Even if your Minneapolis office deals with a regular freelance support technician or employs a full time organization that know how to deal with typical computer issues, Progent’s Microsoft certified consultants offer an easy and seamless remote extension of your on-site resources in cases when your usual service personnel either lack the availability or the expertise to fix unexpected network crises or especially tough integration problems.

Details of Progent's Remote Network Support for Minneapolis
Progent's online help, Internet-based troubleshooting, system security consulting, and network management services give small companies in Minneapolis or anywhere in the state of Minnesota the greatest leverage for your support investment. Whether you need occasional telephone support and remote network repair or ongoing Help Desk outsourcing support and network administration, Progent's professionals can deliver your organization world class network support while allowing you to avoid the cost and administration overhead of maintaining a full-service in-house IT staff. Highlights of Progent's online help program include:

• Fast Telephone Contact with Microsoft Certified Professionals
  Progent's staff of Microsoft-certified technicians can provide fast and affordable expertise to small offices in Minneapolis and is also ideal for customers in geographic areas of Minnesota that have a limited supply of consultants with proven expertise supporting Microsoft's current family of server platforms. All Progent phone support staff have at least 10 years of background integrating Microsoft solutions. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner consulting company, Progent has the advantage of a broad array of Microsoft support tools, technical databases, and on-going training.

• By the Minute Billing to Minimize Expenses
  Progent offers online help on a minute-by-minute billing plan, so you are billed only for the support you receive. Progent requires no minimum charge for phone support and requires no periodic subscription fee. This saves you from paying big bills for simple fixes.

• Access to Cisco Network Design Professionals
  As a Certified Partner for Cisco, Progent offers access to authorized professionals who have experience in designing, deploying, and troubleshooting networking environments based on Cisco products. Progent can offer a CCIE or CCNP to help you build fast, reliable, and protected infrastructure for local and remote networking.

• Application Specialists Consulting
  Progent's basic consulting offerings consist of system integration, Microsoft Exchange Server consulting, corporate security planning, and Help Desk outsourcing services. Progent's Experts Team offers world-class consulting support for critical business applications. Help available from the Application Experts Team covers:
  • Great Plains Software Support and Customization
  • Microsoft Customer Relationship Management Help
  • Microsoft Project Training
  • MS Excel Consulting
  • Microsoft Office Expertise
  • Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, and FRx Custom Reports
  • UNIX, Linux and Sun Solaris Integration
  • Apple Macintosh Help
  By providing a full service one-stop source for IT generalists and application experts, Progent is able to tailor fast, cost-effective, and comprehensive IT solutions that address the special needs of your company.

• Sophisticated Online Connectivity Tools
  Protected remote connectivity permits Progent's service experts to see exactly what your users see. This makes it easier to find fast fixes to issues that might otherwise demand a costly personal visit. Sophisticated remote connectivity tools and expert engineers combine to enable Progent to repair most network issues quickly and affordably. Progent is an industry leader in online support and automated network monitoring.

• Support for Popular VPN Products
  Progent supports safe Virtual Private Network access for gateways from leading VPN vendors such as Microsoft, Cisco, Watchguard and Checkpoint. Protected VPN remote access enables the engineers at Progent's Technical Response Center to repair your system remotely without jeopardizing system security.

• 24-hour Support for High System Uptime
  For small businesses with mission-critical applications, Progent can provide 24x7 online technical services. Used in conjunction with remote 24x7 network monitoring based on Microsoft Operations Manager, this service can help ensure high system availability.

• Help Desk Call Center
  Progent's Help Desk support programs are designed especially for budget-constrained small offices whose clients require instant access to a Help Desk service with expert phone support and full escalation capability.

Advantages of Progent's IT Support for Small Businesses in Minneapolis
Progent's online support services enable your City# small business to enjoy the advantages of on-call, world-class network support without the cost of maintaining a full-time IT staff. Your information system will derive added business value by being increasingly reliable, efficient, and protected. Benefits to your business include:

• Seamless remote extension of your local support resources
  For most small offices in Minneapolis or anywhere in Minnesota, nearby computer service providers, whether represented by freelance consultants or an internal IT staff, can resolve the majority of technical issues. However, IT crises might strike when your regular support personnel are too busy or unavailable, and some trouble may involve IT products that is unfamiliar to your usual support personnel. In these cases, Progent's on-call service experts offer an easy, quick, and affordable way to supplement your regular help and to convey useful knowledge to increase your capability to resolve future problems in-house.

