Expanding your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company processes. Progent has two decades of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Cleveland company to pick the appropriate tools and follow best practices in building and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Cleveland, Ohio businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk services, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the network infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a combination of personal hardware like PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing online support for both outdated as well as modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authenticated remote workers to access IT resources located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers more control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
  • Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote support for setting up routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance and security issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by providing expertise like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
  • Internet access solutions affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Mission-critical processes may require backup Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for selecting Internet service providers, choosing appropriate service bundles, and integrating redundant Internet access. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the corporate phone system to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer advanced support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. CUCM supports other combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist you to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, refer to CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your remote workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's support services for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features that include voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see 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 products and help your business to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workers.

SharePoint Server Integration Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that enables at-home workers to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit SharePoint configuration and application development consulting.

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 information about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Integration Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them safely through a browser. Provided with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home workers to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's support services for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent can provide affordable remote support for helping organizations to build, manage and repair cohesive network models that incorporate physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers fix problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of cloud services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure 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 show you how to establish protected access to Azure services for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to guide you through tough technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Integration for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify identity control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your business to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your GCP environment. For information, visit Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
An emergency, company-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which might be activated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive network of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an economical, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from service requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screen captures and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to expand your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Call Desk services transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To find out how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
At-home staff members commonly utilize their personal computers and often work in a poorly secured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires careful deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of data security support consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical information resources in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable you to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and control appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring for TeleworkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers utilized by telecommuters and either reject or identify and respond to modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a unit that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this added form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by security experts with top certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your workflows and policies and assess your IT architecture to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's PEN test platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To view or download a white paper describing key things to concentrate on for securing a network that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage system failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for at-home workers must address multiple types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online help from experts familiar with a broad array of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly envision scenarios that call for a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help you to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized environment for protecting critical information by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, visit Intune mobile endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization 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 service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Cleveland, Ohio business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.