbox allows the composite

projects.

organization to better adhere to security policies
and maintain content governance, protecting

Improved velocity of teamcollaboration

10%

valuable customer data, intellectual property, andother critical internal data.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that are notquantified in this study include:•

Infrastructure and legacy solution costsavings. Some of the organizations’ interviewees
spoke to Forrester about cost savings associatedTHE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

with the replacement of legacy document sharing
and collaboration tools.
•

Improved employee experience. With Dropbox,
users are equipped with a more robust set ofcollaboration tools which facilitate their day-today activities on key workflows, reducing thetedium associated with collaboration and filesharing.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for thecomposite organization include:•

Subscription fees for Dropbox. Organizations
pay a subscription fee to Dropbox on a per user
per month basis. The composite organization
pays $24 per user per month for Dropbox
Advanced.

•

Initial and ongoing Dropbox management. For
the composite organization, onboarding users is
nearly instantaneous. Managing users,
permissions, and content governance on
Dropbox is comparatively easy compared to its
legacy tools.

The representative interviews and financial analysis
found that a composite organization experiences
benefits of $1.35M over three years versus costs of$284,000, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of$1.07 million and an ROI of 375%.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYROI

BENEFITS PV

NPVPAYBACK

375%$1.35M$1.07M<6monthsBenefits (Three-Year)

Improved individual productivity$564.6K

Improved team collaboration$396.3K

Reduction in rework$126.9K

Facilitated IT management$101.5K

Improved content governance$162.9K"At our company, Dropbox has
facilitated better content
collaboration, more connected
teams, and more productive teams
altogether.”— Director of IT, conglomerate
THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYTEI FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
From the information provided in the interviews,
Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™
framework for those organizations considering an

DUE DILIGENCE
Interviewed Dropbox stakeholders and Forrester
analysts to gather data relative to Dropbox.

investment in Dropbox.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost,benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the

INTERVIEWSInterviewed five representatives at organizations

investment decision. Forrester took a multistep

using Dropbox to obtain data with respect toapproach to evaluate the impact that Dropbox cancosts, benefits, and risks.

have on an organization.
COMPOSITE ORGANIZATION
Designed a composite organization based on
characteristics of the interviewees’organizations.

FINANCIAL MODEL FRAMEWORK
Constructed a financial model representative of
the interviews using the TEI methodology andrisk-adjusted the financial model based on
DISCLOSURES

issues and concerns of the interviewees.

Readers should be aware of the following:This study is commissioned by Dropbox and delivered byForrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as acompetitive 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 theframework provided in the study to determine theappropriateness of an investment in Dropbox.
Dropbox 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 themeaning of the study.

CASE STUDY
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI inmodeling 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.

Forrester sourced the customer names for the interviews.
Dropbox did not participate in the interviews.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

5

The Dropbox Customer Journey
Drivers leading to the Dropbox investment

Interviews
Role

Industry

Region

Revenue

VP of real estate

Advertising

North America~$2.7 billion

CIO, global technology solutions

Animal healthNorth America~$4.4 billion

Director of IT

ConglomerateNorth America~$4 billion

Principal UX design consultant

DesignEurope~$50 million

SVP of worldwide sales

Software

North America~$150 million

KEY CHALLENGES"We used to deal with limitations
on file sizes we could transfer.
With Dropbox, we don’t see any
limitations whatsoever, and wehave some pretty large files andcode that we’re working with.”

The interviewees noted how their organizations
struggled with common challenges, including:•A lack of external collaboration capabilities
delayed workflows and burdened key
personnel. Each of the interviewees citedexternal collaboration challenges that hindered
and delayed the daily workflows of theirorganizations’ personnel — a symptom of legacy

SVP of worldwide sales, software

solutions. The usage of internally shared drives
and tools limited the scope of external
collaboration, often adding days or weeks toteams’ workflows as critical files were shared andthe organizations’ already limited IT and security

reshared over email. File size limitations andpersonnel. Access and permissions management

incompatible file types added further complexity

not only affected IT administrator productivity but

to collaboration.

also productivity at the team level because users
did not have a streamlined set of tools to manage•

Limited visibility into user access and fileaccess to key files.

traffic exposed the organizations’ files and IP
to risk. Shadow IT was common because teams•

A disparate collection of content management

and users often resorted to their own solutions tosolutions complicated users’ workflows andalleviate collaboration productivity barriers,

productivity. Interviewees told Forrester that

exposing the organization to the risk of data

their teams and users often lacked a single paneleakage or breaches involving valuable files,of glass view for the files and content theyclient data, or intellectual property. Resulting

needed to work with on a daily basis. Larger

security concerns around file sharing withenterprise collaboration management (ECM)

external parties forced additional diligence fromsolutions were difficult to navigate and lacked the

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

6

THE DROPBOX CUSTOMER JOURNEY

permissions and sharing capabilities that these

also important]. We always need to know who

specialized teams required for fluid collaboration.

worked on [the code] and what they did.”

