About us
Built by people who have been on your side of the table
Where this came from
Our background is not consulting theory. It is the internal IT side of a government contractor: sitting in the seat where the prime’s flow-down requirements land, where CUI arrives by email on a Tuesday afternoon, and where somebody has to work out what the contract clause actually obliges the company to do.
It is also the other side of that relationship: working directly with managed security providers as the client, watching what a good one does and what a disappointing one charges for. Both perspectives shaped how this firm is built.
Two things stood out consistently. First, the gap between the IT provider and the compliance consultant is where programmes fail, not through incompetence, but because neither party owns the seam. Second, the pricing bore very little relation to the work: companies with thirty people in scope were being quoted programmes sized for organisations twenty times larger.
Axonai is the response to both. One team accountable for IT, security, and compliance together. Scope defined before anyone quotes. Fixed fees. And a delivery model designed from the start around companies with ten to a hundred in-scope users, because that is most of the defense industrial base.
What we actually do
We take government contractors from “we have no idea where to start” to a documented, defensible CMMC posture, and then run the environment underneath so it stays that way. In practice that means the compliance programme (scoping, gap assessment, remediation, SSP, POA&M, evidence, assessment support), plus the managed IT and managed security that keep those controls genuinely operating between assessments.
We are not a certification body. We do not perform C3PAO assessments, and neither can any firm that implemented your controls; independence rules exist for good reason. What we do is get you ready, prove it with a mock assessment, and stand beside you through the real one.
Where the name comes from
An axon is the fibre that carries a signal from one neuron to the next, intact and in the right direction. It is a fair description of what a good provider does with your data and your obligations.
The AI is Assurance and Integration, which are the two halves of the job. Assurance is the compliance side: scoping, assessing, documenting, and proving that your controls genuinely work. Integration is the engineering side: building those controls into a real environment and running it day to day. Most contractors are buying those two things from two different companies. We think that is the problem.
What you can expect from us
- A named team who know your environment, not a rotating queue
- Plain-English explanations, including to non-technical leadership
- US-based support, which matters when CUI and ITAR are involved
- An honest answer when the answer is “you do not need that”
- Written scope and written fees before work begins
How we operate
Four principles we will not trade away
These are the commitments that make the commercial relationship work. If we ever break one, hold us to it.
We tell you when you do not need something
The fastest way to lose our credibility would be to sell a GCC High tenant to a company whose data does not require it. If GCC or a hardened commercial environment satisfies your obligations, that is what we will recommend, and we do not mark up licensing, so we have no reason to do otherwise.
Scope before spend
We will not quote a programme until we understand where CUI actually lives in your business. Any provider willing to price your compliance before mapping your data flows is guessing, and you will pay for the margin they built into that guess.
Documentation describes reality
A System Security Plan that flatters your environment is worse than useless. It becomes evidence against you. We document what exists, including the uncomfortable parts, and then we fix the uncomfortable parts.
Fixed fees, no meters
Open-ended hourly consulting is how compliance budgets disappear. Everything we do is quoted as fixed scope for a fixed fee, or a flat monthly amount. Changes are agreed in writing before the work happens.
Why clients choose us
The practical differences
One team for IT and compliance
Most contractors juggle an MSP that does not understand CMMC and a consultant who cannot touch the environment. We do both, so nothing falls between them and you are not paying two firms to argue.
Scope reduction comes first
Before we sell you a single license, we work out how much of your business actually needs to be in scope. A tight CUI enclave can cut the cost of a Level 2 program dramatically compared to hardening the whole company.
Evidence built as we go
Every control we implement is documented, screenshotted, and mapped to its assessment objectives while it is fresh. When the assessor arrives, the evidence package already exists.
Fixed monthly fees, no surprise hours
You get a flat, predictable monthly price for the managed service and a fixed-scope quote for the compliance work. No hourly meters running in the background.
We stay after the certificate
CMMC is not a one-time project. You have to attest annually and re-certify every three years. We run the program continuously so you never rebuild it from scratch.
Priced for companies, not for primes
Enterprise compliance firms price for enterprise budgets. We built our delivery model around small and mid-sized contractors, which is why our programs land far below the six-figure quotes most suppliers are handed.
A note on certifications
Certification bodies certify assessors and assessment organisations, not the providers who implement controls. What matters when you choose a partner for this work is whether they understand the requirements, can build to them, and can produce evidence that survives examination. Ask us anything you like about how we would handle a specific requirement in your environment; that conversation tells you far more than a logo would.
Get in touch
The first conversation is free and genuinely useful
No slide deck, no discovery invoice. We go through your contracts, your data, and your environment, and you get a written summary of where you stand, whether or not you engage us afterwards.
Next step
Find out what your CMMC gap really looks like
A short, no-obligation conversation and a written summary of where you stand, what it will take, and roughly what it will cost. No sales theatre.
We reply within one business day.