Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of background helping businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Midland company to pick the right tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Midland, Texas organizations to with any facet of building a high-performing work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Call Desk augmentation, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be especially complex if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a safe connection for authorized remote workers to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a teleworker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote support for setting up home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by an entire household and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by providing expertise like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration help.
  • Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications may demand backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for selecting Internet service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and setting up high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business PBX system to include remote users is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, see Cisco CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver on-demand configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video products from Cisco, visit 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 content with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user interface for exchanging information across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can assist businesses to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your remote workforce.

SharePoint Deployment Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create protected portals that enables at-home workforce to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Consultants 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 expertise, visit integration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

Onedrive Configuration Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them safely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide affordable remote support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration for TeleworkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features more than one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a selection of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters to achieve maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for At-Home WorkersExchange Online is among the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to get you through tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for TelecommutersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Integration Services for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To find out, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a from-home business model, which could be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of online IT support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to provide an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from help requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to monitor or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add details, and append screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service enables your company to supplement your existing Help Desk Call Center team by splitting delivery of Call Center services seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a co-sourcing support model based on the leading PSA tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your business to provide world-class technical support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically use their own computing devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive user training, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security support experts can assist you to design, configure and manage a compliant security solution that protects critical IT resources in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by remote workers and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the infected device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo authentication managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to verify your identity on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second means of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all types of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your workflows and policies and review your network architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your remote workers.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To read 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 Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage problems due to hardware issues, software hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must address multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically envision scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can assist your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized platform for protecting corporate data by controlling local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share data, set up threat protection, verify compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, see Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network managers to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your Midland, Texas company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.