Boston Remote Workforce Configuration Consultants

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Boston company to select the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Boston, Massachusetts companies to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Call Desk services, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially complex if you have to accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authorized remote workers to access IT resources situated at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a broad range of devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier remote support for setting up routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can create performance and security issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Line-of-business processes might demand backup Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for selecting service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring redundant Internet access. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for Remote Workers
Extending the business phone system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or tune a remote VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers advanced telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see CUCM consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide online deployment and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading vendors support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex and 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 portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video 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 your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist your company to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven access to data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build secure web portals that enables at-home workers to see and update aggregated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint integration and development expertise.

Exchange 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 support services, go to planning and configuration expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Provided with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-edit documents. Edits created offline are synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to create, manage and optimize integrated network models that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with public cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure connections to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional assistance to guide you past tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's top provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify identity control for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be the result of a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 PC support from help requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or revise the status of their active tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting delivery of Call Desk support transparently between your regular support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a collaborative support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class IT support to your from-home workers, refer to Progent's Support Desk augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members typically utilize their own devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security support experts can help you to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital information assets in networks that include at-home workers.

Firewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, refer to firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers utilized by an at-home workforce and either reject or spot and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity on a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used for this added form of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several validation devices. For details about Duo identity validation services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by network security professionals with top credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your processes and policies and assess your network architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, fix, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more information about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital data so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in the event of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically envision circumstances that call for a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can assist your business to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized platform for protecting corporate information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, ensure compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For details about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune remote device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on 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 product via a perpetual license. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Boston, Massachusetts company, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.