Excessive time spent navigating these solutions
was common, as was rework on files or content
that was not located. The director of IT at the

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES
The interviewees’ organizations searched for aconglomerate summarized: “Our primarysolution that could:[document sharing and collaboration solution]•internal and externals users, teams, andour most important users the advanced

workflows while fitting into the organization’s

collaboration features they needed. It can beexisting stack of ECM tools and solutions.

clunky, and most of our users don’t [understandit] as well. The momentum to adopt Dropbox•

alerting, and traffic monitoring.
•"Working from home has madeour teams much more digitallyaware. Digital collaboration has
increased significantly, and ourteams demand tools that enable
faster collaboration across theboard.”
Director of IT, conglomerate

Version control and visibility challenges

Adhere to the organizations’ security policies
while providing enhanced permissions controls,came from our users for this reason.”•Work with large, diverse file types across several

was more of an internal portal that did not give

Be easily managed at both the IT level andindividual team level (access permissions, users,etc.).

Key Assumptions• $500M revenue• 300 Dropbox users• User-generated demand for
Dropbox from teams dealingin large, specialized file types
and frequent internal andexternal collaboration

hindering effective collaboration. On thelegacy set of ECM solutions, interviewees told
Forrester that users and administrators lacked
the specialized tools that could provide visibility

COMPOSITE ORGANIZATION

into file version history, user access andBased on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI

revisions, and version control. This further

framework, a composite company, and an ROI

impacted user and team productivity. The senior

analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected.

vice president (SVP) of worldwide sales at the

The composite organization is representative of thesoftware organization expressed the importance

five interviewees, and it is used to present theof version control when working with theiraggregate financial analysis in the next section. The

organization’s codebase, noting: “It is incredibly

composite organization has the following

imperative for us to be working on the rightcharacteristics:

version of [the code], but change notification [isTHE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

7

THE DROPBOX CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Description of composite. The composite
organization is an industry-agnostic, medium-sizedenterprise with 1,000 employees (300 of which are
Dropbox users) and $500 million in annual revenue.
Deployment characteristics. The organization
adopts Dropbox as a result of user demand for a"Dropbox integrates witheverything else we have, and it isincredibly seamless. It fits inperfectly with our environment.”

more refined set of file sharing and collaboration tools
in an increasingly hybrid and remote working

SVP of worldwide sales, softwareenvironment. 300 Dropbox users within theorganization make up sales and marketing teams that
rely on large files, specialized file types, and frequentinternal and external collaboration in their daily
workflows. Dropbox is selected primarily for its ability
to remove friction from these workflows while
improving controls around access, permissions, andsecurity, protecting the organization’s valuable
intellectual property. Before adopting Dropbox, theseusers relied on the organization’s primary cloudbased ECM solution to share files and collaborate"When we’re looking at mission
critical collaboration between
diverse parties and executives,
for us, Dropbox is way ahead.”internally. However, they lacked a consistent methodof collaboration among different teams or external
users.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Director of IT, conglomerate8Analysis Of Benefits
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite

Total Benefits
Ref.

BenefitYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

Total

Present
Value

Atr

Improved individual
productivity$138,915$277,830$277,830$694,575$564,636

Btr

Improved team collaboration$159,360$159,360$159,360$478,080$396,305

Ctr

Reduction in rework$51,030$51,030$51,030$153,090$126,904

Dtr

Facilitated IT management$40,800$40,800$40,800$122,400$101,464

Etr

Improved content
governance$65,485$65,485$65,485$196,454$162,851

Total benefits (risk-adjusted)$455,590$594,505$594,505$1,644,599$1,352,160

IMPROVED INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY•

systems or shared drives.

