Computer Support for Small Businesses

Exchange Online is a Microsoft Azure-hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) product available by subscription under the Microsoft 365 banner (previously called Office 365). By allowing you to utilize cloud-hosted servers, mailboxes and other messaging infrastructure, Microsoft 365 Exchange Online can significantly reduce capital outlay and management hassle and is especially attractive for small organizations with minimal IT staffs or in-house technical skills. Migrating to Exchange Online can be relatively straightforward or agonizingly complex, depending on your current email environment and your functional requirements.

In many cases, organizations want to establish a so-called hybrid environment that supports both local and cloud-resident mailboxes. This may be preferred to an all-cloud model in order to comply with regulatory or business standards, bolster security, improve availability, provide more management flexibility, or for other reasons. In addition, best practices often dictate the creation of hybrid configurations as an interim step in migrating smoothly from an on-premises Exchange deployment to Exchange Online. Mail flow, which is the end-to-end path messages travel from sender to recipient, can also add complexity. For example, the use of third-party cloud-based mail filtering services or multifunction office devices that generate and receive emails can impact how you integrate Exchange Online into your email ecosystem.

Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can provide affordable online expertise to help you evaluate the benefits you can expect from Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, design a network architecture that aligns best with your needs and technical capabilities, carry out a non-disruptive migration to Exchange Online from your current email solution, provide training for your management and end users, and deliver as-needed consulting and troubleshooting to keep your Exchange Online system available and productive. Progent has extensive experience setting up hybrid cloud and on-premises Exchange Online solutions, configuring mail flow, defining and validating security strategies, providing disaster recovery planning services, streamlining Exchange management, integrating Exchange Online with Microsoft 365 and other applications, supporting smartphones and other mobile devices, and configuring firewalls, routers, switches and VPN connections for safe and convenient access to cloud and on-premises resources.

Progent's unified communications consultants can also help you work with Microsoft 365's support team to deal with technical problems that originate at your datacenter or at Microsoft's end and Progent specializes in knowledge transfer to your IT staff to help you administer and maintain your messaging solution. Progent has more than two decades of experience providing enterprise-class expertise for organizations with small-business budgets and offers effective and affordable online support as well as onsite help in major metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada (visit Progent's customer testimonials.)

Support for Hybrid Exchange Online and On-premises Exchange Solutions
Even if your small business plans on moving your Exchange infrastructure to the cloud, setting up a temporary hybrid system that includes both on-premises and cloud-based mailboxes is often a critical stage in migrating to Exchange Online without disrupting your operations and losing productivity. Microsoft has steadily developed an increasingly sophisticated and powerful toolset to support hybrid network models and Progent can help you select and use the most efficient mechanisms to carry out your migration. By leveraging the skills of Progent's network architects and Exchange experts you can save time and expense by following leading practices and avoiding costly mistakes and do-overs. Progent can also spare your IT staff the need to master complex technologies that will have only short-term relevance to your business.

How Progent Can Help You Integrate Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
Progent can help you with any stage of migrating to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online for cloud-only or hybrid Exchange deployments. Progent can help you define your goals, assess the readiness of your current resources for migrating to Exchange Online, plan your target architecture and mail flows, develop an efficient migration plan, configure your new Exchange solution, create a centralized management environment, provide comprehensive disaster recovery planning services, create and validate a company-wide security and compliance strategy, integrate Exchange Online with Microsoft 365 collaborative applications, integrate smartphones and other mobile devices with Exchange Online, and provide webinar training for your IT staff and end users. Progent is available for occasional consulting and troubleshooting to guide you past technical bottlenecks or Progent can provide extensive project management services to help you complete your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online migration on schedule and within budget.

Progent offers integration and training for other SaaS applications offered under the Microsoft 365 banner including Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Project Online. These core Microsoft applications can be integrated with one another and with their corresponding desktop versions to build powerful collaboration solutions that span on-premises and cloud-based resources. Progent's Microsoft-certified consulting team can provide in-depth support for all Microsoft server platforms and applications by offering services that include Windows Server consulting, Exchange integration, Microsoft Teams planning and migration, Skype for Business system configuration, SQL Server integration and programming, SharePoint development, Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 integration, Microsoft Project consulting, System Center 2016 consulting services, System Center 2016 Operations Manager setup and support, System Center Configuration Manager consulting, Virtual Machine Manager 2016 hybrid cloud management consulting, Microsoft Intune management, and Microsoft Dynamics GP troubleshooting and development.

