Top 7 NHS CAFM Providers in the UK for 2026

Key takeaways

Choosing an NHS CAFM provider in the UK can feel like a challenge. With complex estates and increasingly demanding requirements, trusts need to ensure they choose a platform that meets their requirements today and can scale into tomorrow.

• NHS Estates are facing growing pressure in 2026, with ageing buildings, strict compliance demands, limited budgets and workforce shortages.
• CAFM systems are essential for real-time visibility, smarter maintenance and safer, more efficient operations.
• This guide compares seven NHS CAFM providers in the UK – MRI Software, Micad, Concerto, Planon, IBM Maximo, Idox and Facilities iQ.
• MRI Software is notable for offering a comprehensive solution that not only has the breadth of functionality estates require, but the depth, too. It also scales comfortably to enterprise level, with industry-leading solutions for your facilities management needs.

A powerful platform can support long-term compliance, resilience and digital transformation.

Top 7 NHS CAFM Providers in the UK for 2026

The NHS oversees one of the most extensive and intricate estate portfolios in the UK. From major acute hospitals to small community clinics and everything in between – estates and facilities teams carry the responsibility of ensuring critical infrastructure remains safe, compliant and fully operational around the clock.

In 2026, that responsibility is as demanding as ever. Challenges include:

• Increasing regulatory pressure
• Ageing buildings
• Sustainability commitments
• Workforce shortages
• Tighter financial constraints

Under such conditions, traditional tools like spreadsheets, manual processes, and reactive maintenance is no longer enough. Estate leaders need connected, intelligent systems that offer real-time visibility, operational control, and measurable improvements in performance.

This is where CAFM technology comes in.

CAFM (Computer-Aided Facilities Management) software supports the management of buildings, assets, maintenance, compliance, and day‑to‑day facilities operations. Within the healthcare industry, these platforms streamline maintenance workflows, strengthen statutory compliance, enhance asset reliability, and reduce operational costs across large, multi‑site estates.

This research-driven guide is designed to help NHS estates and facilities teams identify NHS CAFM providers in the UK for 2026 and understand which platforms best align with their priorities. The assessment focuses on:

• Scalability across multi‑site trusts
• Strength of asset lifecycle management
• Compliance and audit support
• Mobile capability for field engineers
• Integration flexibility
• Reporting functionality
• Vendor experience within NHS environments

In this article we’ll explore a blend of enterprise IWMS platforms, specialist CMMS solutions, and public‑sector‑focused systems:

1. MRI Software
2. Micad
3. Concerto
4. Planon
5. Maximo
6. Idox
7. Facilities IQ

MRI Software (MRI Evolution)

MRI Evolution is an NHS CAFM platform. It remains one of the most established choices for NHS CAFM providers in the UK, especially for organisations seeking enterprise-level estates and facilities management. In fact, more than 250 NHS and healthcare providers rely on MRI Software.

MRI Evolution is an AI-powered, comprehensive, scalable IWMS solution built to support the complexity of large, multi‑site NHS estates. It is aligned to the UK Government’s 10 Year Health Plan and the move from analogue to digital. Its lease accounting solution also ensures IFRS 16 compliance.

It brings together a comprehensive set of functionality into a single platform:

• Facilities management
• Workforce and contractor coordination
• Detailed hierarchical asset register
• Centralised PPM scheduling for smarter maintenance.
• Space utilisation
• Predictive compliance management
• Smart building support
• Advanced reporting with full compliance audit trail
• Mobile working

For trusts managing thousands of assets across hospitals, community sites, and specialist units, this level of consolidation is essential.

Why MRI Software stands out

MRI Software is a trusted choice because of its deep functionality and breadth of solutions. Beyond the usual features you’d expect from a CAFM platform, MRI Software offers specialist solutions to manage everything from space utilisation to energy and sustainability.

An AI-first provider

MRI Software provides AI-powered estate management, ensuring you’re future-ready. AI functionality is leveraged throughout the platform to enable:

Smart buildings

A real strength of MRI Software is the breadth of functionality available in its connected ecosystem. Specialist solutions are available for all your facility management needs, including MRI IoT Hub to connect your assets, sensors and data into one platform.

