Epicflow’s AI tool helps defence leaders deliver complex projects faster by prioritising work around real resource limits and business value.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 26, 2026 -- As geopolitical pressure intensifies across Europe, defence organisations are under growing pressure to deliver complex programmes faster and more efficiently. Responding to this challenge, Epicflow has begun trialling its new AI-powered portfolio optimiser with the Dutch Ministry of Defence, aiming to improve planning, prioritisation and on-time delivery of critical defence initiatives.
Despite defenсe budgets rising, programme leaders are still struggling with timely delivery. At Epicflow, the Dutch defence project management software company founded by researchers and experienced project management practitioners, they know the reason. “The real bottleneck faced by enterprises is no longer funding, but limited availability of skilled resources,” explains Dr. Ir. Albert Ponsteen, Epicflow’s co-founder.
This observation became the foundation for developing the Epicflow AI Portfolio Optimiser (EPO), the recently released AI-powered functionality of Epicflow, focused on prioritising and planning work based on actual resource constraints and projected business value. EPO is designed to help enterprises align strategy with real capacity and make data-driven decisions about where to focus their limited resources. Its central idea isn’t about doing more, but about getting more value from what companies already have.
“There should be a shift in thinking, from 'doing it all' to doing what is truly important,” notes Ben Rawson, portfolio management professional and strategic partner of Epicflow. “EPO helps leaders clearly identify which projects deserve investment and ensures that every hour contributes to measurable value.”
To test this approach in practice, Epicflow partnered with a major defence programme run by the Dutch Ministry of Defence. The collaboration involved an experiment within a $1B multi-year programme that faced huge delays across numerous initiatives. Epicflow was applied to the first batch of projects to test whether its portfolio optimisation approach could improve outcomes in this highly complex environment.
The first results were remarkable. Project lead times were reduced by more than 30% and due date performance improved by up to 300%, all without increasing the headcount. The experiment was recognised by the MOD as a huge success: their highest-value projects could be delivered more than 400 days earlier than expected.
Reflecting on the experiment, Dr Ponsteen states:
“We didn't push teams to work harder. We changed how work was prioritised. When you align portfolio decisions with business value and actual resource constraints, overload disappears and performance improves dramatically. So, the real question in portfolio management isn’t how much budget you have. It’s whether your limited resources are focused on projects that deliver the greatest value”.
In the current global context, the ability to deliver faster using existing resources becomes strategically important for defence organisations and other mission-critical industries. Value-driven and resource-centric prioritisation becomes the key to improved performance and faster delivery, with EPO providing structured support to implement this approach.
About Epicflow
Epicflow is a project resource management software company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company develops enterprise project and portfolio management solutions designed for organisations operating in resource-constrained environments. Epicflow’s platform supports portfolio planning, execution and resource management across multiple concurrent projects.
