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 Consulting Team: Richard Cavallaro
Carmen Serradilla Ortiz
Executive Summary ................................................. 1
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

ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING

Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their
organizations. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting.

© Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on
the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester ®, Technographics®,
Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

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

KEY STATISTICS
their ideas, plans, decisions, and observations into
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, and
more, are increasingly important in workflows Return on investment (ROI) Net present value (NPV)
requiring collaboration across internal and external
stakeholders as hybrid work becomes increasingly
375% $1.07M
common.1
Prior to using Dropbox, friction existed throughout the
Dropbox is a content service platform that enables
file sharing and collaboration experience. Users and
secure file sharing and collaboration across internal
teams often struggled to locate or access files that
and external users, teams, and workflows — all while
they needed to collaborate on, while file size
maintaining an easy-to-manage and governance-
limitations, several disparate content management
minded admin experience. Dropbox commissioned
solutions, and prevalent rework further diminished the
Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic
experience. On the admin side, managing
Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential
permissions for collaborators (internal and external)
return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize
was becoming an increasingly arduous task.
by deploying Dropbox. The purpose of this study is to
Ensuring good content governance and security amid
provide readers with a framework to evaluate the
increasingly external collaboration was becoming
potential financial impact of Dropbox on their
nearly impossible, exposing the organizations to
organizations.
external risks.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks
By adopting Dropbox, productivity for users increased
associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed
at the individual and team levels, which accelerated
five representatives with experience using Dropbox.
the benefits of key workflows and projects while
For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated
providing a better employee experience. IT (or team-
the interviewees’ experiences and combined the
level) administrators benefited from an improved
results into a single composite organization, a small
ease of managing users, permissions, and security
to medium-size business (SMB) with 1,000 total
via centralized administrative tools, activity
employees (300 of which are Dropbox users).
monitoring, and alerting capabilities.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 1

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Dropbox offers our users
productivity and efficiency,
improving time to market for the
deliverance 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 • A 90% reduction in rework across the
composite organization include: organization. With improvements to the ease of
navigating files and collaboration across the
• Improved user productivity valued at over
organizations, 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 a
accelerating over $395,000 in project-related
centralized admin console. The composite
benefits. The composite organization
organization experiences improved ease of
experiences efficiencies at the team level
managing users while ensuring accurate
resulting from its Dropbox adoption. Teams
permissions and adherence to content
whose projects and workflows benefit most from
governance policies.
Dropbox features complete work faster and
accelerate the benefits associated with these • A 5% cost avoidance to the annualized cost of
projects. data leakage. Dropbox allows the composite
organization to better adhere to security policies
and maintain content governance, protecting
valuable customer data, intellectual property, and
Improved velocity of team other critical internal data.
collaboration
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that are not

10%
quantified in this study include:

• Infrastructure and legacy solution cost

savings. Some of the organizations’ interviewees
spoke to Forrester about cost savings associated

THE 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 of
collaboration tools which facilitate their day-to-
day activities on key workflows, reducing the
tedium associated with collaboration and file
sharing.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the

composite 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 SUMMARY

ROI BENEFITS PV NPV PAYBACK

375% $1.35M $1.07M <6
months
Benefits (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 SUMMARY

TEI FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

From the information provided in the interviews, DUE DILIGENCE
Interviewed Dropbox stakeholders and Forrester
Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™
analysts to gather data relative to Dropbox.
framework for those organizations considering an
investment in Dropbox.

The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, INTERVIEWS

Interviewed five representatives at organizations
benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the
investment decision. Forrester took a multistep using Dropbox to obtain data with respect to

approach to evaluate the impact that Dropbox can costs, 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 and
risk-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 by

Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a
CASE STUDY
competitive analysis.
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in
modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs,
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI
that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing
advises that readers use their own estimates within the sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT
framework provided in the study to determine the
appropriateness of an investment in Dropbox.
investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology
provides a complete picture of the total
Dropbox reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester,
but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study economic impact of purchase decisions. Please
and its findings and does not accept changes to the study see Appendix A for additional information on the
that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the
TEI methodology.
meaning of the study.

