Why strategic portfolio management (SPM) is crucial for life sciences, product development, IT, and engineering

Business leaders across all industries frequently hear advice like “pivot to change,” “stay ahead of the curve,” and “move with the times.” And while it’s true that every business faces disruption, some are more heavily impacted than others.

Fast-moving sectors like life sciences and pharmaceuticals, new product development (NPD), information technology (IT), and project controls and engineering (PC&E) depend on external factors like regulatory shifts, making agility essential. But adapting to these constant changes is no small feat, especially when disruptions are overlapping and interconnected.

Take climate change, for example. Many companies have responded by investing in long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies, but economic downturns often push businesses to prioritize short-term wins. When you add geopolitical tensions and shifting consumer behaviors into the mix, making confident, data-backed decisions becomes challenging.

Enter: strategic portfolio management (SPM). This approach links projects and portfolios directly to a company’s broader strategy and business goals. It goes beyond traditional project portfolio management (PPM) by enabling better decision-making at every level of the organization.

Life sciences (LFS), pharmaceuticals and medical devices 

The life sciences industry has always faced high-risk timelines, rigorous regulations, and an increasing need for faster innovation. Today, driven further by rising chronic diseases, research costs, and supply chain challenges, companies in the sector are expected to innovate even faster, with a higher success rate. This is in spite of reduced funding, market demand fluctuations, and evolving consumer behavior. 

Life sciences is broad and multifaceted—within its projects and portfolios, your organization may research gene therapies, leverage AI for drug discovery, optimize patient data analytics, or develop new wearable health technologies.

Strategic portfolio management helps teams streamline these initiatives, align cross-functional collaboration, and prioritize the right projects at the right time using data-driven insights. Further, these life science businesses harnessing SPM can: 

• Leverage predictive algorithms powered by AI and machine learning to improve drug discovery and maintenance timelines. 
• Utilize time-tracking capabilities to drive efficiency, optimize resource allocation, and identify cost-saving opportunities. 
• Foster a data-driven culture that improves decision-making and prioritization, regulatory compliance, and effective use of patient information.

Johnson & Johnson, a leading life sciences and medical devices organization, has leveraged SPM to streamline data management, enhance data accuracy, and improve decision-making.

By consolidating fourteen separate platforms into “OneMD” with Planisware’s SPM solution, Johnson & Johnson established a single source of truth for all project data—an invaluable move for designing and delivering new surgical, orthopedic, and interventional products and solutions.

As a result, each of Johnson & Johnson’s franchises has the flexibility to focus on business goals while maintaining a harmonized, cohesive structure.  According to Robyn Thornton-Harris, Global Compliance Manager at Johnson & Johnson, implementing an SPM solution has given the organization “one place to obtain the high-level project data,” providing “a cohesive way of reporting across the business.” 

Ultimately, this has enabled the organization to get closer to their customers and develop even more innovative doctor and patient-centric products and solutions.

New product development (NPD) 

Product development teams need agility more than ever. Rising global costs, evolving buyer behavior, and climate-driven demands for sustainable products mean that companies have to adapt quickly.

NPD naturally covers many different dynamic industries, such as consumer goods, automotive, technology, and manufacturing. These are all characterized by fast-changing market demands, regulatory requirements, and technological advancements—making project prioritization, risk management, and accelerating time-to-market key concerns.

SPM can help NPD teams remain agile, data-driven, and strategically aligned by integrating data sources, improving return on investment (ROI), and enabling smarter, faster decision-making. Product development and innovation leaders can: 

• Leverage data-driven insights and predictive analytics to anticipate changes in demand, risks, and project barriers in real time. 
• Scale operations flexibly while automating manual tasks like resource, time, and financial management.
• Evaluate the strategic impact of new products, ensuring focus on high-ROI Initiatives. 
• Accelerate time to market with more efficient processes and decision-making. 

With products that are consumed more than one billion times each day in over 200 countries, PepsiCo is one pertinent example of a consumer goods brand with a big focus on innovation. As such, consumer desirability, viability, and feasibility are key considerations for their NPD experts.

By implementing an SPM solution, the global food and beverage powerhouse has created a single source of truth for their cross-functional teams. The organization digitalized its innovation agenda, which is based on deep analysis of segments, demand spaces, and different need states. 

PepsiCo also streamlined decision-making processes with pre-approvals, meaning face-to-face meetings are squarely focused on key issues. Listen to PepsiCo’s Senior Director of Global Commercialization, Chris Mayson, as he discusses how the consumer goods giant drove data quality, efficiency, and improved results with Planisware.

Information technology (IT)

IT is fundamental to modern business transformation, particularly as firms adopt hybrid work arrangements and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) across different aspects of their operations. 

From manufacturing and utilities to banking and insurance, a unified and strategic IT function is a competitive advantage for any business. Regardless of industry, organizations need the very best tools to manage their various initiatives, reach business goals, and secure the best value for all investments.

Needless to say, CIOs and IT leaders need a streamlined portfolio management approach. SPM gives IT teams the tools they need by:

• Accelerating digital transformation, recognized by Deloitte as one of the most critical investments for business leaders. 
• Simplifying IT architecture by focusing on and prioritizing key projects and investments.
• Managing dependencies between IT portfolios and enterprise architecture (EA) through centralized planning, strategic alignment, and dependency mapping.
• Helping IT leaders proactively monitor for risks and identify redundant or underperforming projects.

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a nutrition consumer goods leader, is one organization whose IT leaders were left grappling with a complex landscape of tools and data after numerous mergers and acquisitions.

Adopting an SPM solution gave ADM’s teams access to a single source of real-time information. They standardized their project delivery, reporting, and resource deployment, while maintaining a high level of configurability across geographies, PMOs, and portfolios.

This allowed for superior decision-making and faster project completion, as Jen Ciolino, ADM’s Vice President of Global Technology, explains in our case study.

Project controls and engineering (PC&E) 

Businesses across energy and utilities, aerospace and defense, construction and infrastructure, and mining are tasked with navigating a complex, ever-changing sea of regulatory changes and environmental challenges. There may be.

SPM empowers PC&E leaders in these industries to quickly and accurately assess their portfolios’ short- and long-term value, identifying areas where the organization may be underinvesting in projects tied to critical goals. By digitalizing their portfolio management practices, business leaders can achieve: 

• Improved risk management for early intervention on complex projects, including those involving environmental, infrastructural, legal, or geological barriers.
• Stronger and more reliable forecasting using historical data and external insights to fuel intelligent, informed decision-making. 
• Greater transparency with real-time project progress updates, keeping everyone from project managers to executive stakeholders informed 
• More effective collaboration and communication, which is especially useful for geographically dispersed teams. 

CAE is a leading global technology company specializing in simulation software and critical operations support solutions for aviation, defense and security. Operating at the intersection of technology and engineering, their products are used by professionals to improve their skills in a risk-free virtual environment.

Previously struggling with fragmented financial data, disjointed tools, and inefficient, labor-intensive monthly reviews, the organization implemented SPM to streamline data integration and create a unified view of all project data. A new estimation module helped the business to create estimates and analyze scenarios with ease.

The result? Strengthened data accuracy and visibility, simplified budget and cost management, and improved collaboration across different departments, contractors, and suppliers.

Future-proof your projects and portfolios with SPM

To navigate these disruptions and continue thriving, businesses across these dynamic, innovative sectors need a reliable, robust framework that promotes agility and strategic alignment.

Planisware’s strategic portfolio management solutions give you the flexibility to adapt to change, make data-driven decisions, and ensure your portfolios remain closely aligned with long-term goals, even as your strategy evolves. 

Book a one-to-one demo to discover how Planisware can support your organization’s strategic vision and drive outcomes to the next level.