Even if your Washington small business relies on a regular freelance support technician or maintains an in-house IT staff that can deal with the majority of computer issues, Progent’s Microsoft and Cisco certified consultants provide a convenient and seamless virtual extension of your on-site resources for situations when your regular IT support personnel either lack the bandwidth or the expertise to solve unexpected system emergencies or especially challenging integration projects.

Features of Progent's Online Network Support for Washington
Progent's phone support, remote troubleshooting, network security expertise, and system administration services give small companies in Washington or throughout the state of District of Columbia unparalleled leverage for your support budget. Whether you require occasional telephone help and remote troubleshooting or ongoing Help Desk outsourcing services and network management, Progent's experts can deliver your organization world class network support while permitting you to eliminate the expense and hassle of running a large internal IT staff. Highlights of Progent's National Remote Support program include:

• Immediate Telephone Contact with Microsoft Qualified Experts
  Progent's staff of Microsoft-certified engineers can provide fast and affordable expertise to small businesses in Washington and is also ideal for customers in more remote areas of District of Columbia that have a limited supply of consultants with in-depth expertise supporting Microsoft's latest family of server platforms. All Progent engineers have over 10 years of background supporting Microsoft products. As a Microsoft Gold Partner consulting company, Progent has the advantage of a wide array of Microsoft support utilities, technical databases, and continuing education.

• By the Minute Rates to Reduce Costs
  Progent offers online support on a minute-by-minute billing plan, so you pay only for the services you receive. Progent has no minimum charge for online help and requires no monthly retainer. This protects you from paying big invoices for simple repairs.

• Access to Cisco Certified Network Design Specialists
  As a Registered Partner for Cisco, Progent offers the services of authorized professionals with experience in designing, deploying, and troubleshooting networking solutions based on Cisco products. Progent can provide a CCIE or CCNP to help you create high-speed, high-availability, and secure connectivity for fixed and mobile networking.

• Application Specialists Group
  Progent's core consulting services include system integration, MS Exchange Server expertise, network security planning, and Help Desk Call Center support. Progent's Application Experts group offers in-depth consulting expertise in critical application areas. Support offered by the Application Experts Group covers:
  • Great Plains Software Support and Customization
  • Microsoft CRM Help
  • MS Project Support
  • Microsoft Office Excel Consulting
  • MS Word Consulting
  • Crystal Reports, Microsoft Office Access, and FRx Programming
  • UNIX, Linux and Solaris Support
  • Mac Help
  By offering a convenient one-stop resource for network generalists and specialists, Progent can tailor timely, inexpensive, and thorough IT solutions that fit the specific needs of your business.

• State of the Art Remote Access Software
  Protected remote access permits Progent's support professionals to observe exactly what your customers see. This makes it easier to find quick solutions to problems that might otherwise require an expensive personal visit. Effective remote access tools and expert engineers together enable Progent to resolve most IT problems rapidly and economically. Progent is an industry leader in online troubleshooting and automated network analysis.

• Compatibility with Mainstream VPN Products
  Progent can provide safe Virtual Private Network connectivity for gateways from leading VPN vendors including Microsoft, Cisco, Sonicwall and Checkpoint. Secure VPN online connectivity allows the engineers at Progent's Technical Response Center to access your system remotely without jeopardizing system security.

• 24-hour Service for High System Availability
  For small companies with vital applications, Progent offers round-the-clock online support services. Used in conjunction with remote 24x7 server monitoring based on Microsoft's MOM platform, this offering can help ensure high network availability.

• Help Desk Call Center
  Progent's Help Desk support services are designed specifically for budget-constrained small companies whose clients need instant recourse to a Help Desk service with effective phone support and full escalation capability.

Advantages of Progent's IT Support for Small Offices in Washington
Progent's online IT consulting services allow your City# small business to realize the benefits of immediate, enterprise-class IT support without the cost of maintaining a full-time IT staff. Your network will derive greater business value by being more available, efficient, and secure. Advantages to your company include:

• Convenient remote expansion of your local IT resources
  With most small companies in Washington and throughout District of Columbia, local computer service providers, whether made up of outside consultants or a full-time maintenance staff, can solve typical network problems. On the other hand, major troubles can occur when local resources are too busy or absent, and some trouble may be associated with technology that is unfamiliar to your local support personnel. In these cases, Progent's online service professionals offer a convenient, fast, and affordable solution to supplement your regular help and to pass on useful knowledge to improve your capability to resolve downstream problems in-house.

