Help Desk Consulting and Support

Progent's Shared Help Desk Service
Progent's Shared Help Desk service is designed for businesses with between 50 and 500 end users and allows your IT organization to split responsibilities for Help Desk services transparently between your in-house IT staff and Progent's nationwide pool of technical support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk service is a collaborative support solution based on ConnectWise Manage, the leading shared Professional Services Automation (PSA) tool for managing IT service requests, ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating management reports. The typical cost of Level 1 support for Progent's Shared Help Desk service averages less than $18 per user per month.

Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services provide a seamless extension of your corporate IT support organization. Client access to the Help Desk, delivery of support, problem escalation, ticket generation and tracking, performance metrics, and maintenance of the support database are consistent regardless of whether incidents are resolved by your in-house resources, Progent, or both. All end-user service requests are triaged as Level 1, 2 or 3 incidents. Progent focuses on whatever service level or levels you specify (typically Level 1 and Level 3). Initial service requests are assigned either to your in-house support group or to Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC), based on your preferences.

Level 2 or 3 tickets can be escalated to Progent's Experts Team of subject matter experts (SMEs). The assignment process is transparent to your end users. You have complete flexibility to expand or shrink your share of support work as circumstances require. Progent provides initial deployment and onboarding of the PSA software as well as documentation, testing and training.

Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC)
Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) has been providing online technical support for two decades and has active clients in every state in the U.S. (see Progent's customer testimonials.) The TRC provides the pool of seasoned desktop engineers who can handle Level 1 trouble tickets, which make up the bulk of Help Desk service requests. The TRC, like Progent's Experts Team, uses the ConnectWise Manage PSA software platform to handle ticketing, tracking progress, ownership, escalation and reporting. This prevents problems from falling through the cracks and gives clients clear visibility of all services delivered. The TRC is committed to a 90% live-answer rate and allows Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services to offer a 60-minute SLA. Standard support hours are 5am to 7pm PST, five days a week. Extended hours support and onsite service are available at extra cost. To learn more about the TRC, refer to TRC Customer Commitment.

Service Levels
Progent offers three levels of remote support, which correspond to industry standard Tier 1 through Tier 3 support. You can choose which support levels will be handled or shared by Progent or by your in-house resources. The depth and technical breadth of Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) allows fast and effective escalation and makes it possible to rely on Progent as a one-stop source for most IT issues. In addition, Progent's practice of knowledge transfer allows key support issues to migrate from higher to lower Tiers as solution workflows become documented and standardized so they can be handled by less skilled and lower cost support personnel.

Service levels are defined as:

• Level 1 Support: Filters Help Desk calls and provides basic support and troubleshooting, such as password resets, printer configurations, break/fix instructions, ticket routing and escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support. A Level 1 tech gathers and analyzes information about the user's issue and determines the best way to resolve the problem. Level 1 may also provide support for identified Level 2 and Level 3 issues where configuration solutions have already been documented.
• Level 2 Support: Generally handles break/fix, configuration issues, troubleshooting, software installations, hardware repair including in-house repair or coordinating depot services. They deal with escalated issues that Level 1 support is not equipped to handle. Level 2 will sometimes escalate to Level 3, depending on the issue and the way the Help Desk operates.
• Level 3 Support: Troubleshooting, configuration, database administration, and repair for server, network, Data Center, email, file shares, and other infrastructure issues. Besides always having the ability to deploy solutions to new problems, a Level 3 engineer usually has the most expertise.

This sample implementation of Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service has a four-phase ticket lifecycle:

1. Your employees enter requests through the online service portal, a dedicated phone number, or simply by sending an email to a specific mailbox. This automatically becomes an open request in the ticket system.
2. Progent receives the ticket request and determines if it will be serviced or escalated to your service desk.
3. Your service desk receives the ticket request and determines the best method to service the issue. If needed, your service desk can escalate the ticket back to Progent for assignment to Progent's Experts Team.
4. Progent receives the updated ticket request, identifies the most appropriate SME from the Experts Team, and assigns the SME to work with your IT staff until the issue is resolved or closed.

Highlights of Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services
Key features of Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services are:

• Pooled desktop support from Progent's TRC engineers
• Desktop support available 5 days a week, 5am-7pm PST, 60 Minute SLA
• Discounted hourly rate with one-minute granularity for Level 1 desktop support for end users
• Average cost of Level 1 support is around $18/month/user
• Level 2 and Level 3 support from Progent SME available on request at Progent's normal consulting rates
• De-escalation allows issues that initially require Level 2 or Level 3 support to move to a lower, less expensive Tier after procedures are documented
• StreamlineIT, installed within your internal IT department, provides a full version of ConnectWise Manage with multi-tenant security

