Expanding your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, security, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Brisbane organization to select the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers support services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Brisbane, Queensland companies to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning remote work environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of personal hardware like desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote support for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • VPN technology allows you to establish a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to access IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow a teleworker to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides network managers significant control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert online consulting for integrating home routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by delivering services that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless access point setup assistance.
  • Internet access solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Vital processes might require backup Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for selecting service providers, picking sensible service bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the business phone system to include remote users is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including 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 consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from major technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities such as IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can assist your company to deploy these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workers.

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 Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Integration Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create secure portals that allows at-home workforce to view and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint integration and development expertise.

Exchange Integration Consultants for At-Home 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 services, refer to planning and configuration expertise for Exchange.

Onedrive Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can access them safely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author files. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote assistance for helping organizations to build, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for Remote WorkersAzure is a popular family of cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected access to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of 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, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to get you past challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for TelecommutersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's top provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to plan, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Integration Services for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular set of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist you to use GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
An emergency, company-wide transition to a teleworker business model, which could be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 PC support from initial help requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to track or revise the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service allows you to expand your existing Call Desk organization by sharing delivery of Call Center services seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Desk service uses a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide world-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, see Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically use their own computers and often work in a poorly secured physical space. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security support consultants can help your business to design, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT resources in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and the public. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy security devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring Services for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers used by an at-home workforce and either block or spot and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints stay protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this second form of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and local security threats for a network that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your workflows and governance policies and review your WAN infrastructure to allow you to design top-level security for your telecommuters.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your current security posture. Progent can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
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:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage problems resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote access to consultants familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can help your business to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for protecting corporate data by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing information and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, refer to Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network managers to keep off-premises endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Brisbane, Queensland company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.