• Reduced Reliance on Freelance Consultants
  For network maintenance, small companies often depend on individual freelance service providers. Although independent service people have less overhead than larger service firms and can afford to charge lower rates, they are sometimes overextended, making it hard to respond quickly to crisis situations. If an independent service provider is busy with another customer, sick, on vacation, or in class, the absence of reserve personnel may force your company to wait for help during an emergency. As your network grows, network downtime and problems with vital software become more costly. The money you thought you were saving on a freelancer can be consumed quickly by reduced productivity. Progent provides a dependable source of reserve support experts to insure your network is always available.

• Create a Scalable Basis for Seamless Expansion
  New companies typically begin with an information system implemented on a shoestring budget. Lacking a strong infrastructure, slap-dash repairs often get piled on top of a weak foundation. As a network grows, reliability and expandability issues can hinder the success of the business. These poorly built environments need careful analysis, smart strategic planning, and wide technical knowledge to evolve to a system architecture that can provide the solid foundation to handle critical business demands and simplify downstream growth.

• Work with Problem Solvers Rather Than Product Vendors
  Small offices require advice and technical education to navigate through an increasingly complex maze of product alternatives capable of accelerating business success and improving productivity. They hardly need a network engineer who is trying to sell a specific vendor's technology. Network support and product selling can lead to a situation where the recommended solution is designed around a profitable technology instead of the genuine needs of a small business. Progent eliminates these dilemmas by offering only services rather than products. This allows Progent to match technical consulting with the best interests of customers.

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

Progent stands out by providing:

• Certified Expertise in Microsoft's Complete Range of Server Platforms
  Progent offers world-class expertise for Microsoft’s leading server platforms with services such as Windows Server 2003 expertise, Windows 2000 Server upgrades, Windows NT migration, Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server integration, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 upgrades, and Microsoft SQL 2005 integration.

• Proven Methodology
  Progent’s team of Microsoft and Cisco qualified consultants average more than a decade of real-world industry background, in the trenches of network support, executing a broad range of technical projects for an extensive mix of businesses. Each Progent support professional shares a refined set of personal best practices which are combined into shared best practices standards that Progent teaches its support staff. This means that you get not just world-class technical help, but also a consultant with field-tested methods for applying computer knowledge to repair actual network problems quickly.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing policy is to charge for phone support and on-site visits by the minute. Consequently, you pay exclusively for received services. Progent does not impose a higher rate for off-hours or urgent support, and inside California or in regions where Progent offers in-person support, Progent does not charge for travel except for urgent support where on-site time is less than 4 hours. Also, Progent imposes no service activation charge and asks no retainer. Many service firms impose substantial minimum payments or charge for each quarter hour or longer. Progent's small granularity avoids large bills for quick repairs so you won't be tempted to permit less critical problems to stay unaddressed.

• Complete Documentation of IT Services
  Progent has created a sophisticated service reporting system that stores and organizes detailed documentation for all delivered support activities. Unlike some freelance consultants or small service firms who offer minimal documentation or details of services done, each service provided by Progent is tracked by comprehensive documentation. Every Progent consultant has access to the support reports sent by each staff member to each client. The discipline of detailing and organizing service activity results in more effective support and eliminates a variety of common problems such as when a support client is effectively held captive to a consultant who refuses to release the keys to the kingdom.

• Information Transfer
  Progent practices knowledge transfer from Progent's consultants to clients. By teaching customers to deal with problems that are within their comfort zone, Progent is able to concentrate on providing high-value skills where Progent faces little competition. Businesses who work with familiar freelance service providers or who maintain internal support staffs benefit when Progent transfers knowledge about new technology and tested methodologies to make their networks more reliable, secure, and productive.

• 24x7 Server Monitoring with Microsoft MOM
  Progent is one of the few support firms to provide round-the-clock remote monitoring services powered by Microsoft Operations Manager. MOM allows your network maintenance to be proactive rather than reactive. By revealing possible problems before they cause downtime, system monitoring can save your information network from stressful and costly availability losses.

How Does Our Company Begin Getting Online Network Support from Progent?
To initiate Progent's Nationwide Remote Support services or to find out more about Progent's phone support options, contact 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.