Typical tasks performed online by Progent's consultants to help clients create cloud-only or hybrid Microsoft 365 Exchange Online solutions include:

• Create and test a deployment plan and identify migration tools
• Identify on-premises vs. Microsoft 365 users
• Clean folders prior to exporting into Microsoft 365
• Resolve issues with Outlook autodiscover
• Add and verify domain to Microsoft 365 portal
• Change/Add DNS records
• Assign licenses and create Accounts/mailboxes in Microsoft 365
• Export mailboxes to PSTs
• Import PSTs into Microsoft 365 mailboxes
• Perform manual mailbox migrations when necessary
• Move public folders to Microsoft 365
• Move Gmail accounts to Microsoft 365
• Add accounts to iOS, Android and devices
• Set up Exchange Online Archiving
• Configure third-party on-premises or cloud-based spam filter gateways
• Troubleshoot synchronization issues with Active Directory Global Security Groups
• Fix issues with .PST and .OST files
• Design and test mail flow solutions
• Resolve issues with MX and SPF records
• Troubleshoot AD Connect authentication problems
• Work with Microsoft technicians to resolve problems at Microsoft's end (e.g., a corrupted connector)
• Troubleshoot Microsoft 365 Message Encryption issues
• Use PowerShell for management, diagnostics, repair, and migration
• Test and validate services and performance
• Configure firewalls and proxy servers
• Train users and IT support team to manage Exchange Online ecosystem

Additional Cloud Integration Services from Progent
For more than 20 years, Progent's core consulting team has guided small businesses though IT revolutions such as virtualization and, now, public clouds. Progent can help you adopt advanced technologies as they become mainstream, offering budget friendliness and the ability to provide fast return on investment. Progent's cloud integration experts can help you to assess the benefits of various public cloud options and can show you how to create a cloud-based or hybrid IT ecosystem that delivers maximum business value. In addition to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, public cloud offerings supported by Progent include:

Progent can assist small companies to migrate all or part of their network infrastructure to the Microsoft Azure cloud. Azure offers a wealth of cloud services and Progent can help you understand the benefits and restrictions of various cloud computing models supported by Azure. Progent can show you how to manage cloud-based or hybrid cloud and on-premises apps and resources and make sure that you avoid the common mistakes small organizations make when moving to the cloud. Progent can help you set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud storage with Azure Storage, manage authentication with Azure Active Directory, and create backup-and-recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you configure firewalls and VPN connections and to integrate Apple iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. For details about Progent's consulting and troubleshooting support for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure integration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) features a comprehensive catalog of offerings that allow companies of any size to utilize Amazon's cloud-based IT infrastructure. Popular Amazon AWS services include Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2, for hosting virtual servers, Amazon Simple Storage Service, called Amazon S3, for cloud-based storage, and Amazon Glacier for low-cost archival storage. Progent can assist you to plan, configure and manage cloud-centric or hybrid networks that use Amazon AWS services by providing expertise for moving on-premises resources to Amazon AWS, resolving problems associated with connectivity and security, optimizing performance, and setting up management and backup solutions. For additional information about Progent's integration and troubleshooting support for Amazon Web Services, see Amazon AWS integration consulting.

Amazon Marketplace Web Service, known as Amazon MWS, is a comprehensive library of application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable businesses that sell products on Amazon to integrate their in-house applications with Amazon's online sales network. The Amazon MWS API incorporates product listings, customer orders, payments, order fulfillment, and management reporting. By integrating your internal software and processes with Amazon's online retail system, you can extend your customer base, cut operational expenses, respond faster to your customers, increase your sales and improve your bottom line. For more information about Progent's development services for Amazon MWS, see Amazon Marketplace Web Service integration consulting.

Progent's Google Cloud Platform integration experts can provide affordable remote and on-premises support to assist organizations of any size to move any part of their core network infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This can save management hassle and hardware expense and enable the use of Google's state-of-the-art machine learning technology. Progent can assist you with every phase of Google Cloud Platform integration including needs analysis, preparedness evaluation, architectural design, pilot testing, deployment, centralized administration, performance optimization, licensing management, disaster recovery solutions, and security.

Contact Progent for Help Integrating Microsoft 365 Exchange Online
If you need assistance with any facet of integrating Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.