Even if your Houston office relies on a regular independent support technician or maintains a full time organization that can deal with common computer problems, Progent’s Microsoft and Cisco certified consultants offer an easy and seamless virtual extension of your local resources for situations when your regular service personnel either don't have the bandwidth or the expertise to deal with sudden system crises or especially complicated integration problems.

Features of Progent's Remote Network Services for Houston
Progent's online help, remote troubleshooting, system security expertise, and network administration services give small businesses in Houston or throughout the state of Texas the greatest leverage for your support budget. Whether you need one-time phone support and Internet-based network repair or full-time Help Desk Call Center support and network administration, Progent's professionals can provide your small business enterprise-level IT support while permitting you to eliminate the cost and administration overhead of running a large in-house IT organization. Highlights of Progent's online help program include:

• Fast Phone Contact with Microsoft Certified Support Specialists
  Progent's staff of Microsoft-certified engineers can provide immediate and affordable expertise to small businesses in Houston and is also ideal for customers in geographic areas of Texas that have a limited supply of technicians with proven experience supporting Microsoft's latest family of server platforms. All Progent engineers have at least 10 years of background integrating Microsoft solutions. As a Microsoft Gold Partner consulting company, Progent has the advantage of a broad array of Microsoft support tools, service databases, and on-going education.

• By the Minute Billing to Reduce Costs
  Progent provides online support on a by-the-minute billing plan, so you are charged only for the services you receive. Progent asks for no minimum charge for phone help and asks for no monthly subscription fee. This saves you from facing big bills for routine fixes.

• Availability of Cisco Certified Network Architecture Specialists
  As a Registered Partner for Cisco Systems, Progent offers access to on-staff specialists with experience in planning, implementing, and supporting networking solutions powered by Cisco technology. Progent can offer a CCIE or CCNP to show you how to create fast, high-availability, and secure connectivity for wireline and wireless networking.

• Application Specialists Consulting
  Progent's basic support offerings consist of technology integration, Microsoft Exchange Server expertise, corporate security design, and Help Desk outsourcing support. Progent's Experts group offers world-class consulting support for critical business applications. Support available from the Application Experts Team covers:
  • Great Plains Software Support and Customization
  • Microsoft Dynamics CRM Consulting
  • Microsoft Office Project Support
  • Microsoft Office Excel Programming
  • MS Office Expertise
  • Crystal Reports, Microsoft Office Access, and FRx Custom Reports
  • UNIX, Linux and Sun Solaris Help
  • Apple Mac Help
  By offering a convenient centralized resource for network generalists and application experts, Progent is able to tailor timely, affordable, and thorough IT solutions that meet the special requirements of your company.

• State of the Art Online Connectivity Software
  Secure online access allows Progent's service professionals to observe precisely what your users see. This makes it easier to produce fast fixes to issues that might otherwise demand a costly personal visit. State-of-the-art online connectivity tools and experienced technicians combine to enable Progent to repair most IT issues rapidly and affordably. Progent is an industry leader in offsite support and remote system analysis.

• Compatibility with Leading VPN Products
  Progent supports secure Virtual Private Network connectivity for gateways from major VPN vendors including Microsoft, Cisco, Sonicwall and Checkpoint. Secure VPN remote access allows the engineers at Progent's Technical Response Center to access your system remotely without jeopardizing system security.

• 24x7 Support for High System Availability
  For small businesses with line-of-business applications, Progent can provide 24x7 online support services. Combined with automated 24x7 network monitoring based on Microsoft Operations Manager, this offering can help ensure high network uptime.

• Help Desk Outsourcing
  Progent's Help Desk Call Center services are designed specifically for budget-conscious small offices whose workers need immediate recourse to a Help Desk service with effective telephone support and full escalation ability.

Advantages of Progent's Network Help for Small Offices in Houston
Progent's remote support services allow your City# small company to have the advantages of on-call, enterprise-class IT support without the cost of managing a full-time IT organization. Your information system will derive greater strategic worth by being increasingly available, productive, and protected. Benefits to your business include:

• Convenient virtual expansion of your local support resources
  For most small offices in Houston or anywhere in Texas, local computer support resources, whether made up of independent consultants or an internal IT staff, can resolve typical network problems. However, major troubles might strike when local support personnel are overstretched or absent, and some trouble may stem from IT products that is unfamiliar to your onsite support technicians. In these cases, Progent's on-call support specialists offer a convenient, fast, and affordable solution to augment your regular help and to convey valuable knowledge to increase your capability to resolve downstream issues locally.

