Even if your St. Paul company deals with a local freelance support technician or employs an in-house IT staff that know how to deal with common computer problems, Progent’s Microsoft and Cisco certified consultants offer an easy and transparent virtual extension of your on-site resources for situations when your regular IT support personnel either lack the time or the knowledge to deal with sudden system crises or especially complex integration problems.

Details of Progent's Online Computer Support for St. Paul
Progent's phone help, remote repair, network security expertise, and system management services offer small companies in St. Paul or throughout the state of Minnesota unparalleled leverage for your IT investment. Whether you need occasional phone support and Internet-based troubleshooting or ongoing Help Desk Call Center services and system management, Progent's professionals can provide your small business world class network support while permitting 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:

• Immediate Telephone Access to Microsoft Qualified Experts
  Progent's staff of Microsoft-certified engineers can deliver fast and economical expertise to small companies in St. Paul and is also ideal for customers in more remote regions of Minnesota that lack technicians with proven expertise supporting Microsoft's latest line of server technologies. All Progent phone support staff have at least 10 years of experience supporting Microsoft products. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner consulting firm, Progent has the use of a broad range of Microsoft support tools, service databases, and continuing training.

• Per Minute Billing to Minimize Costs
  Progent provides remote help on a per-minute basis, so you are charged only for the support you use. Progent asks for no minimum fee for online support and imposes no periodic subscription fee. This saves you from facing big invoices for routine repairs.

• Availability of Cisco Network Architecture Experts
  As a Registered Partner for Cisco Systems, Progent offers the services of authorized professionals who have skill in planning, deploying, and troubleshooting networking environments based on Cisco technology. Progent can offer a CCIE or Cisco Certified Network Professional to show you how to create high-speed, reliable, and protected connectivity for wireline and wireless networking.

• Application Specialists Consulting
  Progent's core support offerings consist of system integration, MS Exchange expertise, corporate security design, and Help Desk Call Center support. Progent's Application Experts group can provide in-depth consulting support in specific application areas. Help available from the Application Experts Group includes:
  • Great Plains Software Support and Programming
  • Microsoft CRM Consulting
  • Microsoft Project Support
  • Microsoft Office Excel Programming
  • MS Office Support
  • Crystal Reports, Microsoft Office Access, and FRx Custom Reports
  • UNIX, Linux and Sun Solaris Support
  • Apple Mac Help
  By providing a full service centralized resource for IT generalists and specialists, Progent is able to tailor timely, inexpensive, and comprehensive information technology solutions that fit the unique requirements of your business.

• Sophisticated Remote Access Tools
  Secure remote access allows Progent's service professionals to observe exactly what your customers see. This makes it easier to produce quick fixes to issues that could otherwise demand a costly onsite visit. State-of-the-art online access tools and expert engineers combine to enable Progent to resolve most IT issues quickly and economically. Progent is an industry leader in online troubleshooting and remote system tracking.

• Compatibility with Mainstream VPN Gateways
  Progent supports safe Virtual Private Network access for gateways from leading VPN vendors including Microsoft, Cisco, Netscreen and Checkpoint. Secure VPN remote connectivity allows the experts at Progent's Technical Response Center to repair your network remotely without compromising network security.

• 24-hour Support for Maximum System Availability
  For small companies with vital applications, Progent offers 24x7 remote support services. Combined with remote 24x7 server monitoring based on Microsoft Operations Manager, this service can help produce maximum network uptime.

• Help Desk Call Center
  Progent's Help Desk Call Center programs are intended specifically for budget-constrained small companies whose clients need instant recourse to a Help Desk Call Center with effective telephone support and full escalation ability.

Advantages of Progent's IT Support for Small Businesses in St. Paul
Progent's remote technical help services enable your City# small company to experience the benefits of on-call, expert network support without the cost of managing an in-house IT staff. Your network will derive greater business value by being increasingly reliable, productive, and protected. Benefits to your company include:

• Seamless remote extension of your on-site support resources
  For most small companies in St. Paul and throughout Minnesota, local network support resources, whether represented by freelance consultants or an in-house IT staff, can solve the majority of technical problems. On the other hand, IT crises may spring up when your regular support personnel are overstretched or absent, and some problems may stem from technology that is unfamiliar to your usual support people. In these cases, Progent's on-call service experts provide an easy, fast, and budget-friendly solution to augment your regular help and to transfer valuable information to improve your capability to resolve downstream problems in-house.

