An IDC study commissioned by Mandiant found that Mandiant Consulting customers reported an average annual benefit of USD $4.3 million. The study said the engagements delivered a 268% return on investment over three years.
IDC based the findings on interviews with current Mandiant customers and its standard return-on-investment methodology. The organisations in the sample were large and complex, with average revenue of USD $17.3 billion and an average workforce of 74,000 employees.
The research reflects a shift in how security leaders are judged inside large companies. Alongside managing cyber risk, Chief Information Security Officers are increasingly expected to show boards how security spending affects growth, customer trust, and operating performance.
According to the study, organisations that worked with Mandiant recovered their investment in an average of 4.1 months. Customers also reported improvements in operational readiness and resilience after using the firm's consulting services.
Board pressure
Several examples in the study focused on how security work was presented to senior management and customers. One energy-sector organisation said external validation of its cyber programme helped strengthen board-level discussions about risk.
"Mandiant provides external assurance that our cyber programme is thorough and validated from a risk-management perspective. Their validation and recommendations have helped us reinforce that messaging to our board. They are highly professional, risk aligned, and among the most trusted," said the organisation.
A healthcare organisation interviewed for the research linked its work with Mandiant to commercial outcomes as well as lower insurance costs. Security, it said, had become a more prominent factor in winning business.
"Mandiant has enabled us to engage more confidently with customers and position our security posture as a market differentiator, with security now consistently ranking among the top three reasons clients choose us. It has also contributed to reducing our insurance costs by $50,000 per year," said the healthcare organisation.
The comments point to a wider trend in corporate security spending, with boards and executives seeking evidence that defensive measures do more than prevent losses. In sectors under close scrutiny from regulators, insurers, and customers, external assessments can also influence procurement discussions and risk reviews.
Threat focus
The study also highlighted the role of specialist threat intelligence in helping internal teams decide where to focus limited resources. Many security departments face staffing pressures and lack the time to track every threat actor or campaign targeting their sector.
Mandiant said its guidance draws on more than 500,000 hours of global incident investigations over the past year. According to the study, the aim is to help customer teams prioritise the threats most relevant to their industry rather than spread attention across a wider field.
A retail organisation said that approach helped it build detections tied to activity associated with the cybercrime group Scattered Spider. The organisation told IDC the work had helped it avoid incidents.
"One of the most significant accomplishments from using Mandiant has been their ability to help us create detection use cases specific to Scattered Spider based on their industry knowledge. This has enabled us to monitor, detect, and neutralise related attacks, which is a key reason we have avoided incidents," said the organisation.
Beyond threat tracking, the research said some customers used Mandiant to test core identity and access controls. These reviews covered areas such as Active Directory, privileged account management, and multi-factor authentication, which remain central to many breach investigations.
Measured gains
IDC reported that 59% of customers in the study said they were better prepared to respond successfully to cyberattacks. Another 45% reported an overall improvement in cyber resilience, while 36% said their security analyst teams had become more efficient.
Those productivity gains matter because security teams are often asked to support broader business projects while managing a constant flow of alerts, patching work, and compliance requirements. If outside expertise reduces that burden, internal staff can spend more time on strategy, governance, and projects more directly tied to expansion or customer service.
The IDC findings provide a clear financial snapshot of how large organisations are measuring security consulting work in commercial terms. For boards seeking proof that cyber spending can influence revenue, resilience, and insurance costs, the reported annual benefit of USD $4.3 million offers a benchmark from companies with average revenue of USD $17.3 billion and 74,000 employees.