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 health North America ~$4.4 billion

Director of IT Conglomerate North America ~$4 billion

Principal UX design consultant Design Europe ~$50 million

SVP of worldwide sales Software North America ~$150 million

KEY CHALLENGES
The interviewees noted how their organizations "We used to deal with limitations
struggled with common challenges, including: on file sizes we could transfer.
• A lack of external collaboration capabilities With Dropbox, we don’t see any
delayed workflows and burdened key limitations whatsoever, and we
personnel. Each of the interviewees cited have some pretty large files and
external collaboration challenges that hindered code that we’re working with.”
and delayed the daily workflows of their
organizations’ 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 to
teams’ workflows as critical files were shared and the organizations’ already limited IT and security
reshared over email. File size limitations and personnel. 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 file access to key files.
traffic exposed the organizations’ files and IP
• A disparate collection of content management
to risk. Shadow IT was common because teams
and users often resorted to their own solutions to solutions complicated users’ workflows and
alleviate collaboration productivity barriers, productivity. Interviewees told Forrester that
exposing the organization to the risk of data their teams and users often lacked a single pane
leakage or breaches involving valuable files, of glass view for the files and content they
client data, or intellectual property. Resulting needed to work with on a daily basis. Larger
security concerns around file sharing with enterprise collaboration management (ECM)
external parties forced additional diligence from solutions 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
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES
was common, as was rework on files or content
The interviewees’ organizations searched for a
that was not located. The director of IT at the
solution that could:
conglomerate summarized: “Our primary
[document sharing and collaboration solution] • Work with large, diverse file types across several
was more of an internal portal that did not give internal and externals users, teams, and
our most important users the advanced workflows while fitting into the organization’s
collaboration features they needed. It can be existing stack of ECM tools and solutions.
clunky, and most of our users don’t [understand
• Adhere to the organizations’ security policies
it] as well. The momentum to adopt Dropbox
while providing enhanced permissions controls,
came from our users for this reason.”
alerting, and traffic monitoring.

• Be easily managed at both the IT level and

individual team level (access permissions, users,
"Working from home has made etc.).
our teams much more digitally
aware. Digital collaboration has
increased significantly, and our
Key Assumptions
teams demand tools that enable
• $500M revenue
faster collaboration across the
• 300 Dropbox users
board.”
• User-generated demand for
Director of IT, conglomerate Dropbox from teams dealing
in large, specialized file types
and frequent internal and
external collaboration
• Version control and visibility challenges
hindering effective collaboration. On the
legacy 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 and Based 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 the
software organization expressed the importance five interviewees, and it is used to present the
of version control when working with their aggregate 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 right characteristics:
version of [the code], but change notification [is

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 7

 THE DROPBOX CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Description of composite. The composite

organization is an industry-agnostic, medium-sized
enterprise with 1,000 employees (300 of which are "Dropbox integrates with
Dropbox users) and $500 million in annual revenue. everything else we have, and it is
Deployment characteristics. The organization
incredibly seamless. It fits in
adopts Dropbox as a result of user demand for a perfectly with our environment.”
more refined set of file sharing and collaboration tools
in an increasingly hybrid and remote working SVP of worldwide sales, software
environment. 300 Dropbox users within the
organization make up sales and marketing teams that
rely on large files, specialized file types, and frequent
internal 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, and
security, protecting the organization’s valuable
"When we’re looking at mission
intellectual property. Before adopting Dropbox, these critical collaboration between
users relied on the organization’s primary cloud- diverse parties and executives,
based ECM solution to share files and collaborate for us, Dropbox is way ahead.”
internally. However, they lacked a consistent method
of collaboration among different teams or external
Director of IT, conglomerate
users.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 8

 Analysis Of Benefits
Quantified benefit data as applied to the composite

Total Benefits
Present
Ref. Benefit Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total
Value
Improved individual
Atr $138,915 $277,830 $277,830 $694,575 $564,636
productivity

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

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

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

• Inability to locate key files due to siloed ECM

IMPROVED INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY
systems or shared drives.
Evidence and data. Before adopting Dropbox and
using legacy ECM solutions, key users at the • File access and synchronization limitations
interviewees’ organizations lost working time to across multiple devices.
suboptimal and/or missing functionality, including: 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 with
users from accessing key files in the moment of very large file sizes. Its vice president (VP) of real
need. estate noted that Dropbox offered an estimated
20% productivity increase to users transferring
large files with Dropbox Transfer to and from
clients. Dropbox team folders allow users to
“‘Wow, I’ve emerged in the 21st share files in groups, as opposed to individually
century,’ one dev told me. which was previously the norm.

