Expanding your remote workforce may have a major impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and debug IT networks that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Akron organization to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers top value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand expertise for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can help Akron, Ohio companies to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by providing infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Help Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed for a remote work environment can be especially challenging if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both legacy and current IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to implement a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • VPN connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home workers to use IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a telecommuter to view and use a remote computer's desktop. This gives IT managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert online support for deploying routers from a range of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by an entire household and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by delivering expertise like Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
  • Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Mission-critical applications might demand backup Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers guidance for picking service providers, picking appropriate service bundles, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the business phone system to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified CM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide online deployment and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent can assist your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help your company to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams Integration Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that allows at-home workforce to view and update aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, go to deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can retrieve them securely through a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author files. Revisions created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote support for helping businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot integrated network models that include internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online Integration for Remote WorkersExchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional assistance to get you through challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for TelecommutersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular set of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Services for Teleworkers
An emergency, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be motivated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of online IT support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial service requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to check or edit their active trouble tickets, add details, and append screen captures and attachments. Support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with complex issues. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
  • Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service allows you to expand your existing Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service uses a co-sourcing support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For information about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class technical support to your at-home employees, see Progent's Support Desk augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
At-home employees typically use their own devices and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to malware attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help your business to design, implement and manage an effective security solution that guards vital information resources in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older security devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support services, go to firewall support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring Services for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to identify new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the targeted endpoint device from the network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a unit that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second means of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by security professionals with top certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and assess your WAN infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper describing key things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital information so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage system problems resulting from equipment issues, programming glitches, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for telecommuters must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly anticipate scenarios that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can assist your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, go to Intune telecommuter device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM platform that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product via a one-time purchase. Top features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home environment for your Akron, Ohio business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.