CMMC Compliance Support in Panama City, FL

Help getting compliant and staying that way, for Bay County companies doing work for the Navy — whether you’re just starting out or trying to keep what you’ve already built from slipping.

Defense contractors · NIST SP 800-171 · SPRS · Based in Bay County

Where Things Stand

CMMC Paused in July. What You Owe Didn't.

On July 13, 2026, the Pentagon suspended the next phase of CMMC and opened a full review of the program. The part that was due to start in November — outside assessments on a much wider set of contracts — is on hold while a task force spends 60 days looking at how the whole thing is working.

It’s easy to read that as permission to stop, and a lot of companies will. But the rules that were already in place are still in place. DFARS 252.204-7012 still applies. You’re still expected to be working through NIST SP 800-171. Level 1 and Level 2 self-assessments carry on as before, and your score still has to go into SPRS every year.

The practical part is this: nobody yet knows what comes back or when. If the program restarts on a shorter runway, the companies that kept making progress will be fine, and the ones that stopped will be doing it all at once. Steady is cheaper than sudden.

Still In Effect

What You're Still on the Hook For

Naval Support Activity Panama City covers 657 acres and 221 buildings, with roughly 2,800 military and civilian staff. Its largest tenant, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, employs around 1,100 scientists and engineers working on mine warfare, diving, optics, acoustics, and robotics. Between payroll and spending, the base puts something like $400 million a year into Bay County.

A lot of that flows through suppliers, and plenty of those suppliers are small companies right here in town. If you’re one of them, you already know the awkward part: these requirements were written with much larger organisations in mind. We’re the local IT team that keeps your systems running, and we bring in CMMC specialists for the assessment and paperwork side rather than pretending to be something we’re not.

DFARS 252.204-7012

The clause about protecting covered defense information is still fully in force, including reporting a cyber incident within 72 hours.

NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 2

The 110 security requirements sitting behind Level 2. Still the standard you're expected to be working through.

Level 1 and Level 2 self-assessments

Phase 1 began in November 2025 and wasn't affected by the pause. Self-assessments carry on exactly as before.

Your SPRS score

Still has to be posted, still has to be accurate, and still gets looked at. An old or optimistic score is a real problem.

Local to Bay County

We're in the Same Town as the Base

A lot of that flows through suppliers, and plenty of those suppliers are small companies right here in town. If you’re one of them, you already know the awkward part: these requirements were written with much larger organizations in mind. We work with companies your size, in your county, and we’ve put in the time to understand what the rules are actually asking for.

Small-team reality

Most of the guidance assumes you have a security department. You have an office manager and a lot of other work. We plan around that.

We're minutes away

Our people are in Bay County. When something needs hands on it, that's a short drive rather than a flight and a hotel.

The right people on each part

We handle the technical side and manage the relationship. Specialist CMMC partners handle assessment and documentation. You only deal with us.

The Levels

Which Level Applies to You

It comes down to what kind of information your contracts involve. Most small suppliers land in one of the first two.

Level 1 — Foundational

For contracts involving Federal Contract Information. Fifteen basic requirements, confirmed with a self-assessment each year.

Level 2 — Advanced

For Controlled Unclassified Information, built on the 110 requirements in NIST SP 800-171. Some contracts allow a self-assessment; others call for an outside assessor.

Level 3 — Expert

For the highest-priority programs. Built on NIST SP 800-172 and assessed by the government directly. Uncommon for smaller suppliers.

How We Help

Getting There Without Turning It Into a Second Job

Compliance work goes wrong when it becomes a project nobody has time for. We handle the technical side and coordinate the specialists on the parts that need them, so you’re not managing three vendors and a spreadsheet.

Find out where you stand

A proper gap assessment against the requirements, run with our CMMC partners. You get the real number rather than a hopeful one.

Get the documents written

Your System Security Plan and plan of action, drafted by people who do this every day. We supply the detail about your systems that they need.

Close the technical gaps

Multi-factor authentication, encryption, logging, access control, backups. This part is squarely our work, and it's most of the list.

Get your SPRS score right

Worked out properly and posted on time, with the reasoning documented in case anyone asks how you arrived at it.

Keep it from going stale

Staff change, systems change, requirements drift. Keeping it current is ongoing IT work, which is exactly what we're here for.

Be ready when it's asked for

If outside assessments come back, the evidence is organised and waiting rather than assembled in a panic from a blank page.

Frequently Asked Questions

CMMC is paused. Can we just wait?

You can, and some companies will. The risk is that the pause only covers the next phase of assessments — it doesn’t touch what you already owe today. DFARS 252.204-7012, NIST SP 800-171, your self-assessment, and your SPRS score are all still live obligations. And when the review finishes, whatever comes back is likely to arrive with less notice than the original schedule gave everyone. The companies still making quiet progress will absorb that easily. The ones starting from scratch won’t.

We're a small shop. Does this really apply to us?

It depends on your contracts rather than your size. If you handle Federal Contract Information you’re generally in Level 1 territory, and if you handle Controlled Unclassified Information you’re generally looking at Level 2. Neither has a headcount exemption. A four-person machine shop with the right clause in its contract carries the same obligation as a company with a hundred people, which is exactly why the requirements feel so heavy at the small end.

What is a SPRS score and why does it matter?

It’s a self-reported number showing how much of NIST SP 800-171 you’ve implemented, posted to the Supplier Performance Risk System. It runs on a 110-point scale where you start at 110 and subtract for each requirement you haven’t met, which means a genuinely low or negative score is normal early on. What matters is that it’s accurate and current. Primes look at it when choosing subcontractors, and a stale score with no plan behind it is worse than a low one with a credible plan.

Do we need an outside assessor?

Right now, most companies don’t. Phase 1 self-assessments cover Levels 1 and 2, and the expansion of third-party assessments is exactly the piece that was suspended in July. Whether that changes depends on what the task force recommends. Our advice is to build as though an assessor will eventually look at your evidence, because the work is the same either way and it’s far less painful to do it once, properly.

How long does this take?

For a small company starting from a reasonable baseline, meaningful progress usually takes a few months rather than a few weeks. The technical work — multi-factor authentication, encryption, logging, access control — moves fairly quickly. The documentation and the habit of keeping it current is what takes time. We’d rather give you a real timeline after looking at your environment than a number that sounds good on a website.

What happens if we say we're compliant and we're not?

This is the part worth taking seriously. Your SPRS score and your representations in a contract are statements to the government, and inaccurate ones have led to False Claims Act cases against contractors, sometimes brought by former employees. We’re an IT company rather than a law firm, so for your specific exposure you want counsel who handles government contracts. What we can do is make sure the number you report is one you can actually stand behind, with evidence to support it.

Let's Find Out Where You Actually Stand

Start with an assessment. We’ll look at your systems against the requirements and give you a straight answer about where you are, what’s missing, and what it would take to close the gap. No obligation either way.

Flux Labs
Serving Panama City, Panama City Beach, Lynn Haven, and Bay County
PO Box 575, Panama City, FL 32402
(850) 250-5590 · Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
24/7 support for managed clients