Another user said, ‘Dropbox is • Using Dropbox to transfer and collaborate on

like adding an easy button for code, the developer users at the animal health
collaboration.’” organization 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,
ongoing investment.
Animal health
• 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 an

summarized the importance of the ongoing organization’s legacy content management stack
Dropbox investment: “We can easily share our as it relates to functionality increase once
work externally. In the past, we’d use email, and Dropbox is deployed.
it doesn’t work. We’d use [another sharing
• The workflows of affected users as it relates to
solution], it doesn’t work. Eventually we always
the potential for productivity improvement.
say, ‘just put it in Dropbox.’”
• The number of affected Dropbox users and the
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
seniority of those affected as it relates to the
organization, Forrester makes the following
value of their reclaimed time.
assumptions:
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester
• There are 300 Dropbox users at the organization.
adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a
• 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.
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
hours, as it cannot be assumed all hours will be benefit PV
repurposed to value-added activities.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations

based on:

Improved Individual Productivity

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

A1 Total Dropbox users Composite 300 300 300

Improvement to weekly productivity

A2 Interviews 1.5% 3% 3%
attributable to Dropbox

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%

A1*A3*A4*A5*49
At Improved individual productivity $154,350 $308,700 $308,700
weeks

Risk adjustment ↓10%

Improved individual productivity (risk-

Atr $138,915 $277,830 $277,830
adjusted)

Three-year total: $694,575 Three-year present value: $564,636

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 10

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

IMPROVED 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 their • The director of IT at the conglomerate
organizations’ Dropbox adoption and its related organization said that several distinct groups
features. Teams whose projects and workflows within the organization used Dropbox for their
benefit most from Dropbox features such as file own purposes.
previews, commenting, document creation and
collaboration with Dropbox Paper, and multidevice ▪ The conglomerate’s architects and
access complete work faster and accelerate the engineers working on the organization’s
benefits associated with these projects. real estate portfolio collaborated across
multiple 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 to
and 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 a asset creation could share these large
very comprehensive 20 to 30 pages. Now we’re files externally with customers and
able to pull in all the relevant details saved on our vendors more efficiently. This accelerated
team folders in Dropbox. We can have our feedback and consolidated and
proposals ready to go for our prospects the next decreased the time to market for these
day. 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 across
multiple devices on these proposals greatly
accelerated the process, as sales personnel "When our marketing team is
often collaborated directly from the field. working on digital media
• The VP of real estate in the advertising creation, they have other teams
organization noted that the improved visibility into and external stakeholders that
version history (and therefore better version need to collaborate, edit, provide
control), in-Dropbox collaboration, simplified file
feedback, etc. Dropbox
locating, and external collaboration capabilities
made their organization’s key files readily
facilitates this diverse set of
accessible whenever needed by anyone across workflows in a secure manner.”
the workflow, which improved the consistency of
daily operations. The VP highlighted an example Director of IT, conglomerate
where several large files and lease documents
were needed by a landlord whose account
manager had left the organization. With Dropbox,

