Philadelphia At Home Workforce Integration Consulting and Support

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT architecture, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Philadelphia company to select the appropriate technologies and follow best practices in building and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand guidance for helping you past challenging IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Philadelphia, Pennsylvania companies to with any facet of building a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be especially complex if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from different manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a teleworker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This gives network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online support for configuring routers from a range of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting an entire household and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Line-of-business processes may demand backup Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting Internet service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and integrating high-availability Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Teleworkers
Extending the business phone system to accommodate teleworkers is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or maintain a remote VoIP service that provides the versatility, convenience and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to help businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see CUCM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and provide on-demand integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for additional Office 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help businesses to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your remote workforce.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to promote collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-based access to data, business processes, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that enables remote workers to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, see integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft’s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to jointly author files. Revisions created offline are uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated network models that include internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix problems with cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Office 365, now called Microsoft 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy remote access to experts familiar with Office 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the various subscription bundles available for Office 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Office 365, go to Office 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Office 365 product product suite. Office 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Office 365 Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Office 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Office 365 Exchange Online, visit Office 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-uptime network model so your employees have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud is a leading collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also help you to use GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be the result of a pandemic or as part of a business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Call Center. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or supplement their Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to monitor or revise their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced problems. To learn more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to expand your current Help Desk Call Center organization by splitting delivery of Help Desk support seamlessly between your in-house support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service uses a collective support model based on the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home workforce, go to Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Telecommuters often use their personal equipment and work in an unsecured area. This worsens their exposure to cyber threats and requires judicious use of security appliances, remote endpoint monitoring, and the enforcement of security policies in compliance with leading practices. Progent's seasoned roster of certified data security professionals can help your organization to plan, deploy and manage a modern cybersecurity environment that protects critical data in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

• Firewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users and by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances permit you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older firewall devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support services, see firewall integration and support expertise.
• Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices utilized by at-home workers and either block or spot and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis to detect new threats at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.
• Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates remote workers. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your processes and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your at-home workers.

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for remote workers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers quick remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can help your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified solution for protecting critical data by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises devices and software. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, visit Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Top features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Philadelphia, Pennsylvania company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.