Key points
- Write down your own requirements before looking at any system. Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves.
- For multi-site operators, the essentials are a reliable asset register, reactive and planned jobs, compliance tracking and contractor management in one place.
- Test with real scenarios and real engineers on real phones, not a scripted demo.
- Ask about data ownership, exports and integrations up front. Moving systems later is expensive.
- Compare total cost over several years, including set-up, migration and training.
What CAFM software should do for you
CAFM (computer-aided facilities management) software is the system of record for your estate. It holds your sites, buildings and assets, and it runs the work that keeps them safe and open: reactive repairs, planned maintenance, statutory compliance and the contractors who do the work.
You will also see the terms CMMS (computerised maintenance management system), IWMS (integrated workplace management system) and simply "FM software". The labels overlap. What matters is whether a system handles the jobs your team does every week.
For a multi-site operator, such as a restaurant group, a contract caterer or an FM service provider, the main problems CAFM should solve are usually:
- Not knowing what assets are at each site, or who maintains them.
- Jobs chased by email, phone and spreadsheet, with no single status.
- Certificates scattered across inboxes, so compliance cannot be proven quickly.
- Contractor invoices that cannot be matched to work done.
- No reliable data to answer "what does this site cost to run?"
Must-have features
Sites and asset register
A clear hierarchy of portfolio, site, building or area, and asset. Each asset should carry make, model, serial number, location, ownership and warranty, with photos and documents attached. Bulk import from spreadsheets matters if you have many sites.
Reactive jobs and helpdesk
A simple way for site staff to log a fault, ideally from a phone with a photo. Then priority and SLA rules, assignment to an internal engineer or contractor, status updates and closure with evidence.
Planned preventative maintenance
Schedules generated from templates by asset type, with frequencies you can justify. Look for the ability to use industry task libraries such as SFG20 where you need them, and to spread tasks across a calendar.
Compliance tracking
Certificates and reports stored against the site or asset they cover, with expiry dates, reminders and a clear view of what is overdue. Remedial actions from a report should become tracked jobs.
Contractor management
A record of each contractor's trades, coverage areas, insurance, accreditations and RAMS, with expiry alerts. A contractor portal or app lets them accept jobs, update status and upload certificates without your team re-keying it.
Costs and invoices
Quotes, purchase orders and invoices linked to jobs, so you can see spend by site, asset and contractor and stop paying for work that was not done.
Mobile use for engineers and contractors
A CAFM system lives or dies on whether the people doing the work use it. If engineers find the app slow or awkward, they will phone the office and the data will be wrong.
When you trial a system, put it in the hands of a real engineer and a real contractor and check:
- Can they see their jobs for the day, with site address, access notes and asset history?
- Can they work with weak or no signal, for example in a basement plant room, and sync later?
- Can they capture photos, readings, signatures and certificates on the phone?
- Can subcontractors use it without a costly licence or complex set-up?
- Is the job sheet the customer or site manager receives clear and professional?
Questions to ask vendors
Demos tend to show the best path through a product. These questions help you see how it handles your reality.
- Show us our scenario. Give the vendor two or three real workflows, such as a fridge failure at a busy site out of hours, and ask them to walk through them live.
- How do we get our data in? Who does the import, in what format, and what does it cost?
- How do we get our data out? Can you export everything, including documents, in a usable format at any time? What happens to our data if we leave?
- What integrates? Accounting, purchasing, single sign-on, building management systems or IoT sensors. Is there a documented API?
- Where is data hosted and how is it secured? Ask about UK GDPR compliance, hosting location, backups, access controls and any security certifications they hold.
- How is the product configured? Can your team change job types, SLAs and forms, or does each change need the vendor?
- What does support look like? Hours, channels, response times, and who you speak to.
- What is on the roadmap, and how do customers influence it?
- Can we speak to a customer like us? Similar size, sector and number of sites.
Some systems need extensive configuration or consultancy before they match your processes. That is not always bad, but it should be visible in the quote and the timeline, not discovered after you sign.
Pricing models and total cost
CAFM pricing is not standardised. Common models include:
| Model | How it works | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Per user | A fee for each named or concurrent user | Costs rising as you add site managers and engineers |
| Per site or per building | A fee for each location managed | Small sites costing the same as large ones |
| Per asset | Priced by the number of assets | Pressure to under-record assets to save money |
| Tiered plans | Bundles of features and limits | Key features locked in the top tier |
| Contractor or portal licences | Charges for external users | Contractors refusing to adopt it |
On top of subscriptions, ask about set-up fees, data migration, asset surveys, training, integrations, extra storage and premium support. Build a simple three-year cost model using your actual numbers of sites, users, assets and contractors, and compare vendors on that.
Implementation steps
- Agree goals and owners. Decide what success looks like, such as all certificates in one place or faster response times, and name an internal project owner.
- Clean your data. Build or tidy the site list, asset register and contractor list. This is usually the longest step.
- Configure. Set up job types, priorities, SLAs, PPM templates and compliance categories to match how you work.
- Pilot. Run a small group of sites and contractors for a few weeks. Fix what does not work before rolling out.
- Train and roll out in phases. Train site staff, engineers and contractors in short sessions. Add sites in waves.
- Review. After go-live, check adoption and data quality monthly and adjust.
If you are moving from spreadsheets, getting every site's statutory certificates and due dates into the new system first often delivers the quickest value and the biggest reduction in risk.
A requirements checklist
Use this as a starting point. Mark each line as must-have, nice-to-have or not needed, then score each vendor against it.
| Area | Requirement | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Sites and assets | Site hierarchy, asset register with documents and photos, bulk import | Must-have |
| Reactive jobs | Fault logging from mobile, priorities, SLAs, status tracking | Must-have |
| Planned maintenance | Schedule templates, calendar spreading, completion tracking | Must-have |
| Compliance | Certificate storage by asset and site, expiry alerts, remedial jobs | Must-have |
| Contractors | Insurance and accreditation tracking, RAMS, portal or app | Must-have for outsourced work |
| Mobile | Offline working, photos, signatures, readings | Must-have |
| Finance | Quotes, purchase orders, invoice matching, spend reporting | Usually must-have |
| Reporting | Dashboards by site, contractor and asset; scheduled reports; exports | Must-have |
| Integrations | Accounting, single sign-on, open API | Depends on your stack |
| Security and data | UK GDPR, access roles, audit trail, full data export | Must-have |
| Commercial | Clear pricing, contract length, exit terms | Must-have |
Fabric FM is one option to put through this process. It was built by a multi-site service business for operators like contract caterers, restaurant groups and FM providers, and is in early access now. You can see how it approaches these requirements on our facilities management software page.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check the current regulations and guidance, or speak to a competent person, for your premises.
