CMMC Compliance USA
CMMC 2.0 Readiness & C3PAO Assessment Preparation for DoD Contractors
Praxis-Q delivers CMMC 2.0 readiness for US defense contractors and the Defense Industrial Base - NIST SP 800-171 gap assessment, System Security Plan (SSP), POA&M, and evidence preparation. We make you assessment-ready; the formal CMMC certification is issued by an accredited C3PAO.
CMMC USA
CMMC Compliance USA
CMMC 2.0 Readiness & C3PAO Assessment Preparation for DoD Contractors
The Problem
CMMC 2.0 is now mandatory to win or keep DoD contracts. Without it you are locked out of the Defense Industrial Base, and self-attestation no longer cuts it for CUI.
What We Do
- Scoping
- Gap Assessment
- SSP & POA&M
- Remediation
- Assessment Prep
What You Get
- NIST SP 800-171 gap assessment (110 controls)
- System Security Plan (SSP) development
- POA&M creation and remediation tracking
- CUI / FCI scoping and data-flow mapping
- C3PAO pre-assessment readiness
- Evidence and artifact preparation
- Level 1, 2 and 3 readiness
- Supports DFARS 252.204-7012 / 7019 / 7020
Why weeks, not months
AI-assisted evidence review, one client portal
Every CMMC USA engagement runs on the Praxis-Q compliance platform. You upload evidence per control, AI scores it against the requirement, and your auditor reviews in the same workflow — from scoping through to the issued, publicly verifiable certificate.
AI evidence scoring
Every upload is scored against the control before an auditor sees it — gaps surface in minutes, not at the review meeting.
One client portal
Scoping, evidence, auditor queries and status live in one place. No email chains, no spreadsheet trackers.
Auditor sign-off
Praxis-Q auditors review inside the same workflow, so review rounds shrink and the certificate issues sooner.
CMMC 2.0's Three Levels
Level 1 covers 17 foundational safeguarding practices for contractors handling only Federal Contract Information, verified by annual self-assessment. Level 2 covers 110 security requirements across 14 domains, mapped directly to NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2, for contractors handling Controlled Unclassified Information - most Level 2 contracts require third-party certification by a CMMC Third-Party Assessment Organization (C3PAO), though some lower-priority information allows self-assessment. Level 3 adds a further set of enhanced requirements drawn from NIST SP 800-172, reserved for the highest-priority CUI programmes, and assessment is conducted directly by government assessors rather than a C3PAO. Praxis-Q determines the correct target level from your actual contract language and the CUI categories you handle, since guessing wrong either under-invests in required controls or over-invests in certification you don't need.
The Rule Took Effect, But Phase 2 Is Now Suspended
The CMMC Program final rule (32 CFR Part 170) and the companion DFARS acquisition rule (48 CFR) took effect December 16, 2024, and Phase 1 - requiring the CMMC contract clause and Level 1/Level 2 self-assessment flow-down into new contracts - began rolling out from November 2025. In July 2026, the Department of War suspended Phase 2, which would have made third-party C3PAO certification mandatory for most Level 2 contracts, and opened a 60-day review of the programme in response to small-business and industry concerns about assessor capacity and cost. What hasn't changed: contractors are still contractually obligated to implement NIST SP 800-171 controls and self-attest to their compliance status where the contract clause applies. Praxis-Q's advice to clients has been consistent through this: build to the full Level 2 control set regardless of the certification-timeline politics, because the technical requirement isn't what's paused.
NIST SP 800-171 as the Technical Backbone
Whatever happens to the third-party certification timeline, NIST SP 800-171's 110 security requirements are the actual technical substance behind Level 2, covering access control, awareness and training, audit and accountability, configuration management, incident response, and eight other domains. Contractors need a System Security Plan (SSP) documenting how each requirement is met and a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) for any gaps not yet closed - both of which any assessor, self-assessment reviewer, or eventual C3PAO will expect to see regardless of the current phase-in status. Praxis-Q builds the SSP and POA&M as the core deliverable of every CMMC engagement, since it's the artifact that actually gets scrutinised.
C3PAO Assessments in a Suspended-Phase-2 Market
The suspension has left the C3PAO assessment market in a genuinely unsettled state - contractors who had scheduled certification assessments are seeing them paused or rescheduled, and the accreditation body overseeing C3PAOs is itself waiting on the review's outcome before issuing further guidance. Praxis-Q's position for clients caught in this gap is to keep remediation and evidence-collection work moving on the assumption that some form of third-party verification returns in some form, rather than stopping work and having to restart from scratch once the review concludes - the NIST SP 800-171 gap-closure work doesn't become wasted effort under any plausible outcome of the review.
Engagement Model and Timeline
Gap assessment against the applicable CMMC level typically runs two to three weeks; SSP and POA&M development and control remediation take considerably longer depending on how mature the existing environment is against NIST SP 800-171. Praxis-Q delivers this work regardless of Level 2's current certification-timeline status, since the underlying control requirements are unaffected, and tracks the Department of War's review outcome to advise clients on next steps as soon as it's published.