Fifty-four percent of organizations achieve fewer than 50% of their strategic goals.
Some have difficulty aligning projects with overarching objectives. Many lack real-time visibility into project performance and strategic alignment. Perhaps they experience challenges in resource allocation and prioritization across multiple initiatives. Or they can’t adapt quickly to changing market conditions and strategic shifts.
Strategic portfolio management software helps you solve all of these challenges. With these tools, you can align your projects with business objectives, optimize resource allocation, and enhance decision-making.
The right tool will allow you to execute your strategy and ensure alignment with your goals. But with so many SPM tools on the market, which one is right for your business? Read on to learn more about the top strategic portfolio management software and how to decide which platform is right for you.
What Is Strategic Portfolio Management Software?
Research shows that 90% of strategic plans aren’t successfully carried out. That’s where SPM tools enter the picture. They are comprehensive platforms for choosing the right projects and portfolios and executive them for optimal business strategy alignment. Armed with these tools, organizations are better primed to manage and optimize their portfolio of projects, programs, and investments to achieve strategic goals.
SPM software takes the holistic portfolio into account so you’re not solely looking at individual projects or initiatives.
You’ll achieve:
- Portfolio visibility
- Resource management
- Project prioritization
- Risk reduction
- Data-driven support for decision-making
You’ll also find out:
- Whether projects could require the same resources at the same time
- What will happen to your portfolio if priorities change
- Which projects are the most valuable
- And, most importantly, which projects are most impactful for your organization
Equipped with features like scenario planning and analysis, dependency management, capacity planning, real-time and predictive analytics, prioritization, and much more, strategic portfolio management software is the key to bridging strategy with execution and delivering greater value.
Which Industries Use Strategic Portfolio Management Tools?
Many industry sectors leverage strategic PPM tools. They are particularly beneficial for those dealing with extensive regulations, compliance concerns, complex organizational objectives, and the need for risk management. Just a few examples are healthcare, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, IT, and government organizations.
Top Strategic Portfolio Management Tools
1. Prism PPM
Although Prism PPM is a project portfolio management platform, it incorporates several SPM functions as well, focusing both on how to complete projects and quantifying outcomes and benefits realization.
The platform is designed to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, with tools for mapping business objectives and linking them to projects and portfolios, “what-if” scenario planning for mapping out various scenarios, resource forecasting, and project intake and scoring.
PMOs leverage Prism PPM to align portfolios with higher-level business goals and view project health and resource utilization in real-time to help you better manage initiatives and achieve benefits.
Pros
- Highly customizable with flexible templates, visualizations, and dashboards
- Centralized idea and demand management tools with scorecards for better project prioritization
- Innovative “what-if” scenario planning for modeling a wide range of situations
- Comprehensive features for resource management, reporting, capacity planning, and much more
Cons
- Less suitable for small teams due to its focus on PMO use cases
- The highly comprehensive platform may be more features than a smaller team is ready to adopt
2. Planisware
Geared toward large enterprises, Planisware is an SPM tool aimed at helping organizations manage complex initiatives. The platform is equipped with features like workflow automation, forecasting, scenario analysis, budgeting, resource management, and reporting, allowing organizations to prioritize projects according to strategic objectives, collaborate across teams, and facilitate better decision-making.
Pros
- Well-suited to agile organizations
- Ideal for complex and large-scale project portfolio management
- Has longevity on its side; the company has been around for 30 years
- Equipped with an AI copilot that streamlines planning
Cons
- Limited/outdated user interface
- Not well-suited to early-maturity PMOs
- Setup and implementation require a steep learning curve
- Users report some technical issues
- Less flexible
3. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a unified platform for enterprises looking to centralize strategy, workflows, execution, and agile delivery. The platform uses AI for real-time dynamic reallocation, scenario planning, and forecasting. Thanks to this and other features, teams can leverage predictive intelligence, trace goals to value delivery, and make faster decisions.
- Pros
- Unified platform that bridges strategy and execution in one solution
- Flexible, scalable, and adaptable across industries and portfolios
- Continuous forecasting
- Cons
- Time-consuming setup
- Limited customization and reporting features
- Inconsistent and error-prone interface
- Not ideal for organizations without an existing ServiceNow infrastructure
4. Planview
Ideal for large enterprises with numerous initiatives spanning business units, Planview is well-known for portfolio management that connects strategy to execution. One of the longest running SPM tools, the platform offers AI-driven insights, resource allocation and optimization, scenario modeling, dynamic roadmaps, and deep integrations with ERPs, Jira, and other systems.