• Available only in USA and US territories locations
• One-time setup fee based on complexity of the deployment
• Live Answer of incoming service requests to Progent TRC with a goal of 90% Live Answer of all calls
• After determining if server or networking support is required, some calls will be passed to Level 2 or Level 3 support
• All support requiring Level 2 or Level 3 service will be worked on by Progent after receiving client approval
• 1 hour SLA for Level 1 desktop support in most cases
• Level 1 Support is for end users and applies to Windows-based systems and Apple systems
• Progent Level 2 or Level 3 support will be provided at regular hourly consulting rates
• Progent will provide resources - TRC desktop engineers daily, Level 2 and 3 as needed
• Progent will provide a phone number and email mailbox for incoming service requests
• Free Remote Control agent with screen sharing for support
• ProSight IT Asset Management services for network documentation management is included
• All Level 1 remote support is billed at a discounted desktop hourly rate with one-minute granularity
• All Level 1 support will be done remotely, no onsite included
• All onsite work will be invoiced at regular hourly consulting rates
• All onsite support will have an additional fixed charge plus any specific travel costs
• All travel cost estimates will be provided and need client approval before work or travel will be performed
• Projects and separate Statements of Work (SoWs) will have their own estimates and costs outlined and will be performed only after approval by client

Initial Setup

• Create your custom Help Desk experience, including your team, locations, and user information
• Progent will work closely with your team to review current incoming service requests
• Setup your incoming service request system to include email, software agents, and dedicated phone number

• Progent provides ticket management training for your support team
• Jointly create basic workflow and escalation processes
• Add all your teams and resources that will provide support
• Create the announcement message and promotion of the new Help Desk solution
• Select a specific location or small groups to onboard first
• Bring additional groups of users into the system at determined intervals

• Review reports and system configuration for proper information and workflow
• Add additional reports or fields needed to better identify or track common issues
• Identify missing information that could allow a higher resolution rate for Level 1 service requests

• All users have been introduced to the support system and can access it
• All required user and equipment information is populated in the system
• You can transfer and manage tickets smoothly between your support team and Progent
• You can view daily, weekly and monthly support performance

• Retain complete control over your IT service issues: you decide what tickets are escalated to Progent's service desk.
• Immediate access to supplemental IT service experts when you need them: Progent's PSA software automatically routes internal tickets or lets you manually escalate to Progent.
• Efficiency: Progent's team will review your current incoming service requests and identify missing information that would allow a higher resolution rate for common Level 1 issues. Progent can also help you with tag creation to speed up solutions.
• Transparency: Progent's Co-managed Help Desk services are a seamless virtual extension of your in-house service desk with unified ticketing and reporting so nothing falls through the cracks.
• Happy employees: End users have the ability to track the progress and status of their IT requests quickly and easily.
• Management insight: You have the metrics, accountability, and activity reporting of a modern PSA platform to help you build a custom service desk experience that delivers maximum business value.
• Focus on your core business, not IT requests and unhappy end-users: Your IT resources avoid being bogged down trying to manage common service requests.

Download Progent's White Paper: Is Co-managed IT a Good Idea?
Though having a self-sufficient in-house IT team can prove expensive from a cost perspective, many businesses prefer this approach because it offers them greater control over their IT. But did you know that you can still leverage the benefits of a managed services provider using the co-managed IT service model. This model enables you to retain control over your IT infrastructure while augmenting your in-house IT team easily and affordably.

To download our white paper explaining the benefits of co-managed IT services, click:
Is co-managed IT a good idea? (PDF - 632 KB)

Download Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services Datasheet
To download a single-page datasheet in PDF format describing Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services, click:
Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Services Datasheet. (PDF - 108 KB)

Optional Services
Progent has developed the ProSight family of remote monitoring and management (RMM) services to automate critical processes associated with network administration, security and maintenance. Any of these services can be integrated with Progent's Standard Help Desk Services by installing agent software on computers to be monitored and managed. Alerts generated by these agents can be routed automatically to Progent's TRC group, processed through the ticketing and tracking system, and triaged for Level 1, 2 or 3 support.

Examples of ProSight RMM services include:

• ProSight Email Guard: Email Content Filtering, Spam Blocking and Data Leakage Protection:
  ProSight Email Guard combines on-premises security gateway hardware with cloud infrastructure from world-class providers to create a pass-through service which routes all your email to secure data centers where email and attachments are screened using modern heuristic analysis. Clean email is forwarded instantly to your local gateway for deep analysis, and suspicious email is either tagged and delivered or quarantined for review. Progent can help you set up ProSight Email Guard for Microsoft Exchange or any other email system and show you how to manage your email security from the cloud. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Email Guard Spam and Virus Filtering.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Behavior-based Threat Analysis and Ransomware Protection:
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ProSight ASM), powered by SentinelOne behavior-based machine learning, provides endpoint and server protection from modern malware attacks such as ransomware, which can easily evade legacy, signature-based anti-virus defenses. ProSight ASM gives small and mid-sized organizations low-cost access to the same SentinelOne threat protection platform used by leading enterprises including Walmart, Netflix, Visa, Citi, NASDAQ, Salesforce and others. ProSight ASM can protect both local and cloud-based resources. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery:
  ProSight Data Protection Services offer small and midsized businesses a low-cost, fully managed service for secure backup/disaster recovery (BDR). ProSight DPS automates and monitors your backup processes and enables fast restoration of critical files, folders, apps, system images, plus Hyper-V and VMware images. ProSight DPS helps you recover from hardware failures, disasters, malware like ransomware, human error, or software bugs. Bare Metal Restore (BMR) lets you restore like or dissimilar hardware, and you can use point-in-time restores. Data can be backed up to the cloud, a local device, or mirrored to both. To find out more, see ProSight Data Protection Services managed backup and disaster recovery.