• Reduced Dependence on Freelance Consultants
  For network maintenance, small offices often depend on individual freelance service providers. Although independent consultants carry smaller overhead than larger service firms and can afford to charge lower rates, they are often overbooked, making it difficult to respond rapidly to crisis situations. If an independent service provider is occupied with another customer, ill, on a trip, or in class, the lack of fallback help may require your business to go without help during an emergency. As your small business grows, system unavailability and trouble with critical applications are more expensive. The money you thought you were saving on a freelancer can be eaten up fast by lost productivity. Progent offers an on-call source of backup service experts to insure your IT system stays available.

• Build a Solid Basis for Smooth Growth
  Small organizations often begin with an information system created on a shoestring budget. Without a robust framework, slap-dash repairs often get piled onto a shaky foundation. When a company grows, reliability and scalability problems can hinder the productivity of the business. Such poorly designed environments require careful assessment, smart long-term planning, and extensive IT knowledge to upgrade to a system architecture able to deliver the stable foundation to handle vital business requirements and facilitate future expansion.

• Interact with Problem Solvers Rather Than Product Sellers
  Small businesses need guidance and technical training to navigate through an ever more complex array of product alternatives capable of promoting business growth and enhancing productivity. They do not need a network consultant who is trying to resell a certain vendor's products. Network consulting and product selling can lead to a situation where the proposed solution is designed around a predetermined product instead of the true needs of a small business. Progent avoids these dilemmas by offering only services instead of products. This enables Progent to align IT consulting with the best interests of customers.

What Makes Progent Unique from Other Support Firms?
Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner support company and Progent's staff size, depth of technical knowledge, fine tuned remote support tools, and familiarity with corporate IT allow small companies to avoid the limitations of exclusive dependence on smaller consulting firms, individual freelance service providers, or over=stretched in-house IT help.

Progent adds value by offering:

• In-depth Knowledge of Microsoft's Full Family of Server Platforms
  Progent can provide world-class expertise for Microsoft’s powerful server products with services that include Microsoft Windows Server 2003 consulting, Microsoft Windows 2000 migration, Windows NT Server upgrades, Exchange 2003 Server help, Exchange Server 5.5 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server moves, and SQL Server integration.

• Best Practices
  Progent’s staff of Microsoft and Cisco qualified experts average longer than a decade of real-world industry background, at the forefront of network support, performing a wide range of technical projects for an extensive array of customers. Every Progent consultant shares a proven set of personal best practices which are combined into company-wide best practices standards that Progent instills in its support staff. This means that you get not just world-class technical help, but also a consultant with field-tested methods for using technical knowledge to resolve actual network problems rapidly.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing model is to charge for remote support and on-site visits by the minute. Consequently, you are invoiced only for delivered services. Progent does not demand a higher rate for off-hours or priority service, and inside California or in regions where Progent offers on-site service, Progent does not charge for travel time except for urgent calls where on-site time is less than 4 hours. In addition, Progent imposes no initialization charge and requires no monthly commitment. Many support organizations impose large minimum fees or charge for each quarter hour or longer. Progent's small granularity does away with big invoices for fast repairs so you won't be forced to permit less critical problems to fester.

• Complete Records of Delivered Services
  Progent has developed a sophisticated service reporting system that stores and organizes complete documentation for all billed support activities. Unlike some freelance consultants or small service organizations who provide scant documentation or specifics of services done, each service delivered by Progent is accompanied by comprehensive documentation. Every Progent consultant has use of the support documentation transmitted by each staff member to every client. The discipline of documenting and organizing support records results in more effective service and avoids a slew of typical misfortunes such as when a support client is effectively held hostage to a consultant who won’t release the keys to the kingdom.

• Information Transfer
  Progent practices knowledge transfer from Progent's support experts to customers. By teaching customers to handle problems that are within their comfort zone, Progent can concentrate on providing high-value services where Progent faces little competition. Businesses who work with familiar freelance consultants or who maintain internal IT personnel benefit when Progent transfers information about critical technology and tested methodologies to make their IT environments more reliable, protected, and efficient.

• Automated Server Monitoring with Microsoft MOM
  Progent is one of the few support firms to provide round-the-clock system tracking services powered by Microsoft Operations Manager. This package causes your computer maintenance to be anticipatory rather than reactive. By revealing possible problems before they result in downtime, system monitoring can keep your IT network from stressful and costly service disruptions.

How Does My Business Start Receiving Online Technical Help from Progent?
To initiate Progent's online help services or to learn more about Progent's phone support programs, call Progent at 888-412-5546 or send email to information@progent.com. If you have an urgent need for network support, go to Immediate Urgent Support.