Are these client names real?

Case study details are anonymised – sector, headcount and outcome are accurate but the client name is withheld for confidentiality.

Is 24-hour turnaround always possible?

It depends on the starting position. If MFA is already enforced on all cloud accounts, devices are supported and patched, and there is one decision-maker available, yes. The readiness call tells you honestly within 30 minutes.

Did the rush cost more?

No. Our pricing is IASME-aligned with no rush surcharge. The total cost was £320 + VAT.

What was the biggest risk?

MFA enforcement breaking sign-ins for staff overnight. The MSP staged the rollout to manage that. We coached the client on the comms to staff.

What happens at renewal?

Renewal is easier because the controls are now embedded. Most clients renew in a single 2-hour session 12 months later.

Case Study: Cyber Essentials in 24 Hours for a Tender Deadline

The brief

A management consultancy bidding on a £180k Government Commercial Agency framework. The PQQ required a current Cyber Essentials certificate, verifiable on the IASME register. They had no certificate and had assumed it would take weeks.

The starting position

12 staff, all on Microsoft 365 (Business Premium)
Conditional Access deployed but MFA not enforced on all users
Two staff using personal iPhones for work email without account-level MFA
Patches managed by their MSP – good evidence available
No legacy authentication audit had been done

What we did

30-minute readiness call at 4:15pm Monday. Confirmed fast-track was viable if MFA could be enforced overnight.
MFA enforcement – their MSP rolled out a Conditional Access policy enforcing MFA on all users by 9am Tuesday.
Legacy authentication blocked – disabled SMTP AUTH, IMAP and POP at the tenant level.
SAQ completed together over a 90-minute call from 9:30am Tuesday.
Pre-submission review at 11:30am – flagged one wording issue on BYOD scope, fixed in 10 minutes.
Submission and issue – submitted via the IASME portal at 12:15pm. We reviewed and issued the certificate at 2:00pm Tuesday.

The outcome

Certificate issued 22 hours after first contact
Bid submitted 3 hours before deadline
Bid won, contract value £180k
Total cost: £320 + VAT (no rush surcharge)
Client now retained for annual renewals and CE Plus next year

Lessons

Fast-track is achievable when the underlying tech stack is healthy. The fixes here were small – extending MFA enforcement and disabling legacy auth. Without an IASME-licensed Certification Body in the loop, the same submission would have sat in a review queue for 3–5 days.

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