Managing a project is complicated. Task dependencies, due dates, milestones, reporting — and all of that is just a fraction of the big picture when you are managing multiple projects at once. Fortunately, there are many project management platforms specifically equipped to help you manage not only a single project, but an entire portfolio of them.
Known as Project portfolio management (PPM) software, these tools help organizations streamline and manage their multiple projects efficiently. This software provides a centralized platform to plan, execute, and monitor various projects, helping firms align their projects with their business goals.
Key benefits of Project Portfolio Management software
Project portfolio management software offers a range of benefits that contribute to enhanced project management and organizational success. Some key benefits of using a PPM platform:
1. Improved Visibility: With all data in a single dashboard, PPM software allows for comprehensive visibility into the entire project portfolio, enabling leaders to make informed decisions and prioritize projects based on their strategic importance.
2. Better resource management: PPM software facilitates resource allocation, ensuring optimal utilization of available resources and preventing overallocation or underutilization.
3. Informed decision-making: Viewing all current and future efforts in once place is helpful for project selection and evaluation, enabling organizations to assess the feasibility and potential returns of different projects before investing resources into them.
4. Enhanced collaboration: PPM platforms enable effective collaboration and communication among team members, fostering teamwork and enhancing productivity. Some of these tools (like Hive) even offer team messaging, native email, and video conferencing integrations within the platform.
5. Advanced reporting: PPM software provides accurate reporting and analytics, allowing for better tracking of project performance, timely identification of issues, and the implementation of necessary improvements.
The Best Project Portfolio Management Software of 2024
Overall, PPM software significantly improves project management efficiency, enhances decision-making capabilities, and promotes successful project execution. If you manage multiple projects, it’s probably obvious that a tool like this can help — all you have to do is choose the best one.
With many portfolio management platforms on the market today, it’s important to pick the platform that fits well within your operational process and makes sense for you and your team. Let’s look at some of the top PPM software on the market in 2024.
1. Hive
Hive is a project management software platform that can be a great choice to showcase your portfolio of projects. It’s especially well-suited for businesses and teams that manage multiple projects simultaneously. Hive also comes equipped with multiple view options, a host of integrations and automation features that keep all your recurring projects and next steps moving forward.
When managing multiple projects, Hive’s Portfolio View is everything you need to see all your different projects in one place. It combines the detail of Project Navigator with the flexibility of a Table View.
Think of portfolio view as a table with projects listed vertically on the left and fields and individual tasks on the horizontal axis. And here’s how they work:
- Fields are the basic information about a project, such as its description, due date, status, and status description.
- Custom fields can be added to the project level to track additional information, such as the project’s budget or the assigned team members.
Hive’s Portfolio view makes it easy to see which tasks have been completed, which tasks are consistent across projects, and which tasks are overdue. You can also click into individual projects to view details in whatever layout you choose, including Kanban, Gantt, Table, Calendar or List views. The sky’s the limit with custom fields, too — add as much (or as little) information as you want into your individual portfolio views. Pro tip: Use Hive’s project portfolio template to get up and running in just a few clicks.
Cost: For light project management, Hive Free offers a free-forever plan for up to 10 workspace members. Hive Starter plans start at $5 per month, while Hive Teams plans offer unlimited projects for $12 per month. Find Hive’s full pricing details here.
Start a free 14-day trial today to see how Hive can help you manage your portfolio of projects.
2. Scoro
Scoro offers a centralized view of all ongoing projects, providing real-time updates on progress, deadlines, and resource allocation. Scoro’s project portfolio management features enable users to track project profitability, monitor budgets, and identify potential risks or bottlenecks, ensuring optimal project performance. The platform also facilitates collaboration and communication among team members, enabling seamless coordination and efficient task management.
Cost: Scoro’s entry level plans begin at $26 per user, monthly.
