Network Help for Mid-size Companies

Microsoft and Cisco Consulting Best Practices
Progent's staff of Microsoft and Cisco Premier consultants average more than a decade of real-world professional background, at the front lines of IT support, performing a wide range of technical projects for a large mix of businesses. Each Progent support professional shares a proven collection of best practices which are combined into shared best practices standards that Progent teaches its consulting staff. This guarantees that you get not just expert IT help, but also a consultant with field-tested methods for applying technical knowledge to fix actual IT problems efficiently.

Features and benefits of Progent's best practices include:

• Individual Professionals
  Progent's team of network consultants is composed of some the most accomplished Microsoft and Cisco professionals in the industry. Averaging more than a decade of professional experience per engineer, Progent's Microsoft and Cisco Premier experts bring a tested set of methodologies for resolving network problems, managing projects, and delivering consulting services. The technical scope of Progent's support staff allows Progent to provide your company a consultant with task-relevant skills and an efficient technique for delivering quick and inexpensive IT solutions.

• Reliance on Teamwork
  When required, Progent relies on a team approach to solving the most difficult technical problems. By aggregating hundreds of person-years of experience from Progent's Microsoft and Cisco Premier Certified professionals, Progent can quickly and cost-effectively solve even the most challenging issues. Working with hundreds of customers and performing thousands of complex deployment and integration projects every year gives Progent a unique perspective on which techiques succeed and which ones do not. Subtle software interactions are a minefield for even the most skilled consultants unless they bring a long and diverse background in real-world experience with a broad range of technologies.

• Corporate-wide Policies for Best Practices
  Progent has used the aggregate background of its senior consulting personnel to develop an in-house, company-wide set of methodologies designed to promote timely, cost-effective resolutions of technical problems and to track and maximize customer satisfaction. These methodologies include a powerful focus on client communication and support recording. Progent's Founder and CEO, Les Kent, has a 35-year background of successful technology consulting, corporate management, sales and marketing, and administration. Progent's company-wide best practices are strongly influenced by Mr. Kent's experiences developing challenging information technology solutions while acting as a system architect, program developer, project manager, implementation expert and diagnostic engineer.

• Continuing Professional Education
  As an authorized partner with Microsoft and Cisco, Progent ensures that staff consultants participate in continued product and methodology training that includes important information and procedures for technology integration that have been developed from the practice of thousands of computer professionals worldwide. This results in continually more efficient delivery of services to Progent's clients.

• Internal Database of Problems and Proven Solutions
  Progent's advanced service documentation system provides comprehensive documentation for all provided support. Every Progent staff consultant has complete availability of the details of services provided by any consultant to every client. This database of problems and resolutions, as well as false alarms and miscues, is organized as an easily searchable internal database that enables Progent's consultants to communicate their experiences company-wide to ensure that the general effectiveness of Progent's consulting services expands over time. This support history also reduces your dependence on an individual engineer by making it possible for any Progent consultant to pick up where another left off while minimizing hours wasting getting ramped up on your network setup. An additional benefit of Progent's support documentation database is that your company can more easily take on IT support services in house if it appears cost-effective to do so, or you can migrate to a different consulting firm if you become dissatisfied with Progent's support.

• Microsoft Solutions Framework Project Methodology
  For major initiatives, Progent engineers use the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) methodology for providing support. Microsoft Solutions Framework divides projects into discrete and manageable phases that minimize the risk of a project getting out of control. Each phase builds a strong foundation for the completion of later phases. Planning and integration issues are defined early in the project cycle so problems can be pi pointed and dealt with before customer workflow is disrupted. This also keeps costs from skyrocketing because of unexpected problems during major roll outs. All project components are documented to create a detailed database of technical services delivered and to help in continuing system support.

• Access to External Support Databases
  As authorized support associates of Microsoft and Cisco, Progent has access to the world's largest information technology knowledge bases and resource pool. Among the most powerful support knowledge bases accessible by Progent's consultants are the industry best practices incorporated into the various Management Packs published by Microsoft and third parties for use in conjunction with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, the proactive server monitoring platform used as the foundation of Progent's special IT outsourcing packages. Management Packs contain specially built scripted rules that will respond to events, thresholds, and warnings monitored by Microsoft Operations Manager. MPs can also give expert suggestions on how to handle certain problems by automatically finding relevant technical notes from the extensive Microsoft support database.