Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Charleston organization to select the right tools and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and returns top business value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Charleston, South Carolina businesses to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote support for both outdated and current technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • VPN technology allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN tunneling for a wide range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a telecommuter to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for integrating home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless access point setup help.
  • Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Mission-critical processes might require backup Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying service providers, picking sensible service packages, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the corporate phone environment to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the versatility, transparency and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to CUCM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help you to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide on-demand integration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide range of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support services for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions 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 portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging expertise for these products and help you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your remote workers.

SharePoint Server Deployment Consultants for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based access to data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure web portals that permits at-home workforce to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and development consulting.

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. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, go to deployment expertise for Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely via a browser. Provided with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, visit Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated network models that incorporate internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersAzure is a leading family of public cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers over 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected access to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersExchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional help to get you through tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and affordable online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, manage, 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 can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular set of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also help your business to use GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
A fast, company-wide transition to a from-home workforce, which might be activated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

  • Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to check or revise their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots and attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
  • Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service enables you to augment your existing Support Desk staff by sharing delivery of Call Desk support transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collective support model utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To find out how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, see Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
At-home workers typically utilize their personal computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of IT security support consultants can assist your business to design, implement and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in networks that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage appropriate access rights to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older firewall devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for At-Home WorkersOnline Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices used by at-home workers and either block or spot and mitigate the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the targeted endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized for this added form of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for a network that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run online, automated security inventory software for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security experts with top certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your operations and policies and assess your network architecture to enable 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 work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time in the event of storage problems resulting from hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick remote help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help your business to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding corporate information by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share information, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and erase sensitive data from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For details about Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the devices of your at-home workers, see Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified MDM product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter solution for your Charleston, South Carolina business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.