Expanding your remote workforce may have a significant effect on network infrastructure, security, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of background helping SMBs to design, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Bakersfield organization to pick the appropriate tools and follow best practices in building and operating a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Bakersfield, California companies to with any aspect of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the network infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a mix of personal hardware such as PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • VPN connectivity allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to access IT resources located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers significant control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
  • Routers attach home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online support for deploying routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting families and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration assistance.
  • Internet connectivity methods affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications may demand redundant Internet connections in the event the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for identifying Internet service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Extending the company phone environment to include telecommuters is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are popular with SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or maintain a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and security required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. CUCM manages additional combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, see 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 content with features that include IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging services for these products and help you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build protected portals that allows remote workers to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, visit SharePoint configuration and development consulting.

Exchange Configuration Experts 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 consulting expertise, go to deployment consulting for Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Integration Experts for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's shared cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can access them securely through a browser. Included with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to jointly author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive network models that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure Integration Services for At-Home WorkersAzure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create protected connections to Azure for telecommuters by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to large corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for TeleworkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional assistance to guide you past challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's top provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for At-Home WorkersGoogle Cloud is a leading collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist you to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for At-Home Workers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a teleworker workforce, which could be activated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or revise their active trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex issues. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
  • Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your business to supplement your current Help Desk Call Center staff by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a collaborative support solution based on the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home workers commonly utilize their personal devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, implement and maintain a compliant security solution that protects vital IT resources in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to build a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and control different access rights to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks become more complex. Progent works with both current and older firewall appliances from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration services, go to firewall integration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management Services for TelecommutersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by an at-home workforce and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the impacted endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo authentication services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate several verification devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by network security professionals with top credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your workflows and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your remote workers.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper about key things to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online access to consultants familiar with a wide range of products for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate scenarios that require a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity consultants can help your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for protecting critical data by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and software. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, set up threat defense, ensure compliance, and wipe sensitive information from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, go to Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of new laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Bakersfield, California company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.