Pros
- A mature platform ideal for large organizations
- Highly scalable
- Facilitates seamless cross-team collaboration
- Offers support for waterfall, agile, and hybrid methodologies
Cons
- Unsuitable for small or mid-sized organizations
- Complexity can be overwhelming
- Sometimes clunky interface
- Steep learning curve
5. EpicFlow
Best for organizations with multi-project environments, EpicFlow offers AI-driven resource optimization and scenario planning, dynamically adjusting workflows and minimizing risk. The platform is ideal for organizations that want agility without the hassle of an extensive and disruptive top-down transformation program.
- Pros
- Quickly adjusts to changes in conditions or priorities
- Offers actionable suggestions
- Seamless integrations
- Sandbox environment allows teams to test changes safely
- Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Comparatively small community and market presence
- Fewer features than competitors offer
- Not well-suited to simpler project environments
6. Accolade
Equipped with features like scenario planning, real-time analytics, and portfolio optimization, Accolade allows organizations to track projects and improve performance. With end-to-end visibility, strategic alignment through KPI and OKR tracking, process automation, and idea management features, organizations can govern entire project portfolio lifecycles, from ideation to execution and reporting.
Pros
- Highly adaptable
- Scalable across global teams
- Robust reporting
- Specializes in innovation
Cons
- Time-consuming and tedious setup
- Steep learning curve
- Relatively small market presence
- Small number of integrations compared with competitors
Considerations and Key Features to Look for in SPM Tools
When you’re choosing among strategic portfolio management tools, start by mapping out your goals for the system. Assess your requirements and the state of your current projects and workflows. Finally, consider the features below and determine which are must-haves vs. nice-to-haves.
Features to look for include:
- AI-powered capabilities
- Project intake and prioritization capabilities
- Resource management and allocation
- What-if scenario modeling
- Predictive analytics and modeling
- Capacity planning
- Forecasting tools
- Risk management
- Outcome mapping
- Automation
- Dependency management
- Portfolio optimization
- Performance tracking
- Integration with a range of other systems, such as Jira
- Financial management and budgeting
- Real-time visibility and dashboards
- Strategic roadmaps
- Comprehensive reporting
- Scalability and flexibility
- Vendor support
When to Opt for a PPM vs. an SPM Tool
How do strategic portfolio management tools differ from traditional project portfolio management (PPM) software? Which one is right for your organization?
PPM software focuses on getting projects done correctly, while SPM software focuses on quantifying outcomes and benefits realization. While both link strategy to execution, SPM tools adhere to a top-down approach, shaping the direction of your strategy, PPM tools get into the nitty-gritty of executing that strategy through project prioritization and execution.
To determine which platform is the right one for your organization, consider the table below:
| SPM | PPM | |
| Focus | Taking on the right projects | Doing the projects right |
| Audience and Users | Executives/senior leadership, portfolio managers, PMOs | PMOs, project managers, resource managers, delivery teams |
| Key Goals | – Managing enterprise-wide risk – Linking holistic organizational investments to outcomes – Improving agility – Creating value | – Optimizing delivery – Streamlining workflows – Achieving benchmarks and milestones – Optimizing resources – Gaining efficiency |
| Time Span | Multiple years | Project lifecycle or fiscal year |
Many organizations use both SPM and PPM strategies, with strategic portfolio management setting the direction for the enterprise and project portfolio management determining how, precisely, you will get there. Typically, you won’t need separate tools for each function.
Some platforms, such as Prism PPM, incorporate SPM and PPM features to give you an all-in-one system for bridging strategy and execution and ensuring optimal project portfolio performance.
However, if you’re truly looking for a tool that primarily focuses on one function over the other, consider whether you’re concentrating mainly on strategic roadmaps, scenario planning, financial roadmaps, and OKRs (SPM tool) or the “in the weeds” responsibilities like resource allocation, budgeting, reporting, time tracking, capacity planning, and so on (PPM).
Conclusion: Choosing the Best Strategic Portfolio Management Software
Without a strategic vision, 67% of strategies fail, according to Harvard Business Review. Strategic portfolio management software allows you to not only create a winning strategy and project portfolio but also carry out your vision successfully. The right SPM platform is a partner that will support you in planning and achieving your goals.
Are you looking for a platform to effectively align strategy with execution and keep delivering value? Prism PPM is the answer. Book a custom demo to find out more.