Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a significant effect on network infrastructure, security, and company processes. Progent has two decades of background assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Allentown company to pick the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you over challenging technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Allentown, Pennsylvania companies to with any aspect of creating a high-performing remote work environment by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be especially complex if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT resources located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your remote workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a teleworker to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote support for deploying routers from all major vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wireless networks, often shared by families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance as well as security problems. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by providing services that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
  • Internet access methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical applications might require backup Internet connections in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, selecting sensible service bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the company PBX system to include telecommuters is vital to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP environment that provides the versatility, convenience and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports additional mixed media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
  • CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed deployment and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from leading vendors support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports presence, IM, voice and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, visit 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 features that include video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Platforms 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 optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

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 and Teams Premium Integration Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of 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 with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based access to content, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create secure portals that enables at-home workers to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Integration Consultants for At-Home 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 information about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them securely through a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping businesses to build, manage and optimize cohesive hybrid network models that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure Integration Services for Remote WorkersAzure is a popular platform for public cloud services that allows you to use infrastructure, servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365 Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersExchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for TeleworkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular collection of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to scale your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your key apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify identity management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide transition to a telecommuter workforce, which could be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Call Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from help requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. To find out more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
  • Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service enables you to supplement your existing Call Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support services transparently between your regular support personnel and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service is based on a collaborative support solution based on the number one professional services automation platform for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, see Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers typically utilize their personal computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support consultants can assist you to plan, implement and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical information assets in networks that include an at-home workforce.

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 at-home workers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older security devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring and Management for At-Home WorkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices utilized by telecommuters and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the impacted endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested 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 used as this added means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by data security experts with top certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your workflows and policies and assess your network infrastructure to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper describing critical things to concentrate on for securing a network that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical data so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures due to hardware issues, programming glitches, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for remote workers must address multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online access to consultants familiar with a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly envision circumstances that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your business to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified solution for protecting corporate data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and software. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, go to Intune mobile endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Allentown, Pennsylvania company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.