CMMS software means computerised maintenance management system, and the meaning is worth pinning down because the boundary is where most buying mistakes happen. Inside the meaning: a register of assets, a schedule of what each one needs, work orders raised against them, and the history those accumulate. Outside it, and frequently sold alongside: spare-parts inventory and purchasing, buildings-as-a-service management, condition-monitoring sensors, and capital planning. This page is the definition and, more usefully, the four things that are not in it.
What is inside the meaning
Four things and their dependencies. The register, which everything hangs off. The schedule, which sits on the register. The work order, which records one job against one asset. The history, which is what makes the first three worth keeping honestly, because it is the only evidence that can ever change an interval.
What is outside: inventory and purchasing
Holding spare parts, reserving them against planned jobs and reordering is EAM. Many CMMS products have a light version and it is genuinely light. If the constraint on your maintenance is parts rather than time, you are shopping in the wrong category.
What is outside: facilities and workplace management
CAFM and IWMS manage space, occupancy, moves and services across an estate. That is buildings as a service. A CMMS manages the equipment. Products blur the line in marketing and the distinction decides what you should pay and what you will use.
What is outside: condition monitoring
Vibration, thermal and ultrasonic monitoring with the analytics behind them is a separate purchase that feeds a CMMS. Worth it on high-criticality rotating plant, hard to justify elsewhere, and never a substitute for a schedule.
Questions people ask about cmms software meaning
Is a CMMS management system a different thing?
No, it is the acronym with the words repeated, like ATM machine. Same four things.
Why do vendors call themselves EAM now?
Because it is the larger category with the larger budgets. Read what a product does rather than what it calls itself, and check whether inventory and purchasing are real or a checkbox.
Does a CMMS include a fault-reporting portal?
Usually, and it should be light: two taps and a photograph. Occupants and operators will not fight a form to report a fault.