MRI IoT Hub enables you to monitor building performance with data from connected sensors, so you can see your energy usage, equipment and occupancy in real time. Having comprehensive data at your fingertips means you can easily track consumption and identify inefficiencies, helping you cut waste and costs, and achieve net-zero goals.

Strong mobile capabilities

Mobile capability is another key advantage. Engineers can access work orders, asset histories, and compliance information in real time, improving first‑time fix rates.

Staff can raise, reassign and resolve tasks on the move too, to keep services flowing.

If the signal drops, your team can continue to work tasks, timestamps and updates sync automatically once reconnected.

Advanced reporting

Clear and effective reporting is essential for managing complex healthcare environments. MRI Software delivers comprehensive insights through intuitive, drillable dashboards. Users can easily explore data at both a high level and in granular detail, enabling faster, more informed decision-making. With a single, unified view across the entire NHS estate, stakeholders can monitor performance, identify trends, and respond proactively, ensuring greater efficiency, transparency, and better outcomes across all services.

Built to support the NHS budget

With nearly 20 years of experience delivering CAFM software to the NHS, the MRI platform is built on a deep understanding of the sector’s evolving challenges and priorities. NHS clients benefit from two free upgrades each year, ensuring they always have access to the latest features and improvements without additional cost. The solution’s modular design also means Trusts can scale functionality up or down as their needs change, making it a flexible, future-proof option—particularly valuable in times when budgets are under increasing pressure.

Summary of key strengths

MRI Software is a trusted choice for scalable multi-site delivery, robust security, advanced analytics and access to specialist solutions that go beyond simple facilities management.

Real world use cases
How King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is transforming estates management with MRI Software  

Essentia transforms NHS estates management with MRI Evolution 

Against the clock and the odds: mobilising NHS Nightingale Hospital North West in under two weeks 

Micad

Micad is a UK‑built CAFM solution with roots in public‑sector estates management, particularly healthcare. The solution started as a space and drawing tool (functionality that still sits at its core) and grew into a CAFM solution. Its strengths lie in structured compliance, asset lifecycle control, and space management, which would make it a good fit for NHS organisations operating in environments where audit readiness is essential.

It’s worth noting that Micad doesn’t offer the full breadth of an enterprise IWMS, and users might find some functionality is limited as a result.

Concerto

Concerto is a modular system that can grow with your organisation, with the ability to add additional solutions as required. With NHS capital budgets under increasing scrutiny, Concerto helps estates leaders shift from reactive maintenance to long‑term, evidence‑based planning.

Concerto has recently entered the NHS estates and facilities management market and has started to gain visibility within the sector over the past few years. As a result, its adoption across NHS organisations might be considered somewhat limited when compared to longer-established platforms.

Planon

Planon is a global IWMS provider offering wide‑ranging estates, workplace, and operational transformation capabilities. As an Integrated Workplace Management System, it brings facilities management, maintenance, space planning, capital projects, and sustainability into a single, unified platform. Although implementation can be more involved due to its enterprise scope, Planon offers extensive capability for trusts seeking long‑term, cross‑departmental digital transformation.

Planon is a well-established facilities management platform with broad adoption across universities and other large organisations. In the UK healthcare sector, adoption is more selective, and the solution isn’t necessarily built around NHS operational and reporting frameworks, with a requirement for third party tools for more specialist workflows.

IBM Maximo

IBM Maximo is an Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) platform, managing the entire lifecycle of physical assets, from procurement and commissioning to maintenance, optimisation, and eventual decommissioning.

IBM Maximo is primarily an asset management platform, with core strengths in tracking and maintaining physical assets. While this solution works well in industries where asset lifecycle management is the main focus, it can be somewhat limiting for organisations with needs that go beyond this scope. For example, in healthcare environments, clinical space utilisation and estate performance is critical, and NHS trusts often have a requirement for software that supports these goals with deep functionality.

All EAM solutions take time to implement, and typically require a commitment over a number of years, which can become costly.

