The missing puzzle piece in asset management — why ERP, CAFM, and Excel leave a gap

Key Takeaways

• ERP, CAFM, and Excel are valuable systems — but none of them were built for operational asset transparency.
• The gap between financial data, building data, and spreadsheet data costs companies capital and working time every day.
• seventhings closes this gap as middleware — without replacing ERP or CAFM.
• The captured asset data flows directly back into SAP, DATEV, and CAFM via API.

Three systems. Three partial truths. Zero complete picture.

Asset management describes the systematic recording, administration, and control of all physical assets of a company throughout their entire lifecycle. The problem: Most companies use systems built for other purposes — ERP for financial transactions, CAFM for building management, Excel for everything in between. The result is not a complete picture, but three partial truths.

Companies invest significantly in their IT infrastructure. They implement ERP systems, manage buildings via CAFM, and try to salvage the rest with spreadsheets. Nevertheless, a core question remains unanswered: Where is the device I need right now, who is using it, and what condition is it in?

What's missing isn't another cumbersome software system. What's missing is the bridge between physical reality and abstract data management. What's missing is Asset Intelligence — we described what that means in the first issue of this series: What is Asset Intelligence?

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Why ERP, CAFM, and Excel don't provide asset transparency

To understand the data gap, it's worth looking at the three tools used daily. Each performs its task well — just not that of operational asset maintenance.

ERP Systems (SAP, proALPHA, DATEV)

The ERP is the financial brain of the company. Acquisition values, depreciation periods, tax residual values — all perfectly clear. But the ERP never leaves the finance department's desk. It doesn't know if the laptop purchased three years ago is still with the sales manager, gathering dust in the IT warehouse, or has long since been disposed of. It provides a calculated truth. Not a physical one.

CAFM Systems (Planon, Archibus)

The CAFM manages buildings and permanently installed infrastructure. Areas, Maintenance intervals, elevator inspections — that's what it's built for. But as soon as assets become mobile, it's over. Conference equipment, toolboxes, tablets that change rooms or locations daily — CAFM ignores them. It's stationary. The working world isn't.

Excel

Fast, flexible, anyone can use it. That's precisely the problem. An Excel spreadsheet is a snapshot of the past. No real-time synchronization, no audit trail, no automatic cross-references. As soon as multiple people at different locations manually maintain it, the list becomes outdated faster than it's saved. According to Forrester, 73% of ERP users simultaneously use Excel spreadsheets to manually fill operational gaps (Forrester Research 2023).

The gap at a glance:

What ERP doesn't know: Where is the asset today?What CAFM doesn't know: Is it actually being used — and by whom?What Excel doesn't know: What is the actual status at this moment?

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Why the problem persists — a CEO perspective

What always surprises me in customer conversations: Almost every company uses all three systems — and yet no one truly knows what's where. When I speak with CFOs and IT managers, I often hear: "The next ERP update will solve this." Or: "We're currently looking for a CAFM module." Both fall short. These systems are not conceptually designed to support quick, on-the-fly scanning. No one walks through an office building with an SAP screen on their smartphone to take inventory . The result is quiet resignation: data inaccuracy is accepted.

The impact is real: Approximately 18% of physical assets cannot be located immediately during audits (KPMG 2024). This isn't a tidiness problem. This is tied-up capital.

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Why integration attempts between ERP and CAFM fail

The lack of transparency in inventory management isn't a technology problem. It's an architectural problem. Many companies attempt point-to-point interfaces between ERP and CAFM. Direct connections, expensively programmed, fragile. This almost always fails for two reasons: differing data models — an ERP thinks in terms of a chart of accounts, a CAFM in spatial coordinates — and exploding migration costs with every system update. The only economical solution is dedicated middleware. A neutral translation layer that captures the reality of the physical asset and distributes the harmonized data to all surrounding systems — without existing structures needing to be rebuilt.

What is the difference between ERP and Asset Management Software?

‍An ERP views assets as financial values: acquisition costs, depreciation, tax accounting. Asset management software focuses on the operational level: Where is the object, who uses it, what condition is it in, when is the next inspection due? seventhings combines both — operational data capture at the asset, feeding data back into the ERP via API.

Why isn't Excel sufficient for inventory management?

