Boston At Home Workers Solutions Consulting Company

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Boston company to select the right tools and follow leading practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and delivers top value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you past occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Boston, Massachusetts businesses to with any facet of building a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a combination of personal hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and wireless appliances from different vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing online support for both legacy and current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help you to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authorized remote workers to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a teleworker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for setting up routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by delivering services like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital applications may demand backup Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the corporate PBX environment to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or tune a remote IP voice service that provides the versatility, convenience and security required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, visit CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand deployment and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major vendors support virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing solutions 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 conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities that include voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other 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 optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that create a consistent user interface for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that enables at-home workforce to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, go to SharePoint configuration 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to planning and configuration consulting for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them safely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit documents. Edits created offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent can provide advanced remote support for enabling organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated network models that include internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of 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 problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers over one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you through challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online contact with cloud integration experts who can help your business to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key applications cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your business to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your GCP environment. For information, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, company-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which could be activated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from service requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or revise their active tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service allows your company to augment your current Call Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support services seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collective support solution based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver world-class desktop support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members typically utilize their personal devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions experts can assist you to design, implement and maintain a compliant security solution that protects vital IT resources in networks that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by remote workers and either reject or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight agent is installed on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the infected endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity on a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this second form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of external and internal security threats for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with top credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your operations and governance policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

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

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers saving and restoring critical data in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage failures due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for telecommuters must address multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online access to experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly envision circumstances that call for a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for protecting corporate data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Boston, Massachusetts company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.