Full Report
How Symantec Endpoint Security Complete delivered 180% ROI over three years in a Forrester TEI study
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Forrester Quantifies Significant ROI and Risk Reduction for Symantec Endpoint Security Complete
## Summary
A new Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) study, commissioned by Broadcom, demonstrates that Symantec Endpoint Security Complete (SES Complete) delivers a 180% Return on Investment (ROI) over three years, achieving payback in under six months, primarily by consolidating fragmented security tools. The study validates significant operational improvements, including an 80% lower breach risk, a one-third reduction in investigation time, and substantial cost avoidance through retiring legacy software.
## Key Details
- Date: October 14, 2025 (Date of article publication)
- Companies Involved: Broadcom (Symantec), Forrester Consulting
- Category: Market Analysis/Validation Study (Product Validation)
## The Story
The article details the findings of a Forrester TEI study assessing the financial and operational impact of Symantec Endpoint Security Complete (SES Complete) across four interviewed organizations, modeled into a composite entity protecting 30,000 endpoints. The core finding is that moving from siloed, point solutions to the unified SES Complete platform drives massive efficiency. Specifically, the composite organization realized a $5.5M Net Present Value (NPV) over three years, avoided $3.8M in breach-related costs, and saved $1.8M by eliminating legacy tools. Beyond finances, the solution significantly eased the burden on Security Operations Center (SOC) teams by reducing false positives (by up to 30%) and speeding up investigation times (by 33%), allowing analysts to focus on proactive threat hunting.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved (Broadcom/Symantec)
- **Sales Validation:** Provides strong, third-party, quantifiable data (ROI, NPV) to accelerate sales cycles, particularly appealing to CISOs needing to justify security spend based on hard financial metrics.
- **Market Momentum:** Reinforces Symantec's strategy by validating the efficacy of platform consolidation versus tool sprawl.
### For Competitors
- **Increased Competitive Pressure:** Competitors offering disparate endpoint tools may struggle against clear evidence showing the cost-effectiveness and risk reduction of an integrated platform like SES Complete.
- **Benchmark Setting:** Competitors will need to commission similar quantified studies to remain relevant in ROI-driven procurement discussions.
### For Customers
- **Budget Justification:** Provides a clear business case (180% ROI, <6 month payback) for migrating from legacy or multiple endpoint security tools to SES Complete.
- **Operational Relief:** Direct improvements in SOC efficiency, lower alert fatigue, and reduced risk translate to less overtime and improved job satisfaction for security staff.
### For the Market
- **Shift to Consolidation:** The study reinforces a growing market trend favoring comprehensive, integrated security platforms over best-of-breed point solutions, especially as endpoint surfaces continue to expand.
- **Focus on Measurable Outcomes:** Highlights the increasing expectation from security leadership for vendors to quantify benefits beyond feature lists, focusing on risk reduction and operational expenditure savings.
## Technical Implications
SES Complete leverages a unified platform incorporating Adaptive Protection, AI-driven behavioral analysis, and attack surface reduction capabilities. The technical implication is that integrating these functions in a single agent/platform reduces configuration complexity and ensures consistent policy enforcement, which directly leads to data quality improvements (fewer false positives) and faster remediation cycles.
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Symantec is positioning SES Complete as the essential solution for managing the complex, sprawling attack surface created by remote work and BYOD, transforming endpoint security from a cost center into a value driver.
- **Competitive Advantage:** The key strategic advantage lies in the demonstrable efficiency derived from **consolidation**. By proving financial savings from retiring legacy tools alongside risk reduction, SES Complete offers a dual value proposition that pure-play EDR/AV competitors may lack.
- **Challenges:** Sustaining this advantage requires continuous R&D investment (as noted by Broadcom's high R&D spend) to ensure the unified platform remains superior to emerging, specialized tools that focus on single vectors. Demonstrating scalability across diverse enterprise environments remains a constant validation requirement.
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinions:** Expect industry analysts to use these quantified figures as the new benchmark when evaluating comprehensive Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions.
- **Expert Commentary:** Commentary will likely focus on the validity of the TEI methodology and the challenges organizations face addressing alert fatigue, viewing SES Complete's reduction in false positives as a critical success factor.
- **Market Response:** Stock performance or vendor sentiment may see a slight positive uptick for Broadcom, as favorable, externally validated ROI studies often reassure investors about the future revenue potential of key security products.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictions and Expectations:** We can expect similar validation studies to emerge for other major platform vendors in the coming months, raising the bar for proof-of-concept demonstrations.
- **What to watch for:** Broadcom will likely heavily feature these TEI metrics in upcoming sales presentations and product roadmaps, further bundling the narrative of efficiency and consolidation around the entire Symantec security portfolio.
## For Security Professionals
Cybersecurity practitioners should use this study to build internal business cases for standardizing endpoint tools. The findings directly address common pain points—alert fatigue, investigation time waste, and budget constraints—providing actionable data to advocate for centralized, modern security infrastructure.