In an era where nearly everything is gradually becoming digitalized, why should portfolio management be left behind, right? In fact, digitalization actually makes the management of a huge number of existing and proposed projects much easier.

Digitalization is essentially the process through which information gets converted into easy-to-use digital formats. This collective information is then organized into independent data units called ‘bits’ which can be addressed separately.

How digitalization can help in good portfolio management

The reality is that a lot of the success of your project and the potential ROI it is supposed to generate depends on project portfolio management. Digitalization can greatly contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of project portfolio management. Let’s see how!

  • Enhanced project efficiency

With the help of digitalization, you will be able to identify factors which might be causing excessive spending or leading to time wastage. Why should you consider using digital tools in the first place? Well, the main reasons might be that they could help you save time and enhance productivity and efficiency. Errors can be identified at the initial stages and prevented from turning into big disasters in the later stages, ultimately causing project failure.

Digitalization also enables project managers to get action-oriented insights from digital tools. This allows them to improve success metrics.

  • Improved decision-making

As far as the success of a project is concerned, uncertainty can often lead to failure. With the support of digitalization you have the opportunity to eliminate at least some (if not all) of the unpredictability that is part of the project portfolio management. This can be done by getting some useful insights by processing information, e.g. graphs, tables and charts. Digital tools can also be used by project managers to assess if a project will be beneficial or not.

With the help of digitalization, not only does decision making become easier, it also becomes quicker. And this is very important for efficient project portfolio management. Studies suggest that data is equivalent to capital and currency in the fast digitizing world and people spend nearly 30 percent of their time for locating accurate information.

Hence, an intelligent organization will take advantage of this in the long run by managing its projects, systems and products in an accurate digital format.

Digitalization will also save time spent in constantly tracking the progress of your project since automated tracking is part of adopting digitalization for project portfolio management.

Link: Digitalization as a Part of Good Portfolio Management part 1