“Having a single system that contains different projects organizes them to a standard, shifts the focus to what really needs to be done, which is driving innovation tied to better patient outcomes.” —PMO Leader in the Healthcare Industry on Prism PPM
A large healthcare network needed the best software for portfolio management to run projects more efficiently and ensure that every one of its projects supported its overall clinical and business goals. With more than 300 active projects across 20+ business units, data was siloed and there was a lack of visibility and problems with risk management. Improving patient outcomes was essential. That’s why the organization turned to Prism PPM.
In an industry where you’re constantly managing complex product lifecycles and regulatory requirements and must have real-time visibility into project statuses and resource allocation, healthcare and life sciences portfolio management software is essential.
From standardizing workflows and project intake to integrating tools and data sources and tools and delivering proactive insights into project status, these platforms arm you with the data you need to make the right decisions and drive better outcomes for patients and the entire organization.
Why Use Specialized Healthcare and Life Sciences Portfolio Management Software?
Healthcare and life sciences sectors are high-stakes and complex environments, often fraught with challenges. It’s critical to have specialized solutions to manage these challenges and holistic project lifecycles.
Why else should you rely on healthcare project management tools?
Compliance and Regulations
When working in a complex field with many regulations, you need compliance-focused project management software. Specialized PPM software solutions are often compliant with FDA, EU MDR, and ISO standards or can help you ensure you’re meeting the requirements. These platforms can also assist you with simplifying compliance reporting.
Strategic Alignment
How do you know whether your projects are truly driving strategic alignment? Integrated portfolio management systems allow you to connect high-level strategy with discrete initiatives. You will gain insights into how projects are driving your mission forward. What’s more, you’ll stop wasting time, money, and other resources on low-value projects.
Efficiency and Time Savings
Thanks to features like resource optimization and enhanced visibility into entire project portfolios, you’ll remove bottlenecks that interfere with project turnaround. Plus, by consolidating your data and disparate tools into a single platform, you and your teams won’t waste time searching for the information you need. The result is accelerated time to market.
R&D Support
Many PPM platforms encompass R&D portfolio management solutions, helping researchers manage their data and resources. They also centralize your information and track trends and activities, as well as better manage risks.
Risk Management
With the right PPM software, you can mitigate risks early. Your platform offers built-in tools, such as what-if scenario planning to help you better predict various outcomes, along with compliance measures. Moreover, you will have plenty of data and insights to inform your strategy and plan more effectively and accurately.
Integrated Systems
Unify various systems such as EHRs, ERPs, R&D databases, and more. By consolidating your information into a single platform, you will save time, eliminate silos, streamline workflows, and gain efficiency. You will also have greater visibility into your project progress and statuses.
Best Software for Life Sciences and Healthcare Portfolio Management
What’s the best software for portfolio management in healthcare and life sciences? We’ve rounded up the top solutions to consider.
Prism PPM
Prism PPM (formerly WorkOtter) is a comprehensive cloud-based PPM platform offering invaluable features for the healthcare and life sciences sectors. The platform’s main focus is ensuring alignment and proper project prioritization.
With abundant features, including Strategy Mapping and Portfolio Roadmaps, What-If scenario planning, real-time dashboards, and more, PMOs and stakeholders are well-equipped to align initiatives, customize and streamline workflows, allocate resources, and gain both high-level and detailed visibility. The platform also offers extensive compliance and security capabilities, including HIPAA compliance, audit trails, SOC 2 Type 2 Certification, and access controls.
Pros
- Robust features, including detailed tools for project intake and prioritization, resource management, and agentic AI
- User-friendly and highly customizable
- Advanced reporting and analytics capabilities, including pre-built PPM dashboards
- Compliance and governance features, including approval gates and compliance tracking
- Seamless integration with tools like Jira, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Power BI, and Azure Databricks
Cons
- Can be overly complex for smaller teams
- Extensive customizations can be overwhelming
Cora
Cora PPM is specifically designed for industries with complex regulations like healthcare and life sciences. Teams can centralize projects and enjoy features like resource optimization, standardized workflows, scenario planning, visual roadmapping, budget tracking, audit trails, and dynamic reporting, all while having greater visibility over their initiatives. The platform is highly secure and provides compliance tracking.
