How Specbook achieved CMMC Level 1 and landed a six-figure deal with Vanta

TL;DR

• Challenge: Specbook needed to become CMMC-certified to secure lucrative government contracts and build credibility in the age of AI.
• Solution: Specbook used Vanta to achieve CMMC Level 1 compliance in roughly half the time it would take manually.
• ROI: Immediate six-figure ($100K+) deal with a billion-dollar market cap general contractor, and accelerated deals with top 10 construction firms.

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The company

Specs, simplified

Specbook is an AI tool that quickly analyzes dense construction specifications, drawings, and submittals, highlighting non-compliant items and missed requirements in minutes. It helps construction, estimation, and design teams cut pre-construction timelines, reduce risk, and avoid costly rework. 

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The challenge

A 100-hour CMMC lift made security proof painful

Specbook faced two big challenges on its road to growth:

1. To win government-related construction customers, it needed to show CMMC Level 1 compliance
2. Generally, as an AI-powered product, Specbook needed strong, documented security practices to build trust with prospects wary of new AI tools

Where they started: Specbook used a compliance platform for SOC 2 certification, but this platform didn’t support CMMC. The Specbook team considered pursuing CMMC on their own, but faced a massive manual lift with a framework that the team didn’t have deep expertise with. “On our own, it looked like the CMMC Level 1 framework would take 100+ hours and contain a lot of uncertainty,” said Graham Ralston, Specbook Head of Operations and AI Governance.

Pivot point: After realizing the sheer lift of doing CMMC manually—and that their original tool wasn’t delivering—Specbook decided they needed a solution that removed the uncertainty of “what to do next,” simplified and automated as much of the process as possible, and made it easy to demonstrate their security posture to high-value prospects. Specbook chose Vanta.

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The Vanta impact

From uncertainty to CMMC Level 1-ready in days

Vanta offered a clear CMMC roadmap, complete with tests, policies, and documents laid out step-by-step. Plus, with Vanta, Specbook would get compliant faster—in just 40 hours—than their manual approach.

Here’s how Specbook deployed Vanta:

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Moving forward, Specbook plans to leverage Vanta to expand into CMMC L2 to align with the company's expansion. The Specbook team is also keeping an eye on additional options, such as emerging AI frameworks and healthcare frameworks, as it considers scaling into other regulated industries.

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