New Forrester study reveals: Okta Identity Governance can result in 211% ROI

Governance shouldn't be complicated, yet many organizations find it a source of frustration. They often find themselves tangled in manual processes, outdated systems, and compliance headaches, struggling to balance security, agility, and scalability.

But what if governance worked differently? What if it were embedded in your identity flow, enforced least privilege by default, and worked with your IT and security teams, not against them? That’s what Okta Identity Governance delivers — and now, new research from Forrester Consulting quantifies that impact.

Today, we're excited to share new insights from Forrester Consulting's Total Economic Impact™ study, revealing the impressive value organizations realize with Okta Identity Governance. This study doesn’t just quantify benefits; it captures the experiences of organizations that transformed their identity governance from reactive oversight into proactive, streamlined security.

Governance that can pay for itself in under 6 months

More than 1,500+ organizations trust Okta Identity Governance to modernize and automate access decisions at scale. Forrester’s analysis in the study shows Okta Identity Governance can deliver an outstanding 211% return on investment, delivering $2.6 million in total benefits and a net present value of $1.8 million — all with a payback period of less than six months.

These figures showcase Okta Identity Governance's transformative impact, but the real story lies in the experiences behind the numbers:

• Improved identity governance efficiency: By automating access requests, certifications, and entitlements, organizations saved significantly, using up to 60% less manual effort¹ by year three. As one financial services CIO put it, the labor savings across teams "justifies the cost overall."
   
• Faster audit and compliance: Organizations dramatically reduced audit preparation time, saving over $232,000, thanks to improved access visibility and streamlined compliance reporting.¹ One leader explained how they can now satisfy auditors in a single 30-minute session with zero follow-up — a process that previously required weeks of manual data gathering.
   
• Legacy cost avoidance: By replacing legacy tools with Okta Identity Governance's out-of-the-box integrations, organizations avoided costly licensing and consulting fees, totaling $567,000 in savings.¹
   
• Boosted productivity: Faster access decisions and fewer access-related delays translated to nearly half a million dollars in productivity gains.
   
  • [insert quote callout] “Okta Identity Governance drastically improves the user experience. They can get what they need done very quickly and move on to work and what they actually are doing for their job, versus before, when it would take a lot of productivity away from them.” — Managing Director, Financial Services
     
• Reduced Security Risks: Okta Identity Governance strengthens an organization's security posture by enforcing least-privilege access and eliminating excessive or outdated entitlements. This proactive risk reduction helps limit exposure to insider threats and privilege misuse, with savings estimated at $231,000.¹

"Okta Identity Governance does everything it’s supposed to do on day one and more. You get the capabilities you need to be compliant, and your users are happy." — Senior Director, Global Head of IAM, Professional Services

What sets Okta Identity Governance apart?

Unlike legacy governance solutions built for another era, Okta Identity Governance was designed with modern IT and security needs in mind:

• Achieve fast, seamless deployment: We designed Okta Identity Governance to be different: simple, automated, and deeply integrated. The results speak for themselves. The study highlights how quickly customers see value, with one information security director reporting their organization was in production in just two weeks. Our own data shows that about 25% of new customers go live in under 30 days, and more than 50% are fully deployed within six months. And with over 800 pre-built SCIM integrations, connecting to your most critical systems is faster and easier than ever.
   
  • “The implementation time was next to nothing. There’s nothing to really do. It’s just part of the [Okta] platform. We had it in production within two weeks — that was a grand slam for us.” — Information Security Director,  Healthcare
     
• Enforce least privileged access and simplify audits: Modern governance must be proactive, not reactive. Okta Identity Governance gives approvers and reviewers smart, context-rich insights, automatically highlighting unusual access or potential outliers. This allows teams to focus on what matters most, surface risks early, and make faster, more intelligent decisions to ensure only the right people have the right level of access to the right resources at the right time.
   
• Drive better security outcomes with the Power of a Unified Platform: Most breaches start with a compromised identity, which is why we say identity is security. Rather than separating governance from lifecycle processes or provisioning systems, Okta embeds it directly into the identity flow as part of a unified identity security fabric. This means you can orchestrate everything from onboarding and access policies to threat response in one place. This enables powerful, context-aware security that standalone solutions can't match. For instance, you can automatically trigger a risk-based access certification campaign if a user's behavior suddenly becomes unusual — an automated enforcement capability that Okta provides.

Start your journey to modern governance

Governance is no longer a compliance checkbox; it’s fundamental to your security strategy. It’s time to move beyond the limitations of legacy tools and embrace a smarter, faster, and more secure approach.

Ready to start your journey to modern governance? Read the full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study and watch our webinar featuring leading Forrester analysts Geoff Cairns and Kris Peterson to learn firsthand how Okta Identity Governance can deliver transformative results for your organization.

These materials are intended for general informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal, privacy, security, compliance, or business advice. 
© Okta and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

¹The TEI study is based on interviews with Okta Identity Governance customers that were used to create a composite customer organization and financial model, which, when applied to a defined case study, found a composite organization can experience the cited benefits.  These figures represent a three-year, risk-adjusted present value based on the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study commissioned by Okta, June 2025. See the TEI study for more details.