Evidence and data. Before adopting Dropbox andusing legacy ECM solutions, key users at the

•

•

•

File access and synchronization limitations
across multiple devices.

interviewees’ organizations lost working time tosuboptimal and/or missing functionality, including:Inability to locate key files due to siloed ECM

By adopting Dropbox, each of the interviewees

File size limitations that affected file transfers

highlighted examples of how their organizations’ key

between users (internal and external), forcing

users and teams reclaimed several hours per week

time-consuming workarounds.

attributable to functionality from Dropbox:

Permissions and access issues prevented certain•

The advertising organization’s staff worked withusers from accessing key files in the moment ofvery large file sizes. Its vice president (VP) of realneed.

estate noted that Dropbox offered an estimated
20% productivity increase to users transferringlarge files with Dropbox Transfer to and fromclients. Dropbox team folders allow users to“‘Wow, I’ve emerged in the 21st
century,’ one dev told me.
Another user said, ‘Dropbox islike adding an easy button forcollaboration.’”share files in groups, as opposed to individuallywhich was previously the norm.
•

Using Dropbox to transfer and collaborate oncode, the developer users at the animal healthorganization self-reported a 10% to 30% impact
to their productivity with Dropbox to their IT
organization to solidify their organization’s

CIO, Global Technology Solutions,
Animal healthongoing investment.
•

Through trial and error with several collaboration
tools and approaches, the principal UX design

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

9

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS•

consultant at the design organization

The features and functionality within ansummarized the importance of the ongoingorganization’s legacy content management stack

Dropbox investment: “We can easily share ouras it relates to functionality increase once

work externally. In the past, we’d use email, andDropbox is deployed.

it doesn’t work. We’d use [another sharing
solution], it doesn’t work. Eventually we always•

the potential for productivity improvement.

say, ‘just put it in Dropbox.’”Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
organization, Forrester makes the following

The workflows of affected users as it relates to•

The number of affected Dropbox users and theseniority of those affected as it relates to thevalue of their reclaimed time.

assumptions:

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester•

There are 300 Dropbox users at the organization.

•

A 3% productivity increase, just over 1 hour per

three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%)week per user. This benefit is calculated at 50%

of $565,000.

adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a

in Year 1 of the analysis as users are onboarded
and ramp up Dropbox functionality.
•

An average hourly rate of $35 for each Dropbox
user.

42%

$564,636•

A 50% productivity capture for reclaimed working

three-year
benefit PV

hours, as it cannot be assumed all hours will be
repurposed to value-added activities.
Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
based on:Improved Individual Productivity
Ref.

MetricSourceYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

A1

Total Dropbox users

Composite

300

300

300

A2

Improvement to weekly productivity
attributable to Dropbox

Interviews

1.5%

3%

3%

A3

Hours per user reclaimed per week

A2*40 hours

0.6

1.2

1.2

A4

Average hourly rate

TEI standard

$35

$35

$35

A5

Productivity recapture

Assumption

50%

50%

50%

At

Improved individual productivity

A1*A3*A4*A5*49
weeks$154,350$308,700$308,700

Risk adjustment↓10%$138,915$277,830$277,830

Atr

Improved individual productivity (riskadjusted)
Three-year total: $694,575

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $564,636

10

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITSIMPROVED TEAM COLLABORATION

the organization could easily access the right

Evidence and data. In addition to individual user

version of the files in the moment of need,productivity improvements, the interviewees reported

facilitating business despite the attrition.

efficiencies at the team level resulting from theirorganizations’ Dropbox adoption and its related•

The director of IT at the conglomerateorganization said that several distinct groups

features. Teams whose projects and workflows

within the organization used Dropbox for theirbenefit most from Dropbox features such as fileown purposes.

previews, commenting, document creation andcollaboration with Dropbox Paper, and multidevice▪

The conglomerate’s architects andaccess complete work faster and accelerate theengineers working on the organization’s

benefits associated with these projects.

real estate portfolio collaborated acrossmultiple devices throughout their complex•

The SVP of worldwide sales at the software

workflows.

organization told Forrester that the collaboration
between its lead development sales▪

Finance and accounting staff shared

representatives (LEDRU), marketing personnel,

important files among their organization toand proposal team has increased through in-facilitate the monthly closing tasks.

document collaboration with Dropbox when▪

The organization’s in-house agency, as

generating proposals for prospective customers.

well as marketing team, tasked with digital

The SVP noted: “Our proposals are typically aasset creation could share these large

very comprehensive 20 to 30 pages. Now we’refiles externally with customers andable to pull in all the relevant details saved on ourvendors more efficiently. This accelerated

team folders in Dropbox. We can have ourfeedback and consolidated andproposals ready to go for our prospects the next

decreased the time to market for theseday. With Dropbox, we’re 50% faster delivering

assets.

proposals to our prospects and customers, which
has decreased our time to close and increased
sales.” The SVP added that collaboration acrossmultiple devices on these proposals greatly
accelerated the process, as sales personnel
often collaborated directly from the field.
•

