Best Portfolio Management Software

What Is Portfolio Management Software?

Portfolio management software is a computer program that allows you to manage multiple projects and tasks simultaneously.

Most enterprises work on various concurrent projects, also known as a portfolio, at one time. It's an effective way to get more work done in less time, better utilize their resources, and generate more revenue. However, not many companies have the right tracking and management capabilities to manage so many tasks. This can lead to inefficient management, resulting in errors, delays, and performance-related issues.

Project management software provides a comprehensive view of multiple levels of project data in an organization. It allows you to manage one or more project portfolios and enjoy more advanced project management capabilities.

Back in the day, portfolio management software was a part of the IT software suite, mainly used by IT and software development companies. But now, portfolio management solutions have become an essential part of all organizational departments, including: 

• Marketing and advertising agencies

• Human resources departments

• Construction companies

• Consulting agencies

• Financial institutions

• Customer support teams

What Does Portfolio Management Software Do?

To understand how a portfolio management system works and what it does, you'll need to first get a gist of the project portfolio management (PPM) process. Let's discuss the key steps involved in the process.

1. Inventory Creation and Strategy Establishment

The first step is to identify all projects and categorize them based on the desired criteria. These could be based on the deadline, completion status, importance, etc. Now, develop a strategy to complete all the pending projects, ensuring that everything aligns with the overall business objectives.

2. Analyze

The next step is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each project. Collect data associated with all projects and evaluate each project based on milestones, resource allocation, reporting schedule, and ROI.

3. Perform Alignment Analysis

You need to ensure that all projects align with the organization's end goals and add real value to the company. Conduct an alignment analysis to determine the degree of strategic fit and better align all the projects. 

4. Manage

Now, it's time to manage all the projects in the portfolio. This step includes making decisions about allocating resources and budgets and managing risk and change. This step also includes rescheduling tasks and measuring risk and reward. 

5. Testing and Adapting

The final step is to test the project and see if everything is fine. If not, you'll need to adapt quickly and make changes in real-time.

As you can see, PPM can be a complex process, including myriad steps and variables. Manually managing all these tasks can be tedious and challenging. It can also lead to errors and delay the projects even further. 

Here's where the best portfolio management tool comes into play. It allows you to manage all PPM steps from a single dashboard. You can add and remove projects, allocate resources, analyze risk, manage change, and test the project outcomes. Thus, it significantly shortens the PPM process and makes it more efficient. 

What Are The Benefits of Portfolio Management Software?

Portfolio management software makes the PPM process simpler, faster, and more streamlined. You can eliminate recurring, time-consuming tasks and focus on more important work at hand. This, in turn, results in faster project completion and better performance and productivity.

Let's discuss the key benefits of cloud-based portfolio management software in detail.

1. Data-Driven Decision-Making

Informed decision-making among all stakeholders is one of the drastic changes the best portfolio management tool brings to the organization. You get access to reliable, real-time data that allows you to get information about various project areas and dimensions. This way, you can perform accurate planning at all stages of the project portfolio management process. 

For instance, you can analyze the outcomes of a feasibility study in terms of various outcomes based on the data you have on individual projects. This way, you can also align projects within portfolios to the end goals of the overall portfolio. Furthermore, you can add multi-dimensional scrutiny to the risks of a project to make better decisions.

2. Establish a Balanced Project Portfolio

To be a high-performing organization, you need to think beyond creating healthy returns. It's essential to strive for innovation so that your returns survive even in times of changing trends and market uncertainties. 

However, this pressure often gets the better of companies as they end up splurging on innovation without evaluating the risk and whether they're financially and resourcefully capable of a change. In a nutshell, sometimes, you need to keep innovation aside and complete projects by following your existing strategies. And sometimes, you need to innovate to achieve better outcomes. 

Portfolio management tools help you achieve the perfect balance between the two extremes. The software consolidates all the factors that could play a role in the project portfolio's outcome. Hence, you can assign a dedicated budget for innovation and balance it with risk, reward, and revenue. 

3. Sustainable Project Management

If you're a project manager struggling to devise a sustained formula for PMM success, a project portfolio management solution can help. Coming up with a project management plan is difficult, but what's more challenging is to determine whether the approach is sustainable in the long term. 

A project portfolio software system helps you analyze ideas, plans, risk, estimates, execution, and all other factors associated with a project's outcome. As a result, you can properly analyze which things are or aren't likely to work instead of relying on guesses. 

4. Effective Resource Management

As a project portfolio manager, getting the best value out of your resources should be your topmost priority. The best project portfolio management software helps you do that. You can make a strategic skill-based allocation to increase the odds of getting a positive outcome from the project.

Once you've assigned the resources, you can use the analytics section to track the performance of each resource. You can track the overall utilization rates, availability statuses, etc., to better manage the resources and make better decisions regarding short-term and long-term resource allocation.

