We’ve been telling the world for years now that Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) is the key to accelerating business transformation. And now we’re happy to announce our inclusion in Gartner’s new SPM Magic Quadrant.
Gartner’s first ever Magic Quadrant on Strategic Portfolio Management has positioned UMT360 for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. We’re of course proud that our software has been recognized, but we also realize this success wouldn’t be possible without our unique VIC Assessment framework – which our clients recognize as a key differentiator to helping them identify the key capabilities they need to more effectively align execution with strategy.
Top-down and bottom-up
For years, people have been trying to shoehorn portfolio management into the execution layer. And for years, UMT360 has steadfastly held the position that no matter what combination of methods you use to manage work, you’re never going to be able to truly align all that execution with strategy unless you also think about things from a strategic perspective – independent of project management. Which means adopting both top-down and bottom-up tools and techniques to help you more effectively manage portfolios across the entire organization.
Are you just managing work or executing strategy?
Gartner made this clear last year when they split the world up between what they call adaptive project management (execution) and strategic portfolio management (strategy). We think this view aligns with what we’ve been calling the tri-modal reality – that a variety of execution methods can and do co-exist within the same organization. We also feel that how one executes work is nowhere near as important as having the ability to understand and manage how all that work is connected to strategy.
Visibility across all work is critical
Don’t get us wrong, mastering execution is still vital. Indeed, we think organizations should be able to use whatever methods of execution they choose, and should provide that flexibility to the people actually doing the work. UMT360’s powerful Strategy Hub provides the ability to define organizational strategies and link them to capabilities and initiatives (e.g. projects, programs, epics), while attributing both financial and non-financial benefits. Which means that however work is executed, it’s not only aligned with strategy, but that all stakeholders have complete visibility into how it’s aligned as well as how each moving part impacts the others.
Having the right capabilities to address critical imperatives
If you’re a Gartner subscriber, we encourage you to download the report. We think it does a great job highlighting the key imperatives every organization must address. We’ve always held that clients should focus on those capabilities that can help them more effectively align their execution with strategy, and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to both adaptive project management and strategic portfolio management.
Strategy & execution – two sides of the same coin
This is a critical point – because for far too long, too many companies have treated strategic portfolio management as an “add-on” to their execution layer. And for far too long, those organizations have failed to truly incorporate portfolio management. If you take nothing else away from this report, it’s that strategic portfolio management is not only as important as whatever work management solution(s) you’re using. It could very well be way more important in the long run.
Great software alone isn’t enough
We’ve long preached the importance of having a purpose-built SPM solution to complement your adaptive project management tools. But that isn’t something one can simply “plug-in” – it requires a depth of expertise to ensure that the adaptive project management layer is aligned with strategic portfolio management. That’s where UMT360’s VIC Assessment framework comes in. It’s our proven approach that leverages decades of experience and ensures each client gets the right capabilities they need to drive transformation they desire.
A wide variety of strategic portfolio management capabilities
UMT360’s Strategic Portfolio Manager provides a wide variety of capabilities. The resource capacity planning tools allows users to determine resource capacity as part of initiative reprioritization, while also examining any impacts to portfolio benefits and spend projections. And for organizations looking for better roadmapping software, a simplified approach to define, publish and share roadmaps for various elements (e.g. strategies, capabilities, initiatives, applications) via four-step wizard.
Added value for Microsoft users
As a Microsoft Gold PPM Partner, UMT360 is also proud to be the only Microsoft partner in the report. So if you use Microsoft Project (including Project for the web), Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Project Operations or Azure DevOps, we can make it really easy to integrate and add strategic portfolio management capabilities to any Microsoft project execution or work management solution.
Some additional resources to explore
Since we’re talking about strategic portfolio management, we encourage you to check out our blog series that breaks down the subject into some bite-sized explorations of the key business imperatives that you might want to be thinking about. We can also recommend this whitepaper that explores some common misconceptions about strategic portfolio management, and explains how today’s solutions are far more sophisticated than what you may be used to.
Ready to get going? So are we!
Trying to address strategic portfolio management in one go can feel a bit overwhelming, so another way to think about it might be to simply address one or two of the key capabilities you’re currently missing, and build from there. That’s exactly what UMT360’s Strategic Portfolio Management Accelerators can help you do. Check out the short demos here, here, here and here, and if you still have questions, please connect with us for your own assessment and custom demo.
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