The VP of real estate in the advertisingorganization noted that the improved visibility into
version history (and therefore better version
control), in-Dropbox collaboration, simplified filelocating, and external collaboration capabilities
made their organization’s key files readily
accessible whenever needed by anyone acrossthe workflow, which improved the consistency ofdaily operations. The VP highlighted an example"When our marketing team isworking on digital media
creation, they have other teams
and external stakeholders thatneed to collaborate, edit, provide
feedback, etc. Dropbox
facilitates this diverse set of
workflows in a secure manner.”
Director of IT, conglomerate

where several large files and lease documents
were needed by a landlord whose accountmanager had left the organization. With Dropbox,

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

11

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS•The CIO, global technology solutions of the“There are all kinds of documents
we’re accessing every day in
Dropbox, and we never have toworry about losing them.
Dropbox simplifies our workflows
incredibly — we can update one
file, and everyone has access to it
instantaneously.”

animal health organization spoke to the potential
for FTE savings at the team level resulting fromproductivity benefits for the individuals on theteam: “If each of our users is saving 10%, ourteams can achieve the same results with 10
FTEs versus 11 FTEs. Across our 1,200 users,
this becomes material.”•

Usage of Dropbox Paper yielded collaboration
benefits at the design organization. The principal
UX design consultant told Forrester, “Having that

VP of real estate, advertisingannotation ability in [Dropbox] Paper is really
useful in getting collaboration from Dropbox at
the project scale, especially over the lifecycle of alonger project, which could be a few months, withprojects achieved across the interviewed

several people participating [on and off].”organizations.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite•

Each project is accelerated by 10% withorganization, Forrester makes the following

Dropbox, accelerating revenues associated withassumptions:each project while saving an average of 520 FTE•

hours per project.

Dropbox supports six marketing digital asset
creation projects per year across theRisks. This benefit will vary among organizationsorganization’s marketing project teams including

based on:marketing assets and sales enablement materials(battlecards, brochures, etc.), which support•

impacted by Dropbox efficiencies.

revenue generation through increased sales
pipeline. (Note: across the interviews, several

The features and functionality within an
organization’s legacy content management

should be noted that there are many potential

solutions as it relates to potential for teamsources of team project collaboration value

efficiency improvements on Dropbox.

were not modeled for this report).
Each project requires part-time involvement
across the entire team. Personnel (at $35 perhour) spend 20 hours per week on average
across the two-month-long project.
••

Dropbox use cases were shared with Forrester. It

beyond those quantified for the composite that•

The value of the specific project or use case

Each project contributes to closing $150,000 in•

The skill and capacity of an organization’s
personnel working on projects supported by
Dropbox.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester
adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding athree-year, risk-adjusted total PV of just over
$395,000

revenue for the composite organization. This is aconservative estimate based on the value of the$396,305
three-year
benefit PV

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

30%

12

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

Improved Team Collaboration
Ref.

MetricSourceYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

B1

Number of marketing project teams using
DropboxComposite

3

3

3

B2

Projects per team per year

Composite

2

2

2

B3

Subtotal: Impacted projects per year

B1*B2

6

6

6

B4

FTEs per project teamComposite

30

30

30

B5

Hours on project-related work per week

Composite

20

20

20

B6

Average hourly rate per FTE

TEI standard

$35

$35

$35

B7

Average project duration

2 months

0.167

0.167

0.167

B8

Subtotal: Personnel cost per projectB4*(B5*52
weeks) *B6*B7$182,000$182,000$182,000

B9

Revenue per project estimate(attributable sales pipeline)

Composite$150,000$150,000$150,000

B10

Subtotal: value per project

B8+B9$332,000$332,000$332,000

B11

Increased project velocity throughimproved collaboration

Interviews

10%

10%

10%

B12

Improved speed of collaboration (perproject)

Interviews$33,200$33,200$33,200

Bt

Improved team collaboration

B3*B12$199,200$199,200$199,200

Risk adjustment↓20%$159,360$159,360$159,360

Btr

Improved team collaboration (riskadjusted)
Three-year total: $478,080

Three-year present value: $396,305

their code through Dropbox, which saved effort.

REDUCTION IN REWORKThe SVP estimated that the organization

Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester thatrecovered 50 to 75 large files per year on

redundant work within their organizations’ Dropbox

Dropbox. They said, “It really is a feature thatworkflows was nearly nonexistent because ofsaves us a lot of time, since these are files that

improvements to file navigation and collaboration

would absolutely need to be rebuilt.”

flexibility across local and cloud files. Furthermore,
accidently deleted files were recoverable on Dropbox,•

Users at the conglomerate organization (acrosssaving these files (and the time associated with their

all of their diverse workflows) took advantage ofcreation) should this occur.

