Forrester Study: BlueVoyant MDR Delivered a 210% Return on Investment for Clients Through Effective Threat Detection and Response, Optimized SecOps Spending, and Reduced Breach Incidence

September 10, 2024 | 5 min read

Milan Patel

Global Head of MDR

Milan Circle Calcite Duotone

Compelling security benefits achieved with BlueVoyant Managed Detection and Response (MDR) according to Forrester analysis of BlueVoyant client experiences 

Organizations’ security operations (SecOps) programs are under increased pressure due to more sophisticated threats, a continually expanding attack surface, and strained internal resources. To help solve these challenges, BlueVoyant MDR delivers 24x7 threat monitoring, detection, hunting, and response powered by advanced automation and human expertise.

In 2024, BlueVoyant commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study to objectively determine the value of BlueVoyant MDR services. TEI is Forrester’s proven methodology to justify, quantify, and articulate the value of an investment using direct input from current clients of the solution in conjunction with Forrester subject matter expertise in the domain. The TEI analyzes the benefits — including the economic benefits — costs, risks, and flexibility that buyers realize using a given solution.  

BlueVoyant created the table below to summarize Forrester’s key findings from the TEI evaluation of BlueVoyant MDR.

 

The TEI included extensive client interviews as well as rigorous quantitative analysis, all conducted independently by Forrester. Participating BlueVoyant clients spanned diverse industries and organizational scale, with employee counts ranging from 5,000 to 35,000 globally.  

BlueVoyant greatly appreciates the contributions of our clients in sharing their time and expert perspective as part of this study.  

To derive its quantitative calculations and conclusions, Forrester developed a single “composite organization” to be representative of all the clients that participated. 

“In the past, mean time to close was in a few hours’ time. With BlueVoyant, the average is probably faster by 70% to 80%.” - CISO, Manufacturing organization

The BlueVoyant MDR value proposition

BlueVoyant is well known for our services to help organizations most effectively operationalize Microsoft Sentinel + Defender XDR as well as the Splunk SIEM platforms. We provide end-to-end consulting, assessment, optimization, deployment, configuration, and MDR expertise. BlueVoyant MDR helps organizations comprehensively secure multi-cloud and heterogeneous technology environments.  

The Forrester TEI examined three client benefits to calculate to the 210% ROI realized by partnering with BlueVoyant MDR. On top of that, the TEI also identified several additional impactful client benefits that were not directly factored into the ROI calculations. A list of those combined benefits and related summaries is shown below.   

Three benefits factored into the ROI calculation include: 

  1. Optimized client SOC staffing. Forrester found that BlueVoyant’s threat detection and response expertise helped clients realize a 90% reduction in escalated alerts and a 70% reduction in mean time to resolution (MTTR). BlueVoyant effectively filtered out false positives, allowing analyst teams to focus on investigation, response, and more strategic activities to improve SOC efficacy.  
  2. Optimized client SecOps technology spending. Forrester found that BlueVoyant helped clients consolidate tools as well as drive better integration and correlation across tools, “thereby enhancing visibility and informed decision making.” While not directly evaluated by Forrester as part of this analysis, BlueVoyant also offers advanced methodologies and expertise to help clients navigate Microsoft subscription bundles to drive tool consolidation, cost savings, and security efficacy.  
  3. Reduced breach incidence and related cost. Forrester found that organizations using BlueVoyant MDR realized meaningful improvements in cyber resilience. Client testimonials reprinted in the full TEI report praised BlueVoyant’s rapid threat detection and response capabilities, as well as expertise to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities. Based on client input, Forrester inferred a 50% reduction in the likelihood of a data breach and associated costs as part of its ROI calculation for BlueVoyant MDR. While we acknowledge the potential imprecision of breach reduction metrics given various attribution challenges as well as the fact that MDR outcomes can vary greatly across organizations, we are energized by the opportunity to help our clients in this way. This is especially true since many of our interviewed clients as part of the TEI represented organizations of already-substantial scale and maturity. 

Four additional benefits not factored into the ROI calculation include:  

  1. Improved visibility and insights. BlueVoyant MDR provides clients with “a holistic view of security posture, enabling employees to understand the evolving threat landscape, detect potential risks, and make informed decisions,” according to the Forrester analysis. 
  2. Improved employee experience. Client organizations reduced staff burnout by leveraging BlueVoyant to offload some of the threat detection and investigation burden. 
  3. Rapid SIEM/XDR onboarding and operationalization. 
  4. Strategic partnership with BlueVoyant. Interviewed clients were favorable about the benefits of having BlueVoyant as a strategic partner and being able to continuously learn from BlueVoyant’s expertise and insights.  

“BlueVoyant has been a trusted partner to myself, to my boss, and to the senior leaders that run our 24x7 SOC. I’ve appreciated all of their insights, and most importantly, their brutal honesty on our existing operations. Sometimes you need a third party to tell you what you’re doing right, but more importantly, to tell you what you’re doing wrong so that you can reduce the risk within the enterprise.” Deputy Enterprise CISO, insurance organization

Clients value BlueVoyant to help them leverage the artificial intelligence innovation cycle for cyber defense

BlueVoyant has used artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) since the company’s inception to offer leading-edge cybersecurity solutions for our clients. We use AI/ML in our SOC to accelerate threat detection, alert enrichment, and threat investigation to help our clients stay more secure. We also use AI to accurately predict the severity of emerging vulnerabilities, before official industry scores are formalized, so clients can more rapidly prioritize remediation efforts. BlueVoyant can also advise clients on generative-AI readiness, particularly around Microsoft Copilot for Security. We are proud to have been chosen to participate in the Microsoft Copilot for Security Design Council.  

“It also helps that BlueVoyant’s partnership investment in AI early on and some of the cool new functionality that’s embedded within their security AI tool will be an area in which we can further optimize our spending, perhaps reduce the number of full-time headcount and be able to outsource more functions to a provider like BlueVoyant.” Deputy Enterprise CISO, insurance organization 

Read the full TEI study for more details and proof points that help support a business case to partner with BlueVoyant for MDR solutions.

Milan Patel is the global head of managed detection and response (MDR) at BlueVoyant. He is a former Supervisory Special Agent at the FBI Cyber Division and recipient of the Federal Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. 

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