Pros
- Robust compliance and governance tools
- Easy integration with enterprise tools like Jira, SAP, Azure, and more
- Advanced features for project prioritization
- Clean and intuitive interface
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Complex and time-consuming setup and onboarding required
- Some users report latency problems
- Some reporting features are inflexible
Scoro
A professional services automation (PSA) and work management platform, Scoro helps a variety of healthcare and life sciences organizations and services, along with some other types of client-facing businesses, manage projects and balance workloads. The platform features resource management tools, custom dashboards, Gantt charts, invoicing, project accounting, and more, combining disparate systems into a single platform. Scoro is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant.
Pros
- Offers AI-powered insights
- Allows users to visualize project progress in a single platform
- Provides customizable dashboards
- Includes comprehensive budget visibility
Cons
- Not HIPAA compliant, which can be a concern for healthcare organizations (it does include other compliance and security measures, however)
- Not a true project portfolio management platform, which can be limiting for large and complex organizations
- Steep learning curve
- The mobile app is a bit limited
Clarity by Broadcom
Geared toward large enterprises, Clarity PPM assists healthcare, biotech, pharmaceutical, and other related organizations track and streamline complex projects. Clarity has built-in audit trails to ensure that organizations meet FDA and EMA regulations, along with additional compliance measures. As a strategic portfolio management (SPM) platform, it focuses on aligning strategy with execution while offering tools for resource management, roadmaps, and extensive capabilities for portfolios, programs, and projects.
Pros
- User-friendly and customizable
- Offers an estimation module to help teams with forecasting, roles management, and project baselines
- Seamlessly integrates with other enterprise tools
- Strong financial and time tracking capabilities
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Customizations can be complex
- The mobile app has syncing problems and limitations
- Clunky interface may limit user adoption
Celoxis
An enterprise-grade PPM tool, Celoxis offers several features for healthcare and life sciences sectors. From resource allocation and capacity planning to custom workflows and approvals, teams gain insight into complex analytics, resource management, financial tracking, audit trails, initiative and research pipelines, risk management, and much more. With the platform, you can centralize document management, manage risks, successfully handle stage-gate approvals, and otherwise handle and disseminate important information among departments, teams, and regions.
Pros
- Scalable across divisions and regions
- Free, secure, role-based permissions for safe cross-team collaboration for stakeholders, reviewers, and approvers
- Offers predictive AI scheduling to help teams keep projects on track
- Provides configurable workflows and custom integrations
Cons
- Not HIPAA-compliant out-of-box (the platform does support strict data governance and audit trails)
- Unsuitable for smaller organizations due to extensive functionalities
- Steep learning curve and complex integrations for legacy systems
- Limited mobile application
Epicflow
An AI-powered PPM platform, Epicflow is specifically geared toward regulated sectors like healthcare and life sciences. The enterprise-grade platform allows large organizations to manage and streamline workflows, handle constrained resources, prioritize projects, leverage predictive analytics, and cope with highly regulated environments. It is especially useful for managing intricate environments that involve complex projects like drug discovery, drug manufacturing, and more.
Pros
- Strong compliance and security features; compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, NEN 7510, ISO 27001, and SOC 1 Type II standards
- Offers AI-driven predictive analytics and resource allocation
- Provides What-If scenario modeling to forecast the effects of project changes
- Has “burnout prevention” features, including dynamic task prioritization and competence management tools
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Requires integrations to manage huge healthcare systems
- Overly complex and cumbersome for small teams
- Highly dependent on data inputs for accuracy; team members must frequently update their progress, availability, time tracking, and more, or some features will not function correctly
Conclusion
The healthcare and life sciences sectors are complex fields that demand the best software for portfolio management. From drug trial management to ensuring compliance, PPM platforms allow you to handle your projects and portfolios effectively. Understand how your projects are performing and how they tie to strategic objectives. See where your resources and budgets stand, assess timelines, gain critical insights, and complete your initiatives more efficiently and effectively.
What’s the best software for life sciences and healthcare portfolio management to suit your organization? It’s essential to choose the right platform for your needs. Prism PPM gives you all the tools to manage your projects, programs, and portfolios from start to finish, allowing your teams to deliver optimally.
Want to see for yourself? Book a custom demo to find out more.