Boston Remote Workers Integration Advisor

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company processes. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Boston company to select the right technologies and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Boston, Massachusetts businesses to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, data security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complex if you must manage a mix of worker-owned equipment like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from different manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing remote support for both legacy and modern IT products in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated remote workers to use IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the digital environment 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 computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for configuring routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications might require backup Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, selecting sensible service offerings, and integrating redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the company phone system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading vendors support virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, refer to 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, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and assist you to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful environment of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can help businesses to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your remote workforce.

SharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create protected web portals that enables remote workforce to see and edit consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

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 information about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely through a browser. Included with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-author documents. Edits created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, and public cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix issues with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for cloud services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features more than one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to get you through tough technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's support services for Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's top source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to design, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-availability network architecture so your users have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to use GCP's management tools to control and track your Google Cloud environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be the result of an epidemic or as part of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from service requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to monitor or edit the status of their current tickets, add information, and append screen captures and relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables your company to augment your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, refer to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees typically use their own computing devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of IT security support consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and maintain an effective security solution that guards vital IT resources in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable you to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by local users and by teleworkers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and control different permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support services, visit firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate computers used by teleworkers and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. To find out more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of external and internal security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with top credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your workflows and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to implement top-level security for your at-home workers.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital data in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage problems due to equipment breakdowns, software glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for teleworkers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online help from consultants familiar with a broad array of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for protecting critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about building and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Boston, Massachusetts company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.