Total Economic Impact Study Reveals Companies Adopting the Smarsh Platform Experienced a 124% Return on Investment Over Three Years

Reduced archiving costs, efficiencies in data capture, improved compliance productivity, and time savings in e-discovery were among the many benefits customers reported when using Smarsh technology

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Smarsh, the global leader in digital communications data and intelligence, today unveiled the results of a Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact (TEI) study that found the Smarsh Platform reduced customers’ communications archiving costs by 25%, among other benefits.

Smarsh commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct the study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Smarsh technology. The study provides business leaders with a framework to evaluate the potential financial benefit of Smarsh to their organizations.

“We are proud that the Forrester study has shown what we already knew about the value and results the Smarsh platform delivers for our customers,” said Smarsh CEO Kim Crawford Goodman. “In an increasingly complex regulatory environment, this study is a helpful tool for any organization considering Smarsh to cost-effectively help them meet their current and future communications compliance challenges.”

Forrester interviewed six global customers who had experience using Smarsh. Forrester then aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization – a financial services business with $5 billion in annual revenue, 7,500 surveilled employees and 625 terabytes of archived digital communications.

Forrester found that the composite organization would experience benefits of $20.6 million over three years versus costs of $9.2 million, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $11.4 million and an ROI of 124%.

Additional key findings include:

A reduction in archiving costs: The composite organization saw a 25% reduction in storage costs compared to their previous solution. 15% from data tiering, and an additional 10% reduction in storage costs with Smarsh’s automated deletion capability. Overall, a three-year risk-adjusted value of $8.1 million.
More efficient data capture: Smarsh’s improved data capture was worth $4 million in cost savings over three years. Instead of leveraging a team of costly developers, the composite organization easily captured new communications channels with Smarsh’s APIs.
Improved staff productivity: Efficiency of the surveillance staff rose by 30% with Smarsh while compliance staff efficiency improved by 60%. Over three years, this would provide a value of $3.6 million and saved over 27,000 hours of labor annually.
E-discovery time savings: By using Smarsh, the composite organization reduced time spent on e-discovery responses by 65%, a three-year value of $2.6 million.
Ditching legacy on-premises tools delivered value: Companies could reduce the time employees spend maintaining and supporting on-premises storage infrastructure by choosing Smarsh. By switching from legacy on-premises storage solutions to Smarsh, the composite organization saved $2.2 million over three years.

In addition to the quantifiable benefits of using Smarsh, according to the Forrester study, interviewed customers reported an improvement in security, more robust compliance insights that increased defensibility and the potential avoidance of regulatory investigation and fines, ultimately reducing possible attorney and litigation costs, and a more seamless end-to-end data reconciliation. Read the full study here.

About Smarsh
Smarsh enables companies to transform oversight into foresight by surfacing business-critical signals in all their digital communications. Regulated organizations of all sizes rely upon the Smarsh portfolio of cloud-native digital communications capture, retention, and oversight solutions to help them identify regulatory and reputational risks within their communications data before those risks become losses, fines, or headlines.

Smarsh serves a global client base spanning 19 of the top 20 banks in North America, Europe, and Asia, along with leading brokerage firms, insurers, and registered investment advisors and U.S. state and local government agencies. To discover more about the future of communications capture, archiving and oversight, visit www.smarsh.com.

Media Contact

Sarah Tatone, VP Communications & Brand, Smarsh

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