Remote Network Support for

Fast Phone Troubleshooting for Grand Rapids Small Office Networks
For small businesses in Grand Rapids or anywhere in Michigan, Progent offers online support for computer systems powered by Microsoft Windows, Cisco, Mac OS X, or Linux platforms. Progent's Microsoft qualified engineers have delivered remote troubleshooting to businesses in all 50 states in the U.S. (Check out testimonials from Progent's clients.) In addition, Progent can furnish the consultation services of Cisco CCIE network specialists to handle challenging infrastructure problems, as well as the services of CISSP-certified security consultants to handle advanced security design and diagnostic issues.

Progent's remote technical support experts offer exceptional value because they possess the real-world background and are equipped with the sophisticated technology necessary to resolve most information system issues quickly. Efficient support reduces direct costs since service calls require fewer billable consulting minutes. Online help also eliminates the cost of dispatching a consultant to your site. Your company benefits additionally in indirect expenses by minimizing or eliminating network outages and associated losses stemming from business discontinuity, upset customers and vendors, idle employees, and de-focused executives.

Progent's billing model for remote support is structured to leverage your IT service investment. Progent bills by the minute for telephone-based assistance, so you pay exclusively for the services that you receive. In contrast to many remote support firms, Progent imposes no initialization charge or minimum payments. Progent's per-minute billing unit and simple model for pricing eliminate situations where fast solutions somehow end up as major tabs. Progent's penchant for solving problems quickly translates into your business saving cash.

Progent's Online Support Tools
Over the years, Progent has developed a collection of optimized tools and field-tested methodologies that ensure the maximum degree of effectiveness for remote technical support and troubleshooting for small business computer systems. Progent offers safe Virtual Private Network support for VPN gateways from multiple popular companies including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Sonicwall and Watchguard. Protected VPN access enables the engineers of Progent's remote service group to communicate with your company's environment without violating corporate security.

Progent's proven customer support database system stores thorough documentation of all support that Progent's customers have been provided. Progent's authorized engineers have the benefit of the specifics of all help delivered to each Progent client by any consultant. This archive of trouble tickets and repairs is stored as a conveniently exploitable proprietary knowledge base that allows Progent's online support experts to communicate their knowledge company-wide to make sure that the effectiveness of Progent's support improves daily. Progent's advanced certifications and formal relationships with important vendors including Cisco and Microsoft open up additional extensive technical knowledge bases and permit fast access to vendors' internal engineering staff so Progent's online consulting experts can find optimal solutions quickly.

Online support services Offered by Progent to customers in Grand Rapids and anywhere in the state of Michigan include:

• Certified Microsoft Windows Experts
  Progent's Microsoft-certified online support professionals can provide computer system repair and consulting assistance for all Microsoft server platforms. Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and can provide your organization the expertise of support professionals who can assist your company with a broad variety of platform support including Windows Server 2012 migration and integration consulting, Windows Server 2008 R2 installation, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 deployment, SharePoint Server application development, Lync 2010 integration and Office Communications Server upgrade, Forefront TMG administration and ISA Server migration, SQL Server 2008 development and SQL Server 2012 upgrades, Systems Center Operations Manager monitoring, Project Server training, and SBS Server consulting.

  Progent also offers a wide range of affordable PC desktop support services to help you business to install, configure, repair, and administer desktop PCs and notebooks powered by Windows. Progent's PC desktop support includes helping your company to upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 smoothly, configure 64-bit desktop applications, or integrate Microsoft Office 2010.

• Talk to a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) for High-level Network Troubleshooting
  The Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert certification is the highest recognition for network professionals, and validates a consultant's network technology knowledge at the expert level. Cisco CCIEs can resolve even the most difficult challenges occurring in network planning, integration, administration, security, and repair. Cisco CCIEs operate with the highest priority with Cisco's internal support staff in isolating anomalies with Cisco IOS Software network administration utilities and developing workarounds or identifying program updates. Cisco qualified CCIEs provide excellent cost-effectiveness since their broad experience enables them to resolve problems rapidly. In many instances, less qualified service providers can wrestle for hours or even days with the same tasks that a Cisco-qualified CCIE can fix in minutes.

  Few service firms make CCIEs available to help small and medium sized companies. Progent can provide quick phone access to a CCIE so you can receive timely support for serious network problems that are impacting business efficiency but are outside the comfort zone of your ordinary network maintenance personnel. Progent's Cisco-qualified CCIE engineers can connect to your network via state-of-the-art remote support tools to provide efficient, safe, and economical analysis and remediation.