• Reduced Dependence on Individual Service Providers
  For network support, small organizations commonly depend on individual freelance consultants. While independent consultants carry less internal costs than big support firms and can afford to charge lower rates, they are often stretched too thin, making it difficult to respond rapidly to crisis situations. If an independent consultant is busy with another client, ill, on vacation, or in training, the lack of backup personnel may force your company to wait for help during an emergency. As your company expands, network downtime and trouble with vital applications become more costly. The budget you thought you were conserving on a freelancer can be eaten up quickly by reduced productivity. Progent offers a reliable source of backup service experts to insure your network is always available.

• Build a Scalable Basis for Smooth Expansion
  Small companies often begin with an IT system created on a modest budget. Without a scalable infrastructure, band-aid repairs often get thrown on top of a shaky foundation. When a network grows, stability and expandability issues can hinder the success of the organization. These poorly designed environments require proper analysis, smart strategic planning, and broad-based technical knowledge to evolve to a network infrastructure able to offer the stable foundation to handle critical business requirements and facilitate future expansion.

• Work with Solution Providers Instead of Technology Resellers
  Small organizations require advice and technical education to navigate through an increasingly complex maze of product alternatives capable of accelerating business success and improving productivity. They do not need a network consultant who is attempting to resell a certain vendor's technology. IT support and product sales can lead to a situation where the proposed solution is built around a profitable technology instead of the true requirements of a client. Progent eliminates these dilemmas by offering just services instead of products. This allows Progent to align IT expertise with the best interests of clients.

How Is Progent Different from Other Service Organizations?
Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner consulting firm and Progent's staff size, breadth of technical expertise, refined support tools, and familiarity with corporate IT enable small offices to escape the pitfalls associated with excessive dependence on smaller consulting firms, independent freelance service providers, or over=stretched internal resources.

Progent stands out by offering:

• Certified Expertise in Microsoft's Complete Family of Server Platforms
  Progent can provide in-depth support for Microsoft’s leading server platforms with services that include Windows 2003 expertise, Microsoft Windows Server 2000 upgrades, Windows NT Server legacy support, Exchange Server 2003 expertise, Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Exchange 2000 Server migration, and Microsoft SQL 2005 expertise.

• Best Practices
  Progent’s team of Microsoft and Cisco qualified consultants average more than ten years of hands-on industry experience, at the front lines of network support, performing a broad range of IT projects for a large mix of businesses. Every Progent consultant shares a refined set of personal best practices which are combined into shared best practices training that Progent instills in its support staff. This means that you get not only expert technical help, but also a support engineer with proven methods for applying computer knowledge to repair real-world network problems quickly.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing policy is to bill for remote service and on-site help by the minute. Consequently, you pay just for received services. Progent does not impose a more expensive rate for off-hours or emergency support, and inside California or in areas where Progent provides on-site support, Progent does not bill for travel time except for urgent support where on-site time is less than 4 hours. Also, Progent imposes no service activation charge and requires no monthly commitment. Many service organizations demand substantial minimum fees or charge for each fifteen minutes or longer. Progent's small granularity does away with big invoices for quick solutions so you will not be forced to permit less critical problems to stay unaddressed.

• Complete Documentation of Delivered Services
  Progent has created a comprehensive service reporting system that stores and formats complete documentation for all billed support activities. Unlike some independent consultants or small service firms who offer scant documentation or details of tasks done, every service delivered by Progent is accompanied by full documentation. Each Progent consultant has use of the support documentation transmitted by each consultant to each client. The practice of documenting and archiving service records allows more efficient support and avoids a slew of typical misfortunes such as when a support customer is effectively held captive to a consultant who won’t let go of vital service information.

• Knowledge Transfer
  Progent is committed to knowledge transfer from Progent's support experts to clients. By educating customers to resolve problems that are within their scope, Progent can concentrate on offering high-value services where Progent faces little competition. Companies who work with familiar freelance service providers or who employ in-house IT staffs benefit when Progent passes on information about critical technology and proven processes to make their IT environments more robust, protected, and productive.

• Remote Network Monitoring with Microsoft MOM
  Progent is one of the only support firms to offer round-the-clock system tracking services based on Microsoft Operations Manager. This package allows your network maintenance to be anticipatory rather than reactive. By revealing possible problems before they result in lost productivity, network monitoring can save your IT network from stressful and costly availability losses.

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