Dropbox’s version history and file recovery•

The SVP of worldwide sales at the softwareorganization spoke about the importance ofversion control and deleted file recovery for theirdevelopers using Dropbox. Developer teams hadfeatures. Its director of IT said: “Our users cansee the version history of their main files for ayear through the Dropbox Rewind feature. In
some of the cases where we had accidents, wethe ability to view and recover older versions of

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

13

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

have also been able to recover the files throughthis feature.”"What we found is that it’s notjust the accidently deleted files
we’re recovering with Dropbox
Rewind. In many cases we’regetting value from files that wereintentionally deleted but we later
realized a need for.”Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
organization, Forrester makes the following
assumptions:•

Before adopting Dropbox, each of theorganization’s 300 users spends an average of
30 minutes per month, or 6 hours per year, on filerework. This is a conservative calculation basedon the interviews. Interviewees noted that under

SVP of worldwide sales, software

certain circumstances, this number could bemuch higher, driving a higher benefit.
•

Ninety percent of all rework is avoided throughDropbox features such as Rewind and improved
ease of access through permissions and team

The average hourly rate for a Dropbox user isResults. To account for these risks, Forrester$35.

adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
based on:•

The nature of an organization’s workflows as it
relates to the value of file recovery.

folders.
••

three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of just over
$125,000.

The ease of search and recovery features within
an organization’s legacy content management

9%$126,904

solutions as it relates to potential for rework

three-year
benefit PV

reduction on Dropbox.

Reduction In Rework
Ref.

MetricSourceYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

C1

Number of users

Composite

300

300

300

C2

Average hours spent on rework per user
per year on old solution(s)Composite

6

6

6

C3

Rework avoidance with Dropbox

Interviews

90%

90%

90%

C4

Average hourly rate

TEI standard

$35

$35

$35

Ct

Reduction in rework

C1*C2*C3*C4$56,700$56,700$56,700

Risk adjustment↓10%$51,030$51,030$51,030

Ctr

Reduction in rework (risk-adjusted)
Three-year total: $153,090

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $126,904
14

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

we’re able to monitor everything. From a

FACILITATED USER MANAGEMENT

governance standpoint, [IT] is in control.”

Evidence and data. Before adopting Dropbox, theinterviewees’ organizations’ IT staff and team leads•

The CIO, global technology solutions at the

responsible for managing user access, permissions,animal health organization noted that Dropbox

and ensuring security faced challenges working on

was easier to manage from a permissions

these tasks with legacy solutions. These included:

standpoint than legacy tools and it saved hours of•administration headaches. They said: “Dropbox isTeam leads (and IT staff in some cases) would

built with a governance construct where we canfrequently need to reassign access or

put in some rules that define who gets filepermissions via cumbersome tools or email.

permissions. On our [other tools] we’re constantly

Access by external parties as needed by certain

getting [access request] emails that consume

workflows required additional effort in this regard.
•

Onboarding new users to secure workflows
required significant manual effort as access toadmin time.”•

console, the SVP of worldwide sales at theview or edit these files required certain

software organization estimated at least a half ofpermissions.
•

As a result of the centralized Dropbox adminan IT FTE headcount (for a smaller SMB) wasManaging file security was frequently an effort inavoidable through facilitated onboarding andguesswork, as limited visibility into file traffic

administration activities.

and/or updates forced IT staff and team leads tomanually track access and permissions tomaintain governance.

“With Dropbox, all of our admin
tools are in one location whichsaves IT significant amounts oftime trying to manage accesswhile also attempting to keep
everything secure.”

Dropbox facilitated user access and permissions
management through a centralized admin console.
Interviewees spoke to the improved ease ofmanaging users’ (new and existing, internal andexternal) permissions, and security. As a result, FTE
hours and/or headcount could be allocated towards
other value-adding activities throughout the

SVP of Worldwide Sales, softwareorganization.
•

The director of IT at the conglomerate spoke tobenefits for both team leads historically
responsible for assigning access andpermissions and the IT team responsible forsecurity posture. The director explained: “Mostbusiness teams have been able to rely on [IT]now to assign permissions for their users while

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
organization, Forrester makes the following
assumptions:•

Two FTEs tasked with managing content,

maintaining the ability to view their teampermissions, and governance save 20% of their[members’] activity. So, from a user

effort though Dropbox’ admin console. Thisadministration and onboarding standpoint, they

productivity is reallocated to other areas of thesave time and effort. From the IT perspective,

business.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

15

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS•

The average annual salary for an administrative

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester

FTE is $120,000 (IT and/or team leads).

adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations

three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of over $100,000.

based on:The ease of management for an organization’s•

legacy content management solutions as it

8%

relates to the potential for administrator$101,464

productivity increases.
•

three-year
benefit PV

The skill and capacity of the personnel managing
their organization’s content management
solutions.

Facilitated User Management
Ref.

MetricSourceYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

D1

Number of IT FTEs required to manage
legacy solutions

Composite

2

2

2

D2

FTE avoidance with Dropbox

Interviews

20%

20%

20%

D3

Average annual salary for IT FTE

TEI standard$120,000$120,000$120,000Dt

Facilitated user management

D1*D2*D3$48,000$48,000$48,000

Risk adjustment↓15%$40,800$40,800$40,800

Dtr

Facilitated user management (riskadjusted)
Three-year total: $122,400

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $101,464

16

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

providing a frictionless experience to thoseworking with the content. The director also

“Our IP and our code are ourmost valuable assets. The
security controls in Dropbox
give us confidence that thesecrown jewels of our organization
will not leak.”highlighted ransomware protection as a benefit,
telling Forrester: “In the cloud world, gone are thedays where all our data is stored within the data
center. Having Dropbox gives us that peace ofmind that we can monitor unusual logins andunusual changes. Even in the case of aransomware attack, we can protect ourselves
and recover if needed.”

SVP of Worldwide Sales, software•

Employees, especially sales representatives, atthe software organization were frequently
traveling with their devices and accessing

IMPROVED CONTENT GOVERNANCE

content, like customer data and valuable IP, fromEvidence and data. Each of the interviewees

various unsecured networks. The SVP ofdescribed ways that Dropbox allowed their respective

worldwide sales noted that Dropbox allowedorganizations to better adhere to security policies andthese users a level of protection that other tools

maintain content governance, protecting valuable

did not when accessing this content, whichcustomer data, intellectual property, and other criticalhighlighted Dropbox’s adherence to modern

internal data. Features within Dropbox thatencryption standards and secure file sharing

interviewees highlighted include:

capabilities.

•

Better visibility into user access and file traffic.

•

Secure file sharing options (password protection,email).

••

Dealing in sensitive customer information andlegal documents, the advertising organization’s
VP of real estate noted that Dropbox allowed
their users access to the files and content theyMore control over permissions and the ability toneeded, while keeping the sensitive data locked

configure default permissions adhering to data

down. The VP said, “We can give our users

governance policies.

access to the data they need without opening the•Ransomware protection.

entire lid of the cookie jar.”•

Alerts and notifications for potential data leaks or
suspicious activity.

•

Multifactor authentication and single sign-on
capabilities.

The interviewees provided the following examples
specific to their organizations:•

The director of IT at the conglomerate highlighted
the peace of mind Dropbox offered at the IT level
because of the many users and lines of businessin the organization. IT was able to maintainoversight of all user and file activity while still

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

In a review of Forrester and notable third-party
data sources, both attack volume and security
breach severity appear to be rising fororganizations that lack mature, modern
security culture and tooling.
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact practiceestimates that firms are faced with an averageof 1.8 material breaches per year with anaverage cost including 3,437 labor hours,$269,550 in direct costs, and $385,296 inbusiness losses.

17

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite•

A 5% improvement to the annualized impact oforganization, Forrester makes the following

data breaches attributable to security andassumptions:

governance controls for the 300 users (dealing in•sensitive information) in Dropbox.

The average cost of a single material data breachis $854,192, based on Forrester consulting data.

•

The annualized average number of material data
breaches at the composite organization is 1.8 per

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
based on:•The security features and functionality of anyear. (See the callout box about the quantification

organization’s legacy content management toolsof security breaches).

as it relates to the potential for improvement on
Dropbox.

11%•

An organization’s size and industry as it relates tothe cost and likelihood of unintentional or
malicious data breaches.

$152,946

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester

three-year
benefit PV

adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding athree-year, risk-adjusted total PV of over $150,000.

Improved Content Governance
Ref.

MetricSourceYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

E1

Average costs of response andnotification, fines, damages, compliancecosts, and customer compensation permaterial breach

ForresterConsulting$269,550$269,550$269,550

E2

Average lost business revenues andadditional costs to acquire customers permaterial breach

ForresterConsulting$385,296$385,296$385,296

E3

Total estimated cost of a significant
material breach (median)

E1+E2+E3$654,846$654,846$654,846

E4

Number of employees

Composite

1,000

1,000

1,000

E5

Estimated cost of a significant data
breach per employee

E3/E4

$655

$655

$655

E6

Average incidence of significant material
breaches per year (median)ForresterConsulting

2.5

2.5

2.5

E7

Annualized cost of data breaches

E1*E5*E6$1,637,115$1,637,115$1,637,115

E8Reduction in likelihood of data leakage
with Dropbox for business throughimproved content governance andsecurity controls

