Framework scope
Entities, locations, systems, controls, and evidence sources.
MSP service economics
Separate MSP compliance, CMMC, and vCISO scope before setting price
Compliance tooling, evidence administration, advisory judgment, assessment preparation, policy ownership, and vCISO leadership are different work. Price the cadence, artifacts, stakeholder load, framework scope, and professional boundaries instead of selling an undefined compliance promise.
What the decision depends on
FactorWhat to check
Operating cadence
Meetings, registers, evidence collection, reporting, and remediation follow-up.
Advisory role
Name who owns policy, risk acceptance, executive decisions, and assessment representation.
Specialists
Identify legal, assessor, audit, penetration-test, and other separately scoped work.
A package the buyer can understand
Are we buying evidence administration, executive security leadership, assessment preparation, or all three?
How to package it
Price a recurring governance retainer by entity, framework, meeting cadence, and evidence volume. Quote readiness assessments and remediation plans as fixed projects. Reserve vCISO decision support for a named monthly leadership allocation.
Margin stress case
Pressure-test the quarter when evidence requests double, leadership meetings expand, and remediation follow-up slips. Do not let an unlimited advisory promise absorb assessment preparation or policy rewrites.
Worked example
Illustration: a $5,000 monthly governance retainer budgets 28 delivery hours at $110 of loaded cost plus $420 of tooling, leaving 30% gross margin. If evidence and meeting work rise to 40 hours, margin falls below 4%. The package needs a stated monthly allocation and a project trigger for expanded readiness work.
Questions owners ask
Can an MSP bundle CMMC preparation into managed IT?
Keep the evidence, meeting, and remediation workload visible even if one agreement contains both services. The customer should know which deliverables support preparation.
What belongs in a vCISO retainer?
Name the leadership cadence, risk decisions, reporting artifacts, stakeholder access, and monthly allocation. Treat major policy or assessment projects separately.
How should third-party assessor work be priced?
Identify assessor and other specialist fees as separate scope. The MSP package can cover preparation and evidence coordination without obscuring who performs the independent assessment.
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