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 11

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

• The CIO, global technology solutions of the

animal health organization spoke to the potential “There are all kinds of documents
for FTE savings at the team level resulting from we’re accessing every day in
productivity benefits for the individuals on the Dropbox, and we never have to
team: “If each of our users is saving 10%, our worry about losing them.
teams can achieve the same results with 10 Dropbox simplifies our workflows
FTEs versus 11 FTEs. Across our 1,200 users,
incredibly — we can update one
this becomes material.”
file, and everyone has access to it
• Usage of Dropbox Paper yielded collaboration instantaneously.”
benefits at the design organization. The principal
UX design consultant told Forrester, “Having that
annotation ability in [Dropbox] Paper is really
VP of real estate, advertising
useful in getting collaboration from Dropbox at
the project scale, especially over the lifecycle of a
longer project, which could be a few months, with projects achieved across the interviewed
several people participating [on and off].” organizations.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite • Each project is accelerated by 10% with
organization, Forrester makes the following Dropbox, accelerating revenues associated with
assumptions: each project while saving an average of 520 FTE
hours per project.
• Dropbox supports six marketing digital asset
creation projects per year across the Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
organization’s marketing project teams including based on:
marketing assets and sales enablement materials
• The value of the specific project or use case
(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
Dropbox use cases were shared with Forrester. It organization’s legacy content management
should be noted that there are many potential solutions as it relates to potential for team
sources of team project collaboration value efficiency improvements on Dropbox.
beyond those quantified for the composite that
• The skill and capacity of an organization’s
were not modeled for this report).
personnel working on projects supported by
• Each project requires part-time involvement Dropbox.
across the entire team. Personnel (at $35 per
Results. To account for these risks, Forrester
hour) spend 20 hours per week on average
adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a
across the two-month-long project.
three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of just over
• Each project contributes to closing $150,000 in $395,000
revenue for the composite organization. This is a
conservative estimate based on the value of the

$396,305
three-year
benefit PV

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 12

30%
 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

Improved Team Collaboration

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Number of marketing project teams using
B1 Composite 3 3 3
Dropbox

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 team Composite 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

B4*(B5*52
B8 Subtotal: Personnel cost per project $182,000 $182,000 $182,000
weeks) *B6*B7
Revenue per project estimate
B9 Composite $150,000 $150,000 $150,000
(attributable sales pipeline)

B10 Subtotal: value per project B8+B9 $332,000 $332,000 $332,000

Increased project velocity through

B11 Interviews 10% 10% 10%
improved collaboration
Improved speed of collaboration (per
B12 Interviews $33,200 $33,200 $33,200
project)

Bt Improved team collaboration B3*B12 $199,200 $199,200 $199,200

Risk adjustment ↓20%

Improved team collaboration (risk-

Btr $159,360 $159,360 $159,360
adjusted)

Three-year total: $478,080 Three-year present value: $396,305

REDUCTION IN REWORK their code through Dropbox, which saved effort.

The SVP estimated that the organization
Evidence and data. Interviewees told Forrester that
recovered 50 to 75 large files per year on
redundant work within their organizations’ Dropbox
Dropbox. They said, “It really is a feature that
workflows was nearly nonexistent because of
saves 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 (across
saving these files (and the time associated with their all of their diverse workflows) took advantage of
creation) should this occur. Dropbox’s version history and file recovery
features. Its director of IT said: “Our users can
• The SVP of worldwide sales at the software
see the version history of their main files for a
organization spoke about the importance of
year through the Dropbox Rewind feature. In
version control and deleted file recovery for their
some of the cases where we had accidents, we
developers using Dropbox. Developer teams had
the 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 through

this feature.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite "What we found is that it’s not
organization, Forrester makes the following just the accidently deleted files
assumptions: we’re recovering with Dropbox
• Before adopting Dropbox, each of the
Rewind. In many cases we’re
organization’s 300 users spends an average of getting value from files that were
30 minutes per month, or 6 hours per year, on file intentionally deleted but we later
rework. This is a conservative calculation based realized a need for.”
on the interviews. Interviewees noted that under
certain circumstances, this number could be
SVP of worldwide sales, software
much higher, driving a higher benefit.

• Ninety percent of all rework is avoided through

Dropbox features such as Rewind and improved
ease of access through permissions and team • The nature of an organization’s workflows as it
folders. relates to the value of file recovery.