Interviews

5%

5%

5%

Et

Improved content governanceE7*E8$81,856$81,856$81,856

Risk adjustment↓20%$65,485$65,485$65,485

Etr

Improved content governance (riskadjusted)
Three-year total: $196,454

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $162,851
18

ANALYSIS OF BENEFITSUNQUANTIFIED BENEFITS

quantified for this report, interviewees noted that

Additional benefits that customers experienced but

employee feedback to Dropbox has been

were not quantified for this study include:

extremely positive and has reduced the amount•of tedium often associated with file sharing andInfrastructure and legacy solution costcollaboration. The animal health organization’ssavings. Some of the interviewees reported that

CIO, global technology solutions summarized:

their organizations experienced cost savings“Beyond the hard dollars impact of Dropbox, I

associated with replacement of legacy content

think the most important thing we’ve seen is the

management solutions or tools. Some of theseincrease in employee satisfaction with its

sources of cost savings included content server[collaboration tools].”(infrastructure) purchases and the related
maintenance, labor costs, refresh costs, and

FLEXIBILITY

solution costs. The conglomerate’s director of IT

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer.

told Forrester that migrating content to Dropbox

There are multiple scenarios in which a customer

from on-premises content management systems

might implement Dropbox and later realize additional

offset 3% to 5% of the organization'suses and business opportunities, including:infrastructure spending, worth tens of thousandsof dollars annually. This was even before•

functionality. While the interviewees highlighted

considering the reduction of IT labor thisbenefits for their organizations attributable to a

reduction in infrastructure could yield.
•

The value of additional and upcoming

significant Dropbox deployment, not every

Improved employee experience. With Dropbox,organization’s users consistently take advantage

users are equipped with a more robust set ofof all of the features and functionality (current andcollaboration tools that facilitate their day-to-daybeta) within Dropbox’s portfolio of solutions.

activities on key workflows. Beyond the benefits

Additional future value may be unlocked for theseusers and organization in solutions such as
Dropbox Sign and DocSend, as well as current
and upcoming beta features.

“The entire Dropbox experience
has improved IT efficiency
across the board. We’ve also
reduced IT infrastructure spendthat would have gone to
traditional network-attachedstorage or other solutions. But
these solutions would not evenhave come close to what
Dropbox has to offer.”•

Future Dropbox software integrations. Whileinterviewees spoke to the value of current inDropbox software integrations with many of theworld’s most utilized software suites, there may
be additional value in future Dropbox integrations
across organizations’ workflows.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated aspart of a specific project (described in more detail in
Appendix A).

Director of IT, conglomerate

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

19

Analysis Of Costs
Quantified cost data as applied to the composite

Total Costs
InitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

Total

Present
Value

Dropbox subscription
fees

$0

$95,040$95,040$95,040$285,120$236,350

Initial and ongoing
Dropbox management$13,800$13,800$13,800$13,800$55,200$48,119

Total costs (riskadjusted)$13,800$108,840$108,840$108,840$340,320$284,469

Ref.

Cost

Ftr
Gtr

month. This option includes unlimited storage,

DROPBOX SUBSCRIPTION FEES

the most robust security features, and centralized

Organizations pay a subscription fee to Dropbox on aadministrative tools.

per user per month basis. Factors that influence•pricing include:•

please contract Dropbox.

The Dropbox team plan selected (Standard,

Risks. This cost will vary among organizations based

Advanced, Enterprise).
•

Additional functionality contracted, such ason:•

Dropbox Sign and DocSend.
•

For specific information for your organization,

The specific Dropbox plan and functionality
contracted for.

The required user count and storage.
•

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite

The number of Dropbox users in an organization.

organization, Forrester makes the following

Results. To account for these variances, Forrester

assumptions:adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-•

The composite organization selects the Dropbox
Advanced subscription for $24 per user per

year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) ofjust over $235,000.

Dropbox Subscription Fees
Ref.

MetricSourceInitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

F1

Total Dropbox users

Composite

0

300

300

300

F2

Monthly rate for Dropbox Advanced

List pricing

$0

$24

$24

$24

Ft

Dropbox subscription fees

A1*A2*12
months$0$86,400$86,400$86,400

Risk adjustment

↑10%
$0

$95,040$95,040$95,040

Ftr

Dropbox subscription fees (risk-adjusted)
Three-year total: $285,120

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $236,350

20

ANALYSIS OF COSTSINITIAL AND ONGOING DROPBOX

Risks. This cost will vary among organizations based

MANAGEMENT

on:

Interviewees quantified the personnel hours•

The scope of an organization’s Dropbox

associated with onboarding and managing Dropbox

deployment (number of users, files, features,on an ongoing basis. Collectively, interviewees told

etc.)

