COST DISCUSSION

While DoD estimated Level 1 CMMC certification costs at $5,997 (88FR89058), this number does not include any of the costs of creating or implementing a compliant system. Because the requirements to have a secure IT system have been in the Federal Acquisition Regulations since 2013, the government’s estimate of the cost to meet the CMMC Level 1 reporting requirements assumes that you will not need to make any additional changes to your IT systems. The government’s cost estimate is based on certifying that an existing IT system is compliant. Estimates for hiring an IT consulting company to create a compliant system for you can cost more than 4-10x the government estimate in addition to the certification cost.

The Branch Compliance Level 1 Self-Certification Guide is the most cost-effective CMMC solution designed for small businesses on the market. This solution includes creating a simplified Microsoft compliant system from scratch and all the documentation for self-certification for slightly more than the DoD estimate of certification cost alone. Once the Guide is implemented, you will have everything you need to self-certify your CMMC Level 1 compliant system. While this solution will require administrative upkeep once implemented, it eliminates the need to hire a full-time IT Manager. The timeframe to implement our solution is fast (easily done over a weekend) or can be done self-paced on your schedule. The Level 1 Self-Certification Guide is built on the Microsoft E3 license. While the Self-Certification guide is a one-time cost, the Microsoft license has a monthly cost of $33.75/user/month. The benefits of using the Microsoft system include:

  1. Microsoft is committed to maintaining a system that can easily be CMMC compliant.

  2. The E3 license can be simple enough to manage now while having options that can grow with your company.

  3. The E3 license is built to integrate software rather than cobbling together software from different companies that don’t work well together and add up to more monthly expense.

  4. The range of software toold that are included in the E3 license (many of which you are likely already paying for) will increase employee productivity.

  5. The Microsoft E3 license is a cloud based service. Your files will automatically backup to the cloud, reducing risk of data loss. There are no company servers to maintain.

  6. The E3 license include Microsoft 365 apps (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, SharePoint, etc.), so current subscriptions to those services can be cancelled. A complete overview of the E3 license can be found here.

We understand that CMMC seems to be an additional expense forced on small business, but it impacts your competitors in DoD equally. Costs for CMMC certification can be built into overhead costs and passed onto the government. The advantage to be had over your competitors is minimizing implementation and certification costs and implementing the requirement sooner.