‍Excel offers no real-time synchronization, no audit trail, and no native support for mobile scanning. With multiple locations, data redundancies and manual errors are inevitable. Audit compliance — mandatory for financial audits — is structurally impossible in Excel. seventhings replaces Excel with a central, mobile, and audit-proof database.

How does asset management software integrate with SAP or DATEV?

‍Integration is handled via open REST APIs. seventhings pulls tax-relevant master data from the ERP, enriches it with physical tracking data (location, condition, user), and automatically pushes the updated inventory data back. This accelerates the financial close by up to 40% (Deloitte Financial Close Survey 2024).

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seventhings as Middleware — not a replacement, but a connection

seventhings replaces neither ERP nor CAFM. Both systems excel at what they do. The approach is different: closing the operational gap between them.

As middleware, seventhings captures usage data directly at the asset — via QR code, barcode, or RFID scan. This operational data flows back into the existing system landscape via open APIs:

SAP and DATEV receive verified location data and status changes. Companies report significantly shorter financial close cycles when asset data is available in real-time — because tedious search and reconciliation rounds are eliminated (Deloitte Financial Close Survey 2024). CAFM systems receive usage history of mobile assets within managed areas — data they could never collect themselves.

The result is not another system. It's a closed information loop based on existing IT.

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What the gap looks like in practice

A concrete example from a conference hotel we worked with. A strategy workshop, high-profile attendees, scheduled at short notice. According to the ERP system: 15 mobile laser projectors in stock. According to CAFM: one of them stored in conference room "Alpenblick". The reality just before the start: the room was empty. A facility technician had spontaneously moved the device to another wing the day before — without documentation. Excel knew nothing. The ERP continued to record the device on the old asset card.

Result: Two employees searched for almost an hour. A replacement device was ordered by express delivery. 73% of ERP users maintain parallel Excel lists precisely because such situations in daily operations don't end up in the system (Forrester Research 2023). Medium-sized companies tie up an average of 50,000 to 200,000 Euros in unused equipment (McKinsey 2024) — capital that is already available, just not visible.

With seventhings, a glance at a smartphone would have shown the current location and the last user of the projector. The information would have immediately flowed back into the system — without manual entry, without searching.

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Conclusion: Three partial truths don't paint a clear picture

ERP knows what was purchased. CAFM knows what should be in the building. Excel knows what someone last typed in. None of these three sources knows what is actually there right now.

67% of CFOs cite tied-up capital as one of their top three liquidity concerns (Deloitte CFO Signals 2024). The solution doesn't start with a new major project. It begins by supplementing existing IT with operational middleware — and closing the gap that ERP, CAFM, and Excel collectively leave behind.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Asset Management with ERP and CAFM

What is CAFM and what is it used for?

‍CAFM (Computer-Aided Facility Management) is software for managing buildings, spaces, and permanently installed infrastructure. It controls maintenance intervals, space utilization, and building technology. CAFM is not designed for mobile assets without a fixed location — such as tools, conference equipment, or company devices. This is where seventhings acts as a complementary layer.

What software complements SAP for asset management?

‍SAP provides the accounting view of assets. What's missing is the operational level: current locations, usage history, and changes in condition. seventhings complements SAP precisely here — via an open API interface, without migration or system change. Data flows in both directions.

When is CAFM not enough?

‍CAFM is optimal for building technology and space management. However, as soon as assets become mobile — such as wheelchairs, projectors, toolkits, or tablets — the dynamic tracking layer is missing. seventhings closes this blind spot without replacing CAFM.

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What now? Three practical next steps

Knowledge is only useful if it leads to action. Here's what we recommend to companies looking to close the gap:

Step 1 — Analyze asset potential.

‍Before implementing a platform, it's worth asking honestly: How many assets does the company have, how many of them are truly locatable — and how much capital is potentially tied up? We cover this in a free 30-minute consultation. No presentation, no demo obligation. Just numbers.

Step 2 — Start small, learn fast.

Asset intelligence doesn't have to be a company-wide rollout. Most customers record their first location in one to two weeks — and almost always discover assets that were previously not visible. The effort is minimal. The insights gained are almost always surprising.

Step 3 — Integrate data back into existing systems.

‍seventhings isn't just another silo. The captured asset data flows directly via API into SAP, DATEV, or your existing CAFM system — transforming a one-time inventory into a dynamic, integrated view of the entire asset lifecycle.

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