As project management gains wider visibility and recognition in organizations around the world, PMO’s will now develop new tool-sets to serve a broad spectrum of users. Organizations have recognized that projects are a major aspect of their business and more of their people are working on projects and using project management processes. Because projects are a major vehicle by which companies grow, improve and meet their business objectives, the need to successfully complete projects has never been greater. Daptiv forecasts top five PPM trends for 2013 and they are:

1. PPM will Continue to be the Fastest Growing Category of SaaS - According to the Dataquest research report, “Competitive Landscape: SaaS Project and Portfolio Management Software, Worldwide,” PPM is the fastest growing category of SaaS enterprise software, increasing at a 41% CAGR for the 5-year period of 2009-2014. In 2013, even more organizations will embrace SaaS-based solutions to manage or transform their portfolios. In the PPM world, the benefits of this approach versus traditional on-premise software products include: Rapid deployment, team collaboration, reduced risk of failure, tighter vendor/customer relationships, and reduced cost of implementation and support.
2.  PPM will Cross the Chasm From IT-Driven to Business-Driven - Organizations have come to realize that much of their growth and future sustainability comes through projects. Projects are vehicles of change, and the best way to improve the management of them is through PPM tools. PMO’s are getting more strategic about where PPM principles can add value, and they are finding green field opportunities for PPM in places that didn’t previously exist. In 2013, we will see an increased emphasis to “projectize” work in different business functions, such as line-of-business divisions, sales, marketing, and human resources. As such, more organizations will begin taking into consideration the business intelligence generated through PPM systems to refine their overall business strategies.
3. Putting IT back in control of the BYOD explosion: PPM goes Mobile - Smartphones and tablets are poised for dramatic growth, especially with the arrival of new devices from Apple, Google and Microsoft. According to a Forrester report, 66% of employees now use two or more devices every day, including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. As the mobile market continues to grow and with the increasing BYOD trend, enterprises/project managers will look at IT and the PMO to help implement new applications to ensure secure access across dozens of disparate platforms and handsets/tablets being used by the company across multiple regions.
4. CFOs Give Green Light to PMOs - According to PM Solutions research, 65.8% of high performing organizations have enterprise PMOs. As companies begin to quantify the financial benefits of having a PMO,CFOs will be the ones leading the charge for the implementation of PPM solutions in the year 2013. This in turn will have a positive impact on creating an effective portfolio management operation, and it will be viewed as a way to bridge strategy, operations, and finance. Portfolio management will stimulate the interest and attention of the CFO, as PPM services become a proven method of improving system quality, and project and service delivery levels across the organization.
5. Economic Uncertainty Drives Need for ROI Accountability - Given the continued uncertainty of the economy, cost management and efficiency will continue to top the list of priorities for most CEOs. In this environment, companies will remain cautious, and we will find companies leaning more heavily on PPM as a way to measure the ROI of their investments. In 2013, PPM will be recognized as a crucial change agent that will help companies’ transition out of recession-area thinking, towards driving innovation and business transformation initiatives at companies both large and small.