Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a significant impact on IT infrastructure, security, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of background helping SMBs to design, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Miami company to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in building and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed guidance for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Miami, Florida businesses to with any aspect of creating a high-performing work-at-home environment by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be particularly complicated if you must manage a mix of personal equipment like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated as well as modern IT products in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to establish a safe connection for authorized at-home employees to use IT resources situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow a teleworker to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers more control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for deploying home routers from a variety of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wireless networks, typically supporting families and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as security problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration help.
  • Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Vital applications may demand backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting Internet service providers, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume packages, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the business PBX environment to accommodate telecommuters is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, 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 IP voice systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. CUCM manages other combined media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to CUCM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad range of video conferencing products from leading vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your at-home employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to set up and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for additional 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 portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features such as voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging services for these products and help your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

SharePoint Server Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that enables at-home workforce to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and development consulting.

Exchange Deployment 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 details about Progent's Exchange support services, refer to planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

Onedrive Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely via a web browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote employees to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are synced when you go back online. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced online support for helping businesses to build, manage and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration Services for TeleworkersMicrosoft Azure is a popular platform for public cloud services that enables you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected connections to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

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 by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help you to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to get you through tough technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for At-Home WorkersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a leading collection of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist your business to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and track your GCP environment. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Support Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to check or update their active trouble tickets, add details, and append screenshots or relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced problems. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables your company to supplement your current Help Desk Call Center organization by splitting responsibilities for Call Desk support transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Desk service is based on a collective support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, see Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
At-home staff members typically utilize their personal computing devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security support consultants can assist your business to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information resources in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to build a network that can be safely utilized by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and control appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and legacy security appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring for TeleworkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers utilized by at-home workers and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo authentication services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this second form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go 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 information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for a network that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory software for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your processes and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware issues, software glitches, user mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate scenarios that call for a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can help your business to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share information, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, go to Intune remote device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management product that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Miami, Florida business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.