Expanding your remote workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Calgary company to pick the appropriate tools and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you over challenging IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Calgary, Alberta organizations to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, helpdesk services, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be especially complex if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • VPN technology allows you to create a secure connection for authenticated at-home employees to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a teleworker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This gives IT managers substantial control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online support for deploying home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup assistance.
  • Internet access methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Line-of-business processes may demand backup Internet access in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking sensible service offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the company PBX environment to include teleworkers is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP service that provides the flexibility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit CUCM consulting services.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP products, see CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize multiple products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance 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 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for other IP video products 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 hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and help you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help businesses to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home workers.

SharePoint Server Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build secure web portals that allows remote workforce to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange Deployment Experts 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

Onedrive Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote assistance for helping businesses to create, maintain and repair cohesive network models that include physical data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix problems with cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features more than one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, visit Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for At-Home WorkersExchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed assistance to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for TeleworkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular set of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your key apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A sudden, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote IT support specialists combined with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from service requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to check or edit their current trouble tickets, add information, and append screen captures and relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex issues. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service enables your business to augment your existing Call Center team by sharing responsibilities for Call Center services transparently between your regular support staff and Progent's nationwide team of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation tool for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home workforce, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members typically utilize their personal computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support consultants can help your business to design, implement and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT resources in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by teleworkers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly complex. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the various computers utilized by at-home workers and either block or spot and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA service plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by network security professionals with top certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to design top-level protection for your telecommuters.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and restoring critical data so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system failures due to equipment breakdowns, software hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must address diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online access to experts familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, 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-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate scenarios that call for a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can assist you to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for protecting corporate data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune mobile endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology 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 popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your Calgary, Alberta organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.