Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a significant effect on network architecture, security, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Brighton company to pick the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Brighton, United Kingdom companies to with any aspect of creating a high-performing telecommuting environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Help Desk services, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be particularly complex if you must manage a mix of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing online support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a secure connection for authorized at-home employees to access IT assets located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad range of devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a teleworker to view and use a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
  • Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent offers expert online support for integrating routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as security issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by providing services that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point setup help.
  • Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Vital applications might demand redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate service packages, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Extending the business phone system to include telecommuters is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are used by SMBs to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help organizations tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages additional combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, see CUCM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, see Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand deployment and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors support online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow 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 online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with features such as video conferencing, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can assist your company to tune these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium Solutions Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create secure web portals that allows at-home workforce to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint support services, see SharePoint integration and development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange support services, visit planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them securely via a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to jointly author files. Edits created offline are synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide advanced online assistance for helping businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix issues with cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers over 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure access to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to assess the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online Integration for TeleworkersExchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud (GCP) is a popular suite of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to expand your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your business to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify identity management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Services for Telecommuters
A rapid, enterprise-wide transition to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote IT support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to provide an economical, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or edit the status of their active tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. To find out more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to supplement your existing Support Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk services transparently between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to provide world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their own computers and usually work in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to plan, implement and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical information resources in networks that include at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances permit you to configure and control appropriate access rights to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by teleworkers and either block or spot and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted endpoint from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via 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 utilized as this second form of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your workflows and policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to implement top-level security for your telecommuters.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital data so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, user mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must address multiple types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick remote help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate scenarios that call for a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help you to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

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

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share information, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and erase corporate data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, see Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple 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 capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Brighton, United Kingdom organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.