For any business to stand out and excel in a dynamic and saturated market, it has to have the capacity to quickly adapt. Rapid adaptability to provide solutions for any given problem requires exceptional leadership and an effective portfolio management tool.
Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, has stated that “Management is all about doing the things right, while leadership is about doing the right things.” This is why every major business venture pays close attention to the management systems in place and always keeps an eye out for ways to improve and fine-tune them.
Modern business trends emphasize using project management methods, yet project portfolio management (PPM) is still taking hold. The main reason might be a lack of knowledge about project portfolio management and its perks for a company. The project portfolio management method centralizes the management of all processes, methods, and technologies used by project managers to evaluate and manage ongoing or future projects, based on relevant information.
Project portfolio management (PPM) tools help managers effectively manage time, skills, resources, and budgets. Having this tool in your hands makes it much easier to accomplish many tasks, especially in situations where managers have to multitask. PPM ensures that your company operates with minimal risk by providing managers with centralized visibility of project information for all projects. With PPM tool implementation, your team will be able to find the most suitable ways to deliver projects and programs on time.
As you can see, the PPM mode of management is not something you should disregard or underestimate. And if you do decide to give this holistic approach a try, you should consider using a portfolio management tool. The major advantage of using this tool is improved efficiency.
Here is a list we have compiled of all the benefits of using a portfolio management tool.
Easy to Use in Any Field of Portfolio Management
In the beginning, portfolio management tools were adopted by IT and software development companies. Not long after this, many other organizations decided that this type of tool would be useful in assisting them with conducting their business more easily. Today, you can find many consulting, advertising, and marketing agencies human resources departments; construction companies; and financial institutions that rely heavily on the functions offered by this software.
The ability to quickly access a complete overview of any project or company-related information at any given time will help a company to garner success in its field. Many managers say that portfolio management software tools are helpful because they provide access to data from the various systems of the company.
It’s a Smart Investment
This type of tool is also valuable for both the leadership and managers of any company in terms of providing them with vital information to assist them in better decision-making and project planning regarding costs versus benefits. Any business objective, including the core objective, requires a certain amount of investment. This is why the information that is available to you when you have implemented PPM in your organization will allow your finance department to make more accurate financial decisions.
Many organizations that outsource their projects are starting to utilize these types of tools because they provide them with a real-time overview of all the deadlines and payments that await them in the future.
Merge Data Across All Systems
The most valuable perk that a portfolio management tool provides is the ability to generate multiple data sets, providing insight into variable results. This is very important for organizations that have many active projects in the works and are engaged in multiple markets around the globe. Staying informed by having access to various data that is being collected and arranged according to the specific criteria you have set can mean the difference between success or failure in the world of business.
Compiled data is not displayed in just any random fashion that might require you to spend hours analyzing it. On the contrary, portfolio management software displays data in a meaningful way, giving you the ability to operate in real time and quickly assess the performance history of any current project or asset.
Another convenient function is the tool’s ability to approximate and display the cost of completing a project. With all this information, your organization can plan its budget with surgical precision.
Storing data in one place saves you both space and time in accessing it. Managers using the PPM tool can create accurate forecasting models for any given project in a short time. In case any problem arises, your managers will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a problem-solving process. Knowing if something is worth fixing or not can save a lot of time, effort, and money for the whole organization.
Keep the Lines of Communication Open
The modern business world is moving towards greater integration of the whole company. Studies show that discarding a departmentalized type of portfolio organization and implementing a more unified model can boost business operations by increasing the creativity and productivity of all employees. Also, by displaying concrete, comprehensive data that can be used to help your organization’s employees and stakeholders more easily conclude, decision-making will be less time-consuming and more accurate.
The software’s ability to display real-time data, with attached information about who is responsible for each project or assignment, has a great impact on teamwork. When your employees are aware that anyone can access their data and see the ownership and progression of an assignment, they will feel more accountable.
With this in mind, your employees will be ready to ask for advice and offer each other help. This means that the entire team will be focused on performing their duties. Also, when they only have one source of information on which they are basing their decisions, your employees won’t be handicapped by a gap in communication that may occur when they need multiple copies of project documents, plans, and charters.
At the same time, the portfolio management tool gives managers the ability to focus on the tasks assigned to their teams. With access to data that shows whether or not every employee is being utilized in the best way, leadership can make the decisions that will lead to the achievement of organizational goals.