• Less Reliance on Individual Consultants
  For network support, small organizations often rely on individual freelance service providers. Although independent consultants have smaller overhead than larger service organizations and can afford to charge lower rates, they are sometimes overbooked, making it hard to respond rapidly to urgent situations. If an independent consultant is occupied with another client, ill, on vacation, or in class, the lack of fallback help may force your company to wait for help during an IT crisis. As your network grows, system unavailability and problems with vital software are more expensive. The budget you thought you were conserving on an independent can be eaten up fast by reduced productivity. Progent offers a ready source of backup service experts to make sure your network remains available.

• Build a Solid Foundation for Seamless Expansion
  Small businesses often begin with an IT system implemented on a shoestring budget. Lacking a proper infrastructure, slap-dash repairs can get thrown onto a weak foundation. When a company grows, reliability and scalability problems can impede the productivity of the business. These poorly designed systems require careful analysis, intelligent strategic planning, and broad-based IT expertise to evolve to a network architecture able to deliver the solid foundation to meet current business demands and simplify future expansion.

• Interact with Solution Providers Instead of Technology Resellers
  Small offices require guidance and technical training to navigate through an ever more complex maze of product options available for promoting business growth and improving productivity. They hardly need a computer consultant who is trying to earn a commission on a specific vendor's products. IT support and product selling can result in a scenario where the proposed solution is built around a predetermined product rather than the true requirements of a small business. Progent eliminates these dilemmas by selling only services rather than products. This enables Progent to align IT expertise with the real interests of customers.

How Is Progent Different from Other Service Firms?
Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner consulting firm and Progent's head count, range of technical expertise, refined remote support software, and familiarity with corporate IT enable small companies to avoid the pitfalls associated with excessive dependence on smaller consulting firms, independent freelance consultants, or over=stretched in-house resources.

Progent stands out by offering:

• In-depth Expertise in Microsoft's Full Range of Servers
  Progent offers in-depth support for Microsoft’s leading server platforms with services such as Windows Server 2003 expertise, Windows 2000 Server migration, Windows NT legacy support, Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server expertise, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Exchange 2000 Server migration, and SQL 2005 support.

• Best Practices
  Progent’s staff of Microsoft and Cisco certified experts average more than a decade of real-world industry background, at the front lines of IT support, performing a broad range of IT projects for an extensive array of customers. Each Progent support professional shares a refined set of personal best practices which are combined into company-wide best practices standards that Progent instills in its support personnel. This means that you get not just world-class technical help, but also a support engineer with field-tested methods for applying computer knowledge to solve real-world IT problems quickly.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing model is to charge for remote support and on-site help per minute. Consequently, you are charged just for received services. Progent does not impose a more expensive rate for off-hours or urgent service, and inside California or in areas where Progent offers in-person service, Progent does not charge for travel time except for emergency calls where on-site work is less than 4 hours. Also, Progent imposes no startup fee and requires no retainer. Many service organizations impose substantial minimum fees or charge for each quarter hour or longer. Progent's small granularity eliminates big bills for fast fixes so you won't be forced to permit minor problems to fester.

• Full Records of Delivered Services
  Progent has developed a sophisticated support reporting system that records and organizes complete documentation for all billed support activities. Unlike some freelance consultants or local support firms who offer scant documentation or specifics of tasks performed, each service delivered by Progent is accompanied by full documentation. Each Progent consultant has access to the service documentation sent by each staff member to every client. The discipline of documenting and archiving support records allows more efficient service and avoids a slew of common problems such as when a service client is effectively held hostage to a consultant who refuses to release the keys to the kingdom.

• Knowledge Transfer
  Progent practices knowledge transfer from Progent's consultants to customers. By educating customers to handle problems that are within their comfort zone, Progent is able to focus on offering hard-to-find services where Progent faces few competitors. Businesses who utilize trusted freelance consultants or who employ in-house support personnel benefit when Progent transfers information about critical technology and proven processes to make their IT environments more reliable, protected, and productive.

• Automated Server Monitoring with Microsoft MOM
  Progent is one of the only consulting companies to offer 24x7 remote monitoring services powered by Microsoft Operations Manager. MOM allows your computer support to be proactive rather than reactive. By anticipating potential issues before they cause downtime, network monitoring can save your IT network from stressful and costly availability disruptions.

How Does My Business Begin Receiving Online Computer Support from Progent?
To initiate Progent's online help services or to learn more about Progent's online support programs, contact Progent at 888-412-5546 or send email to information@progent.com. If you have an urgent requirement for IT support, visit Immediate Urgent Support.