What is a CAFM system, and what does CAFM stand for?
CAFM stands for computer-aided facilities management. The CAFM meaning is as plain as the name: a computer helping to run the upkeep of buildings and everything in them. You will see it written as CAFM software, a CAFM system or a CAFM application. In practice they are the same thing.
The term is common in UK facilities management, and it turns up in tenders. When a client asks whether you have a CAFM system, they usually want to know that you can show them which assets you look after, when each one was last serviced and what is due next.
What does a CAFM system do?
Strip away the brand names and a CAFM system does five jobs.
- An asset register: every boiler, air handling unit, fire panel and passenger lift on every site, with make, model, serial number and where it sits.
- Planned maintenance. Each asset gets a schedule, so the visits that fall due next month are known before the month starts.
- A way to log a fault, assign it and close it, with a record of what was done.
- Compliance dates. The statutory inspections and the certificates that go with them, with a flag when one is about to lapse.
- Reports on what was done, where, how often and at what cost.
Systems built for large estates add space planning, room booking and lease records on top. That extra layer is what separates CAFM from a plain maintenance system.
Who uses a CAFM system?
In-house facilities teams use one to look after a single estate: an office campus or a hospital trust. Facilities management companies use one across the client sites they hold contracts for. Both want a single record that survives when a person leaves.
Maintenance contractors, the lift, HVAC, fire and electrical firms who service equipment in other people's buildings, borrow the same ideas. Their version is narrower. They do not manage the building. They manage the equipment they are contracted to keep serviced, across many buildings, and each due date has to become a visit with an engineer and, afterwards, an invoice.
CAFM, CMMS and field service management: what is the difference?
The three terms overlap because they all start from a list of equipment. They differ in where the list stops.
| CAFM | CMMS | Field service management | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Looks after | The building and what is in it | The equipment and its maintenance | The people, jobs and visits |
| Typical user | Facilities team or FM company | Maintenance team in a plant or an estate | Contractor with engineers on the road |
| Usually holds | Assets, planned and reactive work, compliance dates, often space | Assets, schedules, work orders, parts | Schedule, job sheet, time, quote, invoice |
Field Ascend is field service management software. The asset register and planned maintenance inside it cover the part of CAFM that a maintenance contractor needs, so it does that part as well. It is not a space-management tool. There is no room booking, occupancy tracking or space-utilisation reporting, which large-estate CAFM products often include.
The longer comparison is in ERP vs FSM vs CAFM, and what FSM software is covers the field service side. The CMMS end of the same idea is on our maintenance management software page.
What does a contractor need from a CAFM system?
A contractor needs the record to turn into work. Three things in Field Ascend show what that means.
Planned visits you can see before they are booked
Planned preventive maintenance gives every asset a due date. The PPM Visits tab turns those dates into a worklist, with every upcoming visit worked out from each schedule's due date and frequency, as a list or a month calendar. Each visit has a booking status: Needs booking, Contacted, Planned, Confirmed, Done or Skipped. Book / Re-plan asks for a time slot and an engineer, then creates the job and puts it on the planner. Visits that are due but unbooked also show on the planner as a read-only strip, through the PPM due button.
Two limits. Booking reminders are off until you tick them. And customers hear nothing about a visit that needs booking unless you build an automation on that trigger.
One quote across several sites
A maintenance contract that covers a dozen buildings can go on one quote. Switch on Quote several sites on one quote under Quote Options, and in Sections and tasks the Quote for several sites button makes one section per site. Copy to sites repeats one section's tasks and prices across the others. Mark a section Becomes its own job and accepting the quote creates a job for that site, all listed under one main job that can invoice the finished sites together. The quote PDF can print a Sites Covered block.
The switch is off until you turn it on. You can price each site separately or give one price for the whole quote, and the picker asks which.
A pump with its motor underneath
Every asset has a Parent asset box. Put a motor under its pump, or circuits under their board, and the parent's page gets a Child assets card while the equipment list shows the child indented as "under" its parent. A child is an ordinary asset. It can go on jobs, quotes and tickets and carry its own PPM schedule and history.
The limit is one level: a child cannot have children of its own. Sites can also be split into areas, which you can call buildings or floors, once Site Areas is switched on under Setup.
If you want to see the asset register, planned maintenance and the visit that follows in one product, the cafm software page walks through it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CAFM system in simple terms?
Software that keeps one record of a site's buildings and equipment, schedules the maintenance each item needs and logs the work done. CAFM stands for computer-aided facilities management.
What is CAFM?
CAFM stands for computer-aided facilities management. Facilities management is the upkeep of buildings and what is in them, and the computer is what keeps the record and the schedule.
Is a CAFM system the same as a CMMS?
Not quite. Both start from an asset register and a maintenance schedule. A CMMS is built around equipment and its maintenance. A CAFM system widens the record to the building and often adds space and lease information.
Do I need a CAFM system if I am a maintenance contractor?
You need the part that records assets and planned visits for each client site. You rarely need space planning. Field service software that includes an asset register covers that part and carries each visit through to the invoice.