Continuous usage of this portfolio management tool not only helps leaders and managers maintain constructive communication within an organization but also allows them to easily come to agreements with the stakeholders. In the end, the type of data transparency this tool brings will raise the level of trust between team members when they communicate amongst themselves or with other teams.
Easy to Operate
The key element of any portfolio management tool is its simplicity. It is designed to not require any specialized and prolonged training, thus providing your business with easily implemented innovation. In fact, though they are highly functional, most of the project management software tools available do not require your employees to have an advanced degree or technical knowledge.
The interface of portfolio management software is intuitive and can be used by your employees in every department of your company. Projects can be organized by specific labels, named however you decide, and easily manageable. In the very simple Permission Settings panel, you can give external access to your data to anyone you choose, with no trouble at all. This is a nice perk that speeds up the process of decision-making, should you decide to hire a consulting firm or other organization.
Managers can easily create entries of team-related information, and this type of tool also allows managers with the proper level of access to even allocate human resources to the areas where they are needed during intensive work periods. A simple report-making feature is also included, and this allows managers to edit and update the reports they want to share. The portfolio management tool also has the option to allow sharing of desired analytics and data charts in a group or on private boards.
Discover Hidden Patterns in Your Organization’s Portfolio Management
In time, having access to all the data in your organization will result in your team discovering certain workflow patterns, allowing the managers to prevent delays and potential issues that may arise with specific types of assignments and projects.
The otherwise almost impossible task of creating a visual representation of a project portfolio is easily achievable with this tool. This is of crucial importance for any organization that cannot afford to make any mistakes. The old methods require managers to put extra pressure on employees and entail putting in place rigorous quality/accuracy monitoring protocols.
With the PPM tool, you can access a visual overview of everything that goes on in and out of any area of your organization, thus enabling you to prevent potential accidents and costly inefficiencies. For example, you can even spot any problems related to your commuting employees. The result is efficient teams across all departments, increased revenue, and satisfied stakeholders.
Prevent Data Loss
Keeping the files and various data reports well-organized requires a complex filing system and lots of space. A lack of such features is usually accompanied by poor data access and time loss during data searches. With portfolio management software, all of your company’s data will be kept in one place. What’s more important, all of your data will be stored in cloud-based storage, making it impervious to any losses.
Storing your data in the cloud will render it accessible via an internet connection from wherever you find yourself at any given time. This option can come in handy during the times when you have to outsource projects or when you’re on the move.
The benefits of this system are its speed, easy-to-setup mobile accessibility, and versatile computing capabilities of the cloud. With all of its powerful features distributed across the various departments of your organization, productivity, and efficiency will skyrocket.
More Efficient Resource Portfolio Management
When all of your organizational data is compiled in one big chunk and then organized into interlinked categories, you can easily keep track of your company’s resources. You can easily see who is working on what at the moment, and whether your asset is queued for any future work. Have you found a time gap that leaves any of your assets idle? Portfolio management software will help you distribute your assets wisely, leaving no leeway for errors that result in time loss.
This PPM tool also allows you to relocate your assets to any other projects that require their immediate attention, thus greatly shortening the delivery time of the final product or service. Poor project plans often result in companies running out of resources midway through the project – eliminate this problem with portfolio management software.
You should also be aware that there are some common challenges that you may face if you choose to implement this system. For instance, there is a good chance that some of the stakeholders may try to push the projects that personally benefit them ahead of the queue, making the allocation of your budget and available resources difficult. For example, if you face the same resource requests from projects that are running simultaneously; you might end up with resource conflicts, which may lead to cost-overrun situations.
As you can see, the benefits of this portfolio management tool are many. If your company intends to or has already implemented portfolio management, it might be a good time to opt for a tool that offers a highly efficient approach.
This software can provide you with information like real project delivery time, exact project cost, the status of project resources, and much more. With all this information in your hands, you will be able to evaluate whether everything is going according to plan and how far you are from reaching your company’s goals.
That is why we’ve created the PPM Express tool which is specifically tailored to meet small and medium business needs. If you’d like to learn more about how project & portfolio management solutions can benefit your organization – just read more about it in our blog or download one of our ROI white papers.
But if you are eager to save your company’s budget, time, and effort starting today – just give us a call or leave your message and we will do our best to see your issues sorted out.