• The average hourly rate for a Dropbox user is Results. To account for these risks, Forrester
$35. adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a
three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of just over
Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
$125,000.
based on:

• 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
reduction on Dropbox. benefit PV

Reduction In Rework
Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

C1 Number of users Composite 300 300 300

Average hours spent on rework per user

C2 Composite 6 6 6
per year on old solution(s)

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%

Ctr Reduction in rework (risk-adjusted) $51,030 $51,030 $51,030

Three-year total: $153,090 Three-year present value: $126,904

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 14

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

FACILITATED USER MANAGEMENT we’re able to monitor everything. From a

governance standpoint, [IT] is in control.”
Evidence and data. Before adopting Dropbox, the
interviewees’ 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 is
• Team leads (and IT staff in some cases) would
built with a governance construct where we can
frequently need to reassign access or
put in some rules that define who gets file
permissions 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.
admin time.”
• Onboarding new users to secure workflows
• As a result of the centralized Dropbox admin
required significant manual effort as access to
console, the SVP of worldwide sales at the
view or edit these files required certain
software organization estimated at least a half of
permissions.
an IT FTE headcount (for a smaller SMB) was
• Managing file security was frequently an effort in avoidable through facilitated onboarding and
guesswork, as limited visibility into file traffic administration activities.
and/or updates forced IT staff and team leads to
manually track access and permissions to
maintain governance.

Dropbox facilitated user access and permissions

“With Dropbox, all of our admin
management through a centralized admin console. tools are in one location which
Interviewees spoke to the improved ease of saves IT significant amounts of
managing users’ (new and existing, internal and time trying to manage access
external) permissions, and security. As a result, FTE while also attempting to keep
hours and/or headcount could be allocated towards
everything secure.”
other value-adding activities throughout the
organization. SVP of Worldwide Sales, software
• The director of IT at the conglomerate spoke to
benefits for both team leads historically
responsible for assigning access and
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
permissions and the IT team responsible for
organization, Forrester makes the following
security posture. The director explained: “Most
assumptions:
business teams have been able to rely on [IT]
now to assign permissions for their users while • Two FTEs tasked with managing content,
maintaining the ability to view their team permissions, and governance save 20% of their
[members’] activity. So, from a user effort though Dropbox’ admin console. This
administration and onboarding standpoint, they productivity is reallocated to other areas of the
save 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
three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of over $100,000.
Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
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. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Number of IT FTEs required to manage
D1 Composite 2 2 2
legacy solutions

D2 FTE avoidance with Dropbox Interviews 20% 20% 20%

D3 Average annual salary for IT FTE TEI standard $120,000 $120,000 $120,000

Dt Facilitated user management D1*D2*D3 $48,000 $48,000 $48,000

Risk adjustment ↓15%

Facilitated user management (risk-

Dtr $40,800 $40,800 $40,800
adjusted)

Three-year total: $122,400 Three-year present value: $101,464

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 16

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

providing a frictionless experience to those

working with the content. The director also
“Our IP and our code are our highlighted ransomware protection as a benefit,
most valuable assets. The telling Forrester: “In the cloud world, gone are the
security controls in Dropbox days where all our data is stored within the data
give us confidence that these center. Having Dropbox gives us that peace of
crown jewels of our organization mind that we can monitor unusual logins and
will not leak.” unusual changes. Even in the case of a
ransomware attack, we can protect ourselves
and recover if needed.”
SVP of Worldwide Sales, software
• Employees, especially sales representatives, at
the software organization were frequently
traveling with their devices and accessing
IMPROVED CONTENT GOVERNANCE content, like customer data and valuable IP, from
Evidence and data. Each of the interviewees various unsecured networks. The SVP of
described ways that Dropbox allowed their respective worldwide sales noted that Dropbox allowed
organizations to better adhere to security policies and these users a level of protection that other tools
maintain content governance, protecting valuable did not when accessing this content, which
customer data, intellectual property, and other critical highlighted Dropbox’s adherence to modern
internal data. Features within Dropbox that encryption standards and secure file sharing
interviewees highlighted include: capabilities.

• Better visibility into user access and file traffic. • Dealing in sensitive customer information and
legal documents, the advertising organization’s
• Secure file sharing options (password protection,
VP of real estate noted that Dropbox allowed
email).
their users access to the files and content they
• More control over permissions and the ability to needed, 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.
In a review of Forrester and notable third-party
• Multifactor authentication and single sign-on data sources, both attack volume and security
capabilities. breach severity appear to be rising for
organizations that lack mature, modern
The interviewees provided the following examples security culture and tooling.
specific to their organizations:
Forrester’s Total Economic Impact practice
• The director of IT at the conglomerate highlighted estimates that firms are faced with an average
the peace of mind Dropbox offered at the IT level of 1.8 material breaches per year with an
because of the many users and lines of business average cost including 3,437 labor hours,
in the organization. IT was able to maintain $269,550 in direct costs, and $385,296 in
oversight of all user and file activity while still
business losses.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 17