3. Smartsheet
Smartsheet offers robust project portfolio management capabilities that help organizations effectively plan, prioritize, and execute their projects. Smartsheet’s portfolio view allows users to gain a holistic view of their projects, track progress, and make data-driven decisions. The platform also offers customizable dashboards and reports, providing real-time visibility into project performance and ensuring effective communication across teams. Furthermore, Smartsheet integrates with popular productivity tools, allowing seamless data transfer and collaboration.
Cost: Smartsheet offers a free plan for individual users. The Pro plan starts at $7 per user, per month, while the Business plan starts at $25 per user, per month.
4. Quickbase
Quickbase is a dynamic workplace tool that offers project management and resourcing solutions. As a project portfolio management tool, Quickbase collects project data, keeps track of progress, and offers collaboration features to bring teams together online. By centralizing your project data in Quickbase, you can get real-time visibility into project progress, tasks, and resources — with the ultimate goal of making more informed business decisions.
Cost: Quickbase‘s Team plan starts at $35 per user, per month.
5. Planview
Planview AdaptiveWork is a portfolio management platform designed for large teams and complex projects. Previously known as Clarizen, Planview AdaptiveWork helps project managers to gain real-time visibility across all their work, automate workflows and proactively manage risks. The tool is known for its project portfolio management capabilities, which helps teams to organize and align their initiatives keeping track of their resources and investments. Planview integrates with most common third party applications, such as Slack, Jira and Salesforce, and offers great customization and integration capabilities.
Cost: Planview AdaptiveWork does not have a free plan and its initial plan starts at $1,495/month. You can, however, get a free trial before making the commitment.
6. Airtable
As an extremely flexible and customizable project management software, Airtable can work as a portfolio management tool as well. The platform even offers some free and paid templates that you can explore to build your first portfolio management project. However, keep in mind that all the customization possibilities come with a bit of technical knowledge required, so you might need to work with an specialist to build a solution that works for you. With some Airtable Portfolio Management templates, you would be able to chart your team’s progress toward topline goals, define your targets, then break them down into projects, tasks, and timelines. You can also navigate with the flexibility of different views, from Gantt charts to grid views, calendars to kanbans.
Cost: Airtable has a free limited plan available. Its Team plan costs $24 per seat monthly and includes 20GB of attachments per base, 50,000 records per base, access to extensions and more.
7. Wrike
Wrike is a task management tool, but can also accommodate portfolio management as it includes features that help to connect strategy, planning, execution and results. Some of Wrike’s capabilities for portfolio management includes OKRs, Budgeting, Governance, Workload, Collaboration, Work views and Analytics. Wrike also has a library with ready-made templates to accelerate your process setting up portfolio management. The platform also integrates with over 400 third party apps, such as Zoom, Microsoft, Google Suite and others — which can make it easier to incorporate in your workflow.
Cost: Wrike has a free 14-day trial and a free plan with limited features. Its Team paid plan costs $9.80 per user, per month but is limited to 25 users. If you manage a larger business, you will need to pay extra to use Wrike. Its Business plan cost $24.80 per user, per month. Other plans are available for enterprises, but you’ll need to contact their sales team.
8. pmo365
pmo365 is a project portfolio management solution that can be deployed to your existing Microsoft 365 cloud. The platform allows you to combine real-time data with best practice business tools, customizations, and integrations for a better project portfolio management.
If your organization already use Microsoft 365, onboarding to pmo365 should be easier and the learning curve shallow. Employees will already be familiar with its interfaces, limiting disruption to their work and productivity.
One of the advantages of pmo365 is that you only pay for a one monthly subscription fee. Plus, you will retain ownership of your entire pmo365 library and data — even if you allow your subscription to expire.
Cost: pmo365 offers a free trial. Its subscription packages start at $2,600 per month.
Implementing the right project portfolio management software can help you streamline project workflows, enhance productivity, and enable your organization to drive successful project outcomes. What are you waiting for? Learn more about how you can use Hive’s PPM software today!
