Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a major impact on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Brisbane organization to pick the right tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and returns maximum business value. Progent can provide support services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Brisbane, Queensland businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk services, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you have to accommodate a combination of personal hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated and current IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authorized at-home workers to use IT assets located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to configure and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a teleworker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures 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 home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for setting up home routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup assistance.
  • Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications might demand redundant Internet access in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the company phone system to include remote users is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or tune a remote VoIP environment that provides the versatility, transparency and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM support, visit CUCM expertise.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist you to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as 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 acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities such as video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting services for these products and help you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workers.

SharePoint Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven access to data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that enables at-home workers to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Consultants 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 consulting expertise, see integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

Onedrive Integration Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely through a web browser. Provided with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-author files. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable online support for enabling organizations to build, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers expertise 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 public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for TeleworkersAzure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure connections to Azure services for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Exchange Online Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to ensure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for TelecommutersAmazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading collection of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your business to use GCP's management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
An emergency, company-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Support Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote IT support specialists combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from initial service requests through trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or update their current tickets, add details, and append screen captures and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. For details, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables your company to augment your existing Help Desk Call Center team by splitting responsibilities for Call Center services transparently between your regular support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collaborative support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide best-in-class desktop support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically utilize their own devices and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity support consultants can assist you to design, configure and manage a compliant security solution that guards vital IT resources in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage different access rights to various groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older firewall devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management Services for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by an at-home workforce and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this added means of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced credentials such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your processes and policies and review your network architecture to enable you to implement top-level protection for your at-home workers.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper about key things to concentrate on for protecting a network that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for telecommuters must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online access to experts knowledgeable about a wide array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision scenarios that require a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning specialists can help your business to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for protecting corporate information by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, refer to Intune remote endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Brisbane, Queensland business, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.