5. Seamless Collaboration

Hassle-free collaboration and communication are the keys to success in project portfolio management. All members working on the project should have seamless access to all the data and insights, including statuses and reports, related to the project. In many projects, especially for those where remote teams are involved, collaboration can become the differentiator between success and failure. 

Project portfolio management software acts as the central repository of all information related to the project. This results in health collaboration and ensures that all team members, including stakeholders, are on the same page. 

Key Features of Best Portfolio Management Tools

Every portfolio management system is different, and thus, has different features and functionalities. However, certain features are common in all portfolio management tools. Let's look at some of them. 

1. Consolidated Project View

The most critical aspect of the best portfolio management software is that it enables you to view all your projects together. Most tools come with Gantt chart functionality to better plan and schedule a project. You can view all your projects on a single timeline and ensure synergy between all projects.

2. Live Data Access

The best portfolio management software provides access to live data across all projects. The portfolio dashboard displays information about all your projects. It also calculates the data and converts it into visual reports, making it easier to consume.

3. Detailed Data for Better Decisions

More data means more information, which leads to more informed decisions. As a project manager, you need to know every small and big detail that could impact a project's outcome. Portfolio management software provides in-depth reports that help you get detailed insights into your project portfolio. 

4. Task Management

A project comprises various tasks, and efficiently managing these tasks is the key to successfully completing projects. With the task management feature, you can assign the right number of tasks to your team members and measure their progress in real-time. This way, you can also stay on top of how each team member is performing. 

5. Change Assignments

Reassigning tasks can be daunting, but portfolio management software makes it easier. You can easily reassign tasks to other team members based on their availability and skill level. Furthermore, you can set priorities for each task to get them done on time. 

6. Real-Time Portfolio 

With the best portfolio management software, you can view the entire portfolio, along with all projects and tasks. This simplifies management and helps you with better tracking and prioritization. As a result, you can be more efficient and make real-time decisions.

Things to Keep in Mind While Buying Portfolio Management Software

Are you looking for a portfolio management system that meets your requirements? While every software solution is valuable, not all of them will add the same value to your business. Therefore, it's essential to choose the best portfolio management software.

Here are a few thighs to consider when looking for a project portfolio software system.

1. Cost

The purpose of a portfolio management solution is to help you streamline your projects without increasing costs. But if you choose a system that's too expensive, it can neutralize the purpose of a portfolio management system. While you shouldn't pick the cheapest option available, ensure that you don't spend too much money. 

2. Features

Portfolio management tools can come with different features, and it's essential to determine which features you need. Avoid going overboard with features as they can increase your costs. Moreover, extra features can be overwhelming and make it difficult to use the software. So, ensure that you stick to only the most important features you need. 

3. Deployment

Portfolio tracking software comes in two types of deployment options: cloud-based and on-premise. On-premise systems are deployed on your company's servers, and you're responsible for managing, maintaining, and upgrading them. This results in cutting-edge security. But you can only access them on devices registered on your company's network.

Cloud-based systems are deployed on the cloud and managed by third-party vendors. You don't have to bother about maintaining or upgrading them as the vendor takes care of those requirements. Moreover, since they reside on third-party servers, you can access them from any device. 

4. Ease of Use

Lastly, ensure that the software is easy to use. The last thing you want is to spend months training your team members to use the software. Pick simple and efficient solutions so that you don't have to spend too much time training your employees. This way, you'll be able to start extracting the value from your portfolio management software right away.

5. Accessibility

With remote work becoming the new normal, multi-device support is one of the key functionalities to look for in a portfolio management system. The software you choose should support multiple devices and platforms, mainly Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Since everyone nowadays uses smartphones, choosing a portfolio management solution with mobile support can enable better project tracking and communication. 

Problem Can Face with Portfolio Management System

A portfolio management system can add immense value to your business. But there are a few problems you can face, especially during the initial days of implementation. 

Here are a few challenges that you should be prepared to face when using a new portfolio management software solution.

1. Reluctance from Staff

No one likes a change, even when it's for good. Implementing a new portfolio management system means your entire organization will need to undergo an operation transformation, which could be challenging. Be prepared to receive reluctance at all organizational levels, from stakeholders to employees. 

2. Difficulty in Using

No matter how easy-to-use software you choose, your team will need some time and training to get used to it. Don't expect to streamline your portfolio management tasks from the first day of installing the software. Give some time to your team to get used to the software. 

3. Difficulties Tracking ROI

There's no clear way to measure the exact value a portfolio management system adds to your organization. It offers a wide range of benefits, such as reducing time wastage, better resource utilization, reducing unnecessary costs, and more. Calculating the overall ROI generated from all these improvements can be challenging.