Idox

Idox is a facilities management platform designed to support operational and maintenance workflows across estates, with particular adoption in public sector environments. Unlike a full Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), Idox focuses on core facilities management functions such as maintenance scheduling, compliance tracking, and asset visibility, rather than providing end-to-end estate or portfolio management. Its presence across NHS estates is smaller than others, but growing.

Facilities iQ

Facilities iQ is a modern, cloud‑native CAFM provider focused on operational efficiency, visibility, and contractor coordination. The solution is developed by SFG20, the body responsible for widely used maintenance and compliance standards in the UK. This makes it an attractive tool for organisations with a strong compliance focus and relatively straightforward operational requirements.

Part of its value lies in its simplicity: Facilities IQ is a lightweight product offering core CAFM capabilities. More complex estates might find they require the broader functionality of an enterprise IWMS solution, as any advanced functionality beyond the core feature set typically requires third party integrations.

Key features to prioritise in NHS CAFM solutions

Selecting the right NHS CAFM provider is now a strategic decision, not just an operational one. For 2026, essential capabilities include:

• Hierarchical asset records suitable for multi‑site estates
• Planned preventative maintenance (PPM) scheduling with matrix‑based logic
• Work order management with full lifecycle tracking
• Mobile access with offline capability for field technicians
• Secure contractor and supplier portals
• Customisable reporting and analytics
• Automated alerts and escalation workflows

Strong asset register management is a non-negotiable

An asset register keeps track of your:

• Maintainable assets (plant, equipment, systems)
• Compliance-critical items (fire, water, medical gas, lifts, asbestos)

This register defines the Trust’s maintenance responsibility, underpins statutory compliance and provides audit traceability. If it’s missing or inaccurate, maintenance simply won’t happen.

No asset register means no visibility and unmanaged risk.

Preventive maintenance remains a critical priority

Planned preventive maintenance (PPM) is a proactive, scheduled approach to maintaining buildings, equipment and infrastructure so that issues are addressed before they lead to failures.

It focuses on routine inspections, servicing, and repairs carried out at predetermined intervals or based on usage patterns, rather than waiting for something to break.

Preventive maintenance software supports this approach by turning what would otherwise be a manual, spreadsheet-driven process into an organised, automated and data-rich maintenance system. It helps facilities teams plan, schedule, execute and track all preventative tasks in a consistent, compliant and resource-efficient way.

PPM logic

Look for a CAFM solution that has sophisticated PPM logic. These rules define what needs to happen and when to:

• Determine maintenance frequency
• Generate work orders
• Apply compliance standards
• Prioritise and assign tasks

Robust PPM logic that can handle complex scheduling rules will ensure inspections happen on time, protect patient safety and create a defensible compliance record.

Alerts

Alerts notify teams when:

• PPM tasks are overdue
• Assets are approaching compliance deadlines
• Failures or high-risk issues are logged
• Stock is low
• KPIs are breached or about to be breached

These alerts escalate risk before it becomes critical, support operational oversight and enable proactive intervention.

Comparing CAFM and enterprise IWMS

A common procurement question is whether to invest in a CAFM or a broad Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS). While both technologies support FM teams, they address different organisational requirements, operate at different scales, and align with distinct strategic objectives.

Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) software is built to support everyday facilities operations, concentrating on the centralisation and automation of core tasks. It enables greater visibility and control over assets, maintenance activities and space. For organisations responsible for managing physical assets and routine maintenance, CAFM helps optimise workflows and minimise manual processes.

An Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS) goes beyond maintenance to unify every aspect of workplace and facilities management. It brings together tools for real estate, maintenance, space management, sustainability and capital project planning in one extensible platform.

In a nutshell, CAFM helps teams run building efficiently, while IWMS helps organisations optimise their entire estate.

Practical Buyer Guidance for NHS Trusts

When evaluating solutions, it’s critical to look beyond headline costs to ensure the system aligns with your organisation and your goals.

1. Define your trust’s scale in terms of assets and sites. Clarify your required integrations and the PPM rules you will need.
2. Validate security standards, SSO capability, and any specific SLAs.
3. Request NHS reference sites and full total‑cost‑of‑ownership breakdowns.
4. Set targets for PPM completion rates, downtime reduction and cost per maintenance call and monitor continuously to ensure ROI.