About the Organizations
Stanton Secure Technologies (SST) is an 8(a) certified, woman-owned cybersecurity compliance firm with more than 20 years of experience serving federal agencies and defense contractors. SST is a C3PAO candidate, a PreVeil Preferred Registered Practitioner Organization (RPO), and holds accreditation from ANAB as an ISO/IEC 17020:2012 Independent Inspection Body. SST provides CMMC advisory services, virtual CISO support, and compliance assessments across the defense industrial base.
Jefferson Solutions Group is a government contracting firm that is dedicated to delivering exceptional outcomes for challenges faced by federal agencies and commercial clients. Since 1996, Jefferson has supported 70+ federal agency clients in the U.S. and overseas. Jefferson currently supports federal civilian and defense clients, including the U.S. Air Force. Key capability areas include acquisition support services, human capital management, organizational development, and training and program.
The Challenge: Contracts Require CMMC, Complexity Must Be Controlled
Jefferson had operated on the periphery of cybersecurity compliance for years. When CMMC began appearing as a requirement tied directly to federal acquisition vehicles they were pursuing, the time had come.
Lisa Wallace, SST’s founder, had served as Jefferson’s virtual security advisor for years. She had also seen, firsthand through her assessor work with other C3PAOs, exactly what goes wrong when organizations attempt CMMC without the right guidance.
Jefferson was determined to do it right. With only three users in scope and a managed service provider (MSP) running much of their IT environment, the engagement required careful coordination across three distinct parties: SST as the advisor and process lead, the MSP handling technical implementation, and Jefferson itself managing internal readiness and decision-making.
The Solution: A Right-Sized PreVeil Enclave
SST recommended PreVeil based on direct experience using the platform in its own practice. The question Lisa asked herself was simple: why recommend something different to clients than what she uses herself?
For Jefferson, PreVeil was the right fit in every dimension. The firm’s CUI footprint was small, limited to three users, and the goal was to achieve certification without forcing the organization to restructure its entire IT environment. PreVeil delivered secure email, file sharing, and the compliance tooling needed to satisfy NIST SP 800-171 requirements within a defined, auditable enclave. Compared to the per-user cost of GCC High licensing, which Lisa had evaluated firsthand when approached about becoming a channel partner, PreVeil represented a dramatically more cost-effective path.
SST structured the engagement around three parallel workstreams that had to stay in constant communication:
1. The MSP handled endpoint configuration and technical controls.
2. SST led documentation, policy development, and assessment preparation.
3. Jefferson’s Director of Operations, a project manager by training, served as the internal champion who held every party accountable and made sure nothing fell through the cracks.
That coordination discipline, enforced throughout the engagement, is what SST now carries forward as a standard operating principle for every client it guides through the CMMC process.
“You can’t do IT in a stovepipe and then come back and write the documentation and expect everything to work. There has to be a single person managing the MSP, the documentation team, and the organization seeking certification – all at once.”
Lisa Wallace
Founder, Stanton Secure Technologies
Results: CMMC Level 2 Certified and a Stronger Practice
Jefferson Solutions Group achieved CMMC Level 2 certification through an assessment conducted by Kompleye, a certified PreVeil C3PAO Partner. The active preparation period from initial kickoff through certification ran three to four months in man hours.
For Jefferson, the certification unlocks continued eligibility for existing defense contracts and positions the firm competitively for CMMC-required opportunities across Army MAPS, OASIS+, and other major vehicles. As an advisor to commercial firms entering the federal market, carrying their own CMMC certification also strengthens Jefferson’s credibility with the clients they serve.
For SST, the engagement produced a sharpened methodology that is already making subsequent client engagements faster and tighter. SST’s second PreVeil client went to assessment the week after Jefferson’s certification. The process improvement was immediate and measurable.
Why This Matters for Defense Contractors
Jefferson’s journey reflects a pattern that plays out across the defense industrial base every day. Organizations delay because the process seems overwhelming, spend on consultants who deliver documentation that cannot withstand scrutiny, or over-scope their environments and create compliance burdens far larger than necessary.
SST’s approach with Jefferson demonstrates what a well-run, partner-led CMMC engagement actually looks like:
- Proper scoping from day one keeps the compliance boundary focused and manageable.
- Coordinated execution across the advisor, MSP, and the organization eliminates the gaps that derail assessments.
- A right-sized technology platform like PreVeil makes compliance achievable without enterprise-wide disruption.
And having an experienced advisor who thinks like an assessor means there are no surprises when the C3PAO walks in the door. For defense contractors evaluating their own path to CMMC Level 2, Jefferson’s engagement is a replicable model.
About PreVeil
PreVeil provides end-to-end encrypted email and file sharing designed to help defense contractors achieve CMMC compliance. PreVeil’s CUI enclave integrates seamlessly with Microsoft environments, reducing compliance scope and cost while enabling a faster, cleaner path to certification.
SST is a PreVeil CMMC Proven Partner. The PreVeil Proven Partner designation is awarded exclusively to partners who have successfully leveraged PreVeil to achieve CMMC certification for themselves or their clients and is displayed in PreVeil’s Partner Marketplace.
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