Brief: Venture Capital Inflow To PPM Vendors Indicates Market Growth

In 2013 and 2014, three project portfolio management (PPM) vendors, Planview, AtTask, and Changepoint, as well as task management (TM) vendor Wrike announced they were taking on investment from venture capital firms. This sharp rise in outside investment activity indicates that the PPM market is poised for much-needed expansion. Companies want tools that provide visibility into planning and managing initiatives while being flexible enough to adapt to the different ways people work and collaborate. Venture backing usually means changes for the company being backed, which may raise a red flag for potential customers. However, these recent investments have definite upsides. The vendors involved have long, successful track records but have lacked the size to tackle a larger portion of an underserved market. Capital investment enables them to expand the needed features that support the way today's information-driven companies work.