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite • A 5% improvement to the annualized impact of
organization, Forrester makes the following data breaches attributable to security and
assumptions: governance controls for the 300 users (dealing in
sensitive information) in Dropbox.
• The average cost of a single material data breach
is $854,192, based on Forrester consulting data. Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations
based on:
• The annualized average number of material data
breaches at the composite organization is 1.8 per • The security features and functionality of an
year. (See the callout box about the quantification organization’s legacy content management tools
of security breaches). as it relates to the potential for improvement on
Dropbox.
11%
• An organization’s size and industry as it relates to
the cost and likelihood of unintentional or
malicious data breaches.
$152,946
three-year Results. To account for these risks, Forrester
benefit PV adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a
three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of over $150,000.

Improved Content Governance

Ref. Metric Source Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Average costs of response and
notification, fines, damages, compliance Forrester
E1 $269,550 $269,550 $269,550
costs, and customer compensation per Consulting
material breach
Average lost business revenues and
Forrester
E2 additional costs to acquire customers per $385,296 $385,296 $385,296
Consulting
material breach
Total estimated cost of a significant
E3 E1+E2+E3 $654,846 $654,846 $654,846
material breach (median)

E4 Number of employees Composite 1,000 1,000 1,000

Estimated cost of a significant data

E5 E3/E4 $655 $655 $655
breach per employee
Average incidence of significant material Forrester
E6 2.5 2.5 2.5
breaches per year (median) Consulting

E7 Annualized cost of data breaches E1*E5*E6 $1,637,115 $1,637,115 $1,637,115

Reduction in likelihood of data leakage

with Dropbox for business through
E8 Interviews 5% 5% 5%
improved content governance and
security controls

Et Improved content governance E7*E8 $81,856 $81,856 $81,856

Risk adjustment ↓20%

Improved content governance (risk-

Etr $65,485 $65,485 $65,485
adjusted)

Three-year total: $196,454 Three-year present value: $162,851

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 18

 ANALYSIS OF BENEFITS

UNQUANTIFIED 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 and
• Infrastructure and legacy solution cost
collaboration. The animal health organization’s
savings. 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 these
increase 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's uses and business opportunities, including:
infrastructure spending, worth tens of thousands
• The value of additional and upcoming
of dollars annually. This was even before
functionality. While the interviewees highlighted
considering the reduction of IT labor this
benefits for their organizations attributable to a
reduction in infrastructure could yield.
significant Dropbox deployment, not every
• Improved employee experience. With Dropbox, organization’s users consistently take advantage
users are equipped with a more robust set of of all of the features and functionality (current and
collaboration tools that facilitate their day-to-day beta) within Dropbox’s portfolio of solutions.
activities on key workflows. Beyond the benefits Additional future value may be unlocked for these
users and organization in solutions such as
Dropbox Sign and DocSend, as well as current
and upcoming beta features.

“The entire Dropbox experience • Future Dropbox software integrations. While

has improved IT efficiency interviewees spoke to the value of current in-
Dropbox software integrations with many of the
across the board. We’ve also
world’s most utilized software suites, there may
reduced IT infrastructure spend be additional value in future Dropbox integrations
that would have gone to across organizations’ workflows.
traditional network-attached
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as
storage or other solutions. But part of a specific project (described in more detail in
these solutions would not even Appendix A).
have come close to what
Dropbox has to offer.”

