Philadelphia Remote Workforce Connectivity Consulting Experts

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a significant impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Philadelphia company to select the right tools and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand expertise for getting you over occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Philadelphia, Pennsylvania businesses to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote work environment can be particularly complex if you have to accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment like PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a secure connection for authorized at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote consulting for configuring home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can cause throughput and security problems. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by providing services like Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications might require redundant Internet access in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, selecting sensible service bundles, and integrating redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Extending the corporate PBX environment to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help your company 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 VoIP products, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide online integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Office 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and help your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist businesses to tune these flagship collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create secure web portals that permits at-home workforce to see and update consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint integration and development consulting.

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. For information about Progent's Exchange support services, see planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft’s shared cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to jointly author files. Revisions made offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branches, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers fix problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, go to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Office 365, now called Microsoft 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent offers quick and affordable remote access to experts knowledgeable about Office 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Office 365, refer to Microsoft Office 365 integration services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, visit Office 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your key applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist you to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Center. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's extensive team of online IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an affordable, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or revise the status of their current tickets, enter details, and append screen captures or relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced problems. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows you to augment your existing Help Desk Call Center staff by sharing responsibilities for Call Center support services seamlessly between your regular support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collective support solution based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class technical support to your at-home employees, see Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
At-home workers commonly run their personal equipment and work in an unsecured area. This worsens their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for careful use of security appliances, remote endpoint monitoring, and the enforcement of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of certified cybersecurity experts can assist your organization to design, deploy and administer a compliant security solution that safeguards critical data in networks that include an at-home workforce.

• Firewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage appropriate access rights to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, visit firewall support expertise.
• Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate computers used by telecommuters and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even when they are offline. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.
• Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and local security threats for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security experts with top certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your workflows and policies and assess your WAN infrastructure to allow you to implement top-level security for your remote workers.

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical data so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online access to experts familiar with a wide range of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision scenarios that require a temporary switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can assist your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for safeguarding corporate information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, control how telecommuters share data, set up threat protection, verify security compliance, and delete corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For information about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, go to Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM platform that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. 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 perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing a productive telecommuter environment for your Philadelphia, Pennsylvania company, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.