Tanium study touts 235% ROI & major IT productivity gains

Tanium has published findings from a Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact (TEI) study that modelled a 235% return on investment and a payback period of under six months from adopting the Tanium Autonomous IT Platform.

The study modelled £15.9 million in total benefits by year three for a composite organisation. It also reported a 75% reduction in mean time to repair for endpoint incidents, a 95% improvement in workstation patching efficiency, and a 70% productivity improvement for endpoint operations and security teams by year three.

The findings come as IT and security teams face pressure to manage hybrid estates and demonstrate compliance with stricter security expectations. UK organisations are also tracking regulatory developments such as NIS2 and broader resilience requirements, which can increase scrutiny of patching, incident response, and asset visibility across dispersed devices.

Forrester built the model from interviews with decision-makers who had used the platform in their own environments, then aggregated the input into a single composite organisation for the economic analysis. The composite was described as a North America-based global enterprise with 40,000 employees and US$15 billion in annual revenue.

The modelled environment included corporate offices, retail and field locations, and international regions. It managed 48,000 endpoints across Windows, Linux, and macOS, plus servers and cloud workloads.

Tool consolidation

A central theme was consolidation of overlapping endpoint tools. The study described organisations replacing four to seven endpoint products with a single platform operating in real time. Reported benefits included cost savings from retiring legacy tools and fewer incidents of end-user downtime.

Endpoint estates often grow through mergers, decentralised procurement, and point deployments aimed at quick fixes. This can lead to duplicated tooling across device management, inventory, vulnerability remediation, and security controls. It can also fragment data and workflows, slowing response times and increasing operational overhead.

In Forrester's model, faster remediation and improved patching efficiency drove much of the quantified gains. Mean time to repair is a common metric for both IT operations and security teams; reducing it can mean fewer user disruptions and less pressure on incident handlers, particularly in distributed environments.

Patching and remediation

The study reported an improvement of about 95% in workstation patching efficiency. Patching remains a persistent challenge for organisations with diverse endpoint types and a mix of on-premises and remote users. Delays and missed updates can increase exposure to known vulnerabilities and make it harder to meet internal service targets.

It also cited a 75% reduction in mean time to repair for endpoint incidents. Repair timelines are often shaped by device visibility, the ability to triage at scale, and coordination between IT operations and security teams.

The study also referenced 80% software reclamation. This typically involves identifying unused applications and reclaiming licences, reducing wasted spend and supporting standardisation, although outcomes vary based on procurement models and licence terms.

Productivity measures

Productivity gains featured prominently in the modelled benefits. The study reported a 70% productivity improvement for endpoint operations and security teams by year three. Such measures are often influenced by reduced manual work, fewer duplicated investigations, and more consistent processes across teams.

For organisations that run separate endpoint tools across IT and security, productivity improvements can also reflect less time spent reconciling data between systems. Consolidation can simplify reporting and reduce the burden of maintaining multiple agents, update schedules, and policy frameworks.

Vendor positioning

Tanium positioned the platform as a real-time approach to endpoint intelligence and control, marketed under the "Autonomous IT" label and focused on automating common endpoint management and security tasks.

It also highlighted its position in analyst research, citing recognition as a Leader in the inaugural 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Management Tools and a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Client Endpoint Management Software for Windows Device Management 2025-2026 Vendor Assessment.

Pedro Diaz, Tanium's chief revenue officer, said the results show measurable impact across remediation and patching.

"Autonomous IT is delivering real results and measurable business impact," said Pedro Diaz, Chief Revenue Officer, Tanium. "This new Forrester study shows exactly what our customers experience every day with Tanium, including faster remediation, serious improvements in patching efficiency, higher team productivity and a stronger security posture. With Tanium Autonomous IT, powered by real-time endpoint intelligence and control, organisations can innovate faster, stay resilient and move their business forward with confidence."

Forrester conducted the research through interviews with Tanium customers. Tanium said it did not take part in the interview process or provide information for the study.

Tanium plans to discuss the findings in a webinar featuring Colin Smith, vice president of sales enablement and value engineering, alongside Forrester senior analyst Paddy Harrington and Forrester senior TEI consultant Erach Desai.