Forrester that onboarding users is nearly
instantaneous. Managing users, permissions, andcontent governance on Dropbox is comparatively•

The skill and capacity of the FTEs onboarding
and managing Dropbox.

easy to legacy tools given centralized admin

Results. To account for these variances, Forrester

capabilities. Dropbox can be managed at the IT level,

adjusted this cost upward by 15%, yielding a three-

the individual team level, or both.

year, risk-adjusted total PV of just over $45,000.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
organization, Forrester makes the following
assumptions:•Two IT FTEs allocate 20% of their working hours
for three months onboarding their users andcontent to Dropbox.

•

Once deployed, Dropbox requires 5% of two
FTEs to manage users, access, and content
governance.

•“Dropbox tends to be very
intuitive. We don’t need muchinternal support for it at all.”
CIO, global technology solutions,animal health

The average annual salary of an FTE managing
Dropbox for their organizations is $120,000.

Initial And Ongoing Dropbox Management
Ref.

MetricSourceInitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3G1

IT personnel managing Dropbox licenses
and permissions

Composite

2

2

2

2

G2

Percentage of working time spent on
Dropbox-related activities

Interviews

20%

5%

5%

5%

G3

Implementation duration/time on task
(years)Composite

0.25

1

1

1

G4

Average annual salary

TEI standard$120,000$120,000$120,000$120,000

Gt

Initial and ongoing Dropbox management

G1*G2*G3*G4$12,000$12,000$12,000$12,000

Risk adjustment↑15%$13,800$13,800$13,800$13,800

Gtr

Initial and ongoing Dropbox management(risk-adjusted)
Three-year total: $55,200

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

Three-year present value: $48,119

21

Financial Summary
CONSOLIDATED THREE-YEAR RISK-ADJUSTED METRICS

Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
Total costs

Total benefits

Cumulative net benefits

Cash
flows

$1.4 M$1.2 M

The financial results calculated in the
Benefits and Costs sections can beused to determine the ROI, NPV, andpayback period for the composite
organization’s investment. Forrester
assumes a yearly discount rate of 10%
for this analysis.

$1.0 M$0.8 M

These risk-adjusted ROI,
NPV, and payback period
values are determined byapplying risk-adjustment
factors to the unadjusted
results in each Benefit andCost section.

$0.6 M$0.4 M$0.2 M-$0.2 M
InitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted Estimates)
InitialYear 1

Year 2

Year 3

Total

Present
Value($13,800)($108,840)($108,840)($108,840)($340,320)($284,469)

Total benefits$0$455,590$594,505$594,505$1,644,599$1,352,160

Net benefits($13,800)$346,750$485,665$485,665$1,304,279$1,067,691

Total costs

ROI
Payback

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

375%<6 months

22

Appendix A: Total Economic
ImpactTotal Economic Impact is a methodology developed

PRESENT VALUE (PV)by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s

The present or current value oftechnology decision-making processes and assists(discounted) cost and benefit estimatesvendors in communicating the value proposition of

given at an interest rate (the discounttheir products and services to clients. The TEIrate). The PV of costs and benefits feed

methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify,

into the total NPV of cash flows.

and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to bothsenior management and other key businessstakeholders.

NET PRESENT VALUE (NPV)TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT APPROACH

The present or current value ofBenefits represent the value delivered to the(discounted) future net cash flows given

business by the product. The TEI methodology

an interest rate (the discount rate). A

places equal weight on the measure of benefits andpositive project NPV normally indicatesthe measure of costs, allowing for a full examinationthat the investment should be madeof the effect of the technology on the entire

unless other projects have higher NPVs.

organization.
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)

proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost
category within TEI captures incremental costs overA project’s expected return inthe existing environment for ongoing costs

percentage terms. ROI is calculated byassociated with the solution.

dividing net benefits (benefits less costs)
by costs.

Flexibility represents the strategic value that can beobtained for some future additional investmentbuilding on top of the initial investment already made.

DISCOUNT RATE

Having the ability to capture that benefit has a PV
that can be estimated.

The interest rate used in cash flow
analysis to take into account theRisks measure the uncertainty of benefit and costtime value of money. Organizations

estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will

typically use discount rates between

meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that

8% and 16%.

estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors
are based on “triangular distribution.”
PAYBACK PERIOD
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. Allother cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at theend 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 thediscounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value
calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flowtables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOXThe breakeven point for an investment.
This is the point in time at which net
benefits (benefits minus costs) equal
initial investment or cost.

23Appendix B: Endnotes
1 Source: “The Power Of A Content Platform Is In The Value Of The Apps It Delivers: Look Ahead To 2026,”

Forrester Research, Inc., September 8, 2021.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

24

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX

25