Computer Outsourcing for Medium-size Businesses

Progent's Shared Service Desk
Progent's Shared Help Desk service is intended for businesses with between 50 and 500 users and allows your IT group to divide responsibilities for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house support team and Progent's extensive pool of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Service Desk is a joint IT service solution based on ConnectWise Manage, the leading Professional Services Automation (PSA) tool for administering IT support calls, generating tickