The Chief Executive Officer of a company is generally responsible for implementing the strategic goals and objectives of an organization. He/She gives the direction and leadership needed to achieve the organization’s philosophy, mission, strategy, and its annual goals and objectives. Or in other words, the Chief Executive Officer needs to ensure that the organization is making profits!

And how do CEOs help an organization increase profits? They hire talented executives and then give them the direction and vision needed to do their jobs. Each executive is charged with specific duties and is measured on set of objectives. The VP of Sales, for example, is charged with driving more sales to the organization. To monitor his/her success, the VP uses a combination of software and tools to track the efforts of the sales department. The tools help answer questions like: How many phone calls were made this week? How many sales were closed yesterday? What’s in the pipeline? CRM tools, such as Salesforce and ACT, provide dashboards and reports that help the VP of Sales do his/her job better, providing a bird’s eye view of the entire department.

In a similar way, the VPs of Operations, Marketing, IT, and other departments, need tools that help them monitor the success of their departments. For a project-based company, such as a Website Design Firm or a Construction Company, the roles of a CEO and in particular, the role of the VP of Operations, are very project centric. The success of the company is based on the profitability of the projects it undertakes. With so much riding on the success of the projects, executives have shown an increased interest in how projects are selected and managed.

To ensure success, Executives want a standardized and automated approach to project management. They want to see projects that are on time and on budget. Project portfolio management (PPM) software, such as @task, allow project managers and executives to see an overarching view of all upcoming and current projects. Similar to the way a VP of Sales might use a CRM system, a VP of Operations can use a PPM system to monitor project deadlines, see budget and scheduling conflicts, and forecast the future profitability of projects. The PPM tool provides dashboards and reports that help keep all projects aligned to corporate objectives and ensures that each project is a profitable investment for the company.

Without the use of project portfolio management software, project managers and executives are forced to spend an excessive amount of time managing and tracking project schedules and budgets. They often lose site of the big picture, investing time and money into sunken projects or projects that were doomed to fail before they ever began. Harvey Levine explained, "In PPM, it is assumed that the enterprise positions itself for increased strength and profitability through its selection and execution of projects and ensures that it continues to thrive in a world of constant change and the threat of competition."

The bottom line is that Executives need project and portfolio management tools to help the company make more profits. All CEOs, and especially CEOs of project-oriented companies, need a bird’s eye view of what’s going in their organizations. They need a PPM tool that compares one project against another and then makes recommendations on how to best proceed. Does the benefit outweigh the risk? Does the project align with corporate objectives? Should more resources be allocated to one project over another? Which project will provide the highest ROI? Project Portfolio Management helps answer all of these questions, helping CEOs do their jobs better, leading to higher company profits and happier customers.