• CISM and CISSP Certified System Security Professionals
  Progent's qualified CISSP, ISSAP, and CISM security consultants offer a variety of system protection services to improve the defenses of your Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, or Linux network against attacks or assist you to recuperate quickly after a serious penetration. Security services available from Progent cover comprehensive security analysis utilizing utilities such as GFI LANguard NSS, EEYE Vulnerability Scanner, and software from Solar Winds tools and Nikto; quick recovery from virus and worm assaults; setting up firewalls; designing safe mechanisms for remote and mobile communication; protecting your messaging infrastructure against viruses, spam and directory harvest attacks; and managing 24x7 network monitoring.

• UNIX, Linux, Solaris, and Apple Mac OS X Support Services
  Progent's UNIX/Linux, Sun Solaris, and Mac OS X phone-based support services cover a wide array of information technologies such as system architecture, email systems, network and operational security, UNIX/Linux and Windows coexistence, VMware and Citrix virtualization technologies for server hardware economization and easy administration, and migration from older systems to Windows or Linux-based environments. Progent's team-oriented approach to solving network problems enables fast escalation, when required, to consultants with task-relevant expertise to handle challenging scenarios. This accelerates repair of urgent problems, reduces lost productivity, and cuts service expense.

  Important Linux variants for which Progent can provide expert support include:
  — RedHat
  — SUSE Linux
  — Debian GNU/Linux
  — Slackware
  

Special Support Programs Available from Progent
Progent can provide the services of seasoned remote consulting professionals for contract IT projects that small businesses often request. Billing charges for ongoing consulting projects are set based on the level of expertise of the engineers involved. Progent's background in these important fields of information technology allows clients to execute major projects within budget and on schedule. Progent's special online engineering services include:

• Help Desk Expertise
  Progent's Call Center service offerings for small businesses with environments based on Microsoft Windows, Cisco Systems, Mac OS X, or UNIX/Linux technology include comprehensive Call Center outsourcing, virtual Helpdesk services, and Helpdesk process consulting. Progent's Call Center outsourcing services are a convenient solution for smaller businesses who don't have the money or time to assemble and manage an internal Call Center but who need fast communication with an effective Help Desk Call Center with professional phone assistance plus the technical depth to escalate the most challenging trouble tickets to high-level engineers.

  Progent's Call Center consulting support can support you in establishing an efficient new Help Desk Call Center or enhancing your existing organization, selecting or modifying Help Desk application software to meet the particular demands of your corporation, or adding occasional online staff to supplement your in-house Help Desk Call Center resources to deal with high-demand events like software migrations, major upgrades, or installing new business software.

  Progent's Help Desk Call Center team of seasoned network professionals gives your clients in Grand Rapids or anywhere in the state of Michigan fast communication with a reliable network service resource with extensive background providing telephone-based consulting and remote repair service for IT systems powered by Microsoft, Cisco, Apple Mac, UNIX, or Linux products. Progent's charter is to earn the Help Desk Call Center the reputation as a crucial enabler of business success, and Progent's policy is to resolve instead of merely track IT issues.

• Applications Services: Training, Custom Programming, and Problem Solving
  Progent's Applications Experts Group offers online professional engineering expertise and training in special business application areas such as Enterprise Requirements Planning, MRP, custom financial systems, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Progent also can deliver consulting expertise, programming, and education for popular Microsoft business applications including CRM, Microsoft Project, MS Word, and MS Excel. For more information on Progent's expertise, customization, and education services, see Progent's Applications Experts Group.

  Online Network Monitoring Services
  Progent offers companies in Grand Rapids, or anywhere in the state of Michigan, remote network and server monitoring support centered around Microsoft Operations Manager 2007, adapted by Progent to fit your environment so your IT support is proactive rather than reactive. By exposing possible issues before they cause network outages, proactive monitoring can head off stressful and costly service failures. Progent can also utilize system monitoring utilities like Nagios and MRTG to diagnose UNIX, Linux, Solaris, or Apple Mac environments, Microsoft systems, or environments powered by a variety of operating systems.

How Your Grand Rapids Company Can Contact Progent's Online Service Experts
To contact Progent about urgent online expertise with Windows, Apple Mac, or Linux environments, visit Progent's Urgent Phone-Based Support, call 1-800-993-9400, or send email to information@progent.com. For small offices and new ventures in Grand Rapids or anywhere in the state of Michigan, Progent's phone-based network support engineers are ready to provide effective and affordable system support whenever your business requires it. Long experience providing remote repair services has led to Microsoft Gold Partner status for Progent's consulting experts and has enabled Progent to develop world-class troubleshooting skills and to refine online access technology to solve computer problems rapidly while eliminating the expense and lost productivity that comes with on-site support calls.

Even if your Grand Rapids small business works with a local freelance support technician or maintains an in-house organization that know how to deal with the majority of computer problems, Progent’s Microsoft and Cisco certified consultants can provide an easy and transparent virtual expansion of your local resources in cases when your regular service personnel either lack the bandwidth or the experience to handle unexpected system crises or especially tough integration projects.

