Expanding your at-home workforce may have a significant impact on network infrastructure, security, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Augusta-Richmond County organization to pick the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and delivers top business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia businesses to with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Help Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • VPN connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home workers to use IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This provides network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for integrating home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup assistance.
  • Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Vital applications may demand backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for picking ISPs, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the company phone environment to accommodate teleworkers is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are used by SMBs to support remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer advanced support to help organizations tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends advanced telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP products, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major technology companies enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist you to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and 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 acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and help you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, offering a rich environment of applications that create a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can help your company to deploy these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your at-home 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 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 replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Configuration Consultants for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven access to data, business processes, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create secure portals that enables remote workforce to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint integration and development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Consultants 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange expertise, visit deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Integration Experts for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can access them securely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit files. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot integrated network models that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with public cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersAzure is a leading family of cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist your business to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for TeleworkersExchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed assistance to get you past tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for TelecommutersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's biggest source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-availability network model so your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Integration for At-Home WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity control for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Call Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, modern Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 PC support from initial help requests through ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to monitor or edit their current trouble tickets, enter details, and append screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with complex issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows you to augment your current Help Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support transparently between your in-house support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service uses a collective support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation tool for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home workforce, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home staff members commonly utilize their personal devices and often work in a poorly secured physical environment. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support experts can assist you to plan, configure and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT assets in networks that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to create a network that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older security appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration services, go to firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by at-home workers and either reject or identify and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this second means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis software for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security professionals with top credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your operations and governance policies and review your network infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your remote workers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, prioritize, remediate, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, human error, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must address diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity specialists can assist your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting critical information by controlling local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote computers and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share data, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, visit Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.