Director of IT, conglomerate

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 19

Analysis Of Costs
Quantified cost data as applied to the composite

Total Costs
Present
Ref. Cost Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total
Value
Dropbox subscription
Ftr $0 $95,040 $95,040 $95,040 $285,120 $236,350
fees
Initial and ongoing
Gtr $13,800 $13,800 $13,800 $13,800 $55,200 $48,119
Dropbox management
Total costs (risk-
$13,800 $108,840 $108,840 $108,840 $340,320 $284,469
adjusted)

month. This option includes unlimited storage,

DROPBOX SUBSCRIPTION FEES
the most robust security features, and centralized
Organizations pay a subscription fee to Dropbox on a
administrative tools.
per user per month basis. Factors that influence
pricing include: • For specific information for your organization,
please contract Dropbox.
• The Dropbox team plan selected (Standard,
Advanced, Enterprise). Risks. This cost will vary among organizations based
on:
• Additional functionality contracted, such as
Dropbox Sign and DocSend. • The specific Dropbox plan and functionality
contracted for.
• The required user count and storage.
• The number of Dropbox users in an organization.
Modeling and assumptions. For the composite
organization, Forrester makes the following Results. To account for these variances, Forrester
assumptions: adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-
year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of
• The composite organization selects the Dropbox
just over $235,000.
Advanced subscription for $24 per user per

Dropbox Subscription Fees

Ref. Metric Source Initial Year 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

A1*A2*12
Ft Dropbox subscription fees $0 $86,400 $86,400 $86,400
months

Risk adjustment ↑10%

Ftr Dropbox subscription fees (risk-adjusted) $0 $95,040 $95,040 $95,040

Three-year total: $285,120 Three-year present value: $236,350

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 20

 ANALYSIS OF COSTS

INITIAL 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
• The skill and capacity of the FTEs onboarding
instantaneous. Managing users, permissions, and
and managing Dropbox.
content governance on Dropbox is comparatively
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:
“Dropbox tends to be very
• Two IT FTEs allocate 20% of their working hours
intuitive. We don’t need much
for three months onboarding their users and
internal support for it at all.”
content to Dropbox.

• Once deployed, Dropbox requires 5% of two CIO, global technology solutions,

FTEs to manage users, access, and content
animal health
governance.

• The average annual salary of an FTE managing

Dropbox for their organizations is $120,000.

Initial And Ongoing Dropbox Management

Ref. Metric Source Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
IT personnel managing Dropbox licenses
G1 Composite 2 2 2 2
and permissions
Percentage of working time spent on
G2 Interviews 20% 5% 5% 5%
Dropbox-related activities
Implementation duration/time on task
G3 Composite 0.25 1 1 1
(years)

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%

Initial and ongoing Dropbox management

Gtr $13,800 $13,800 $13,800 $13,800
(risk-adjusted)

Three-year total: $55,200 Three-year present value: $48,119

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 21

Financial Summary

CONSOLIDATED THREE-YEAR RISK-ADJUSTED METRICS

Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)

Total costs Total benefits Cumulative net benefits The financial results calculated in the
Benefits and Costs sections can be
used to determine the ROI, NPV, and
$1.4 M
Cash
flows

payback period for the composite

organization’s investment. Forrester
$1.2 M assumes a yearly discount rate of 10%
for this analysis.
$1.0 M

$0.8 M

$0.6 M These risk-adjusted ROI,

NPV, and payback period
$0.4 M values are determined by
applying risk-adjustment
factors to the unadjusted
$0.2 M
results in each Benefit and
Cost section.

-$0.2 M
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Cash Flow Analysis (Risk-Adjusted Estimates)

Present
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Total
Value
Total costs ($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

ROI 375%

Payback <6 months

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 22

Appendix A: Total Economic
Impact
PRESENT VALUE (PV)
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed
by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s The present or current value of
technology decision-making processes and assists (discounted) cost and benefit estimates
vendors in communicating the value proposition of given at an interest rate (the discount
their products and services to clients. The TEI rate). 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 both
senior management and other key business
stakeholders. NET PRESENT VALUE (NPV)

TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT APPROACH The present or current value of

Benefits 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 and positive project NPV normally indicates
the measure of costs, allowing for a full examination that the investment should be made
of 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 over A project’s expected return in
the existing environment for ongoing costs percentage terms. ROI is calculated by
associated with the solution. dividing net benefits (benefits less costs)
by costs.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be
obtained for some future additional investment
building 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 the
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost time 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 “time
The breakeven point for an investment.
0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All
other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the This is the point in time at which net
end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total benefits (benefits minus costs) equal
cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary initial investment or cost.
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.

THE TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT™ OF DROPBOX 23

Appendix B: Endnotes

1Source: “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