Advantages of Progent's Network Help for Small Businesses in Grand Rapids
Progent's remote support services allow your Grand Rapids small business to experience the benefits of on-call, enterprise-grade IT support without the cost of maintaining a full-time IT organization. Your network will derive greater strategic worth by becoming more reliable, efficient, and secure. Advantages to your business include:

• Seamless remote expansion of your local support resources
  With most small businesses in Grand Rapids and throughout Michigan, nearby computer service providers, whether represented by outside consultants or an in-house IT staff, can take care of the majority of technical problems. On the other hand, serious problems can spring up when local resources are overstretched or absent, and some trouble may be associated with technology that is beyond the scope of your onsite support technicians. In these instances, Progent's online service experts provide a convenient, fast, and affordable solution to augment your local resources and to transfer useful knowledge to increase your ability to handle future issues in-house.

• Reduced Dependence on Individual Service Providers
  For network support, small companies often depend on individual freelance service providers. While freelance service people have less overhead than larger support organizations and can afford to charge marginally less, they are sometimes overextended, making it difficult to respond rapidly to crisis situations. If an independent consultant is busy with another customer, ill, on vacation, or in class, the absence of fallback help may force your company to go without assistance during an IT crisis. As your small business grows, system downtime and problems with critical applications are more costly. The budget you thought you were saving on a freelancer can be consumed fast by lost productivity. Progent provides an on-call source of reserve support experts to insure your network stays up and running.

• Create a Solid Basis for Smooth Expansion
  Small companies typically begin with an information system implemented on a shoestring budget. Lacking a proper framework, band-aid fixes can get piled onto a shaky foundation. As a company grows, stability and expandability issues can hinder the success of the business. Such poorly designed environments require careful assessment, intelligent long-term planning, and extensive technical expertise to upgrade to a system infrastructure that can offer the stable foundation to meet critical business demands and ease downstream expansion.

• Interact with Solution Providers Instead of Technology Resellers
  Small businesses need guidance and technical training to negotiate an ever more complicated maze of technology alternatives capable of promoting business success and enhancing productivity. Businesses hardly need a computer engineer who is motivated to resell a specific vendor's technology. Network support and product selling can lead to a situation where the recommended solution is designed around a profitable technology instead of the genuine needs of a client. Progent avoids these conflicts by offering only services rather than products. This enables Progent to align technical consulting with the best interests of customers.

How Is Progent Unique from Other Service Firms?
Progent is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner support firm and Progent's staff size, breadth of IT background, refined remote support software, and understanding of enterprise networking enable small companies to avoid the limitations of exclusive reliance on smaller consulting organizations, individual freelance consultants, or over-stretched internal IT help.

Progent stands out by offering:

• Certified Expertise in Microsoft's Full Family of Server Platforms
  Progent can provide world-class expertise for Microsoft’s leading server products with services that include Windows Server 2012 planning and deployment support, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 migration, Windows 2003 Server upgrades, Microsoft Windows 2000 upgrades, Exchange 2010 Server support, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2003 migration, plus Microsoft SQL Server 2008 programming and SQL Server 2012 upgrades.

• Value Pricing
  Progent's pricing model is to bill for online service and on-premise visits by the minute. Consequently, you owe only for delivered support. Progent does not demand a higher rate for after-hours or emergency service, and within California or in areas where Progent offers on-site support, Progent does not charge for travel except for emergency support where on-site work is less than four hours. Also, Progent imposes no initialization charge and asks no retainer for support services provided during normal working hours. Many service firms impose substantial minimum payments or charge for each quarter hour or longer. Progent's small granularity avoids big bills for fast fixes so you won't be tempted to permit minor problems to stay unaddressed.

• Complete Records of IT Services
  Progent has developed a comprehensive service reporting system that stores and formats complete documentation for all delivered services. Unlike many freelance consultants or small service organizations who offer minimal documentation or details of services done, each service delivered by Progent is tracked by full documentation. Each Progent consultant has access to the support reports sent by each consultant to every customer. The discipline of detailing and organizing service records allows more effective support and avoids a variety of common misfortunes such as when a support customer is virtually held captive to a consultant who refuses to release vital service information.

• Automated Server Monitoring with MS Operations Manager 2007
  Progent is one of the only consulting companies to offer 24x7 remote tracking services powered by MS Operations Manager. MS System Center Operations Manager allows your network maintenance to be anticipatory instead of reactive. By anticipating possible issues before they cause downtime, system monitoring can keep your information network from stressful and costly service losses.

How Does My Business Begin Getting Remote Network Help from Progent?
To initiate Progent's online help offerings or to learn more about Progent's phone support options, contact Progent at 1-866-PROGENT (866-776-4368) or email Progent at information@progent.com. If you have an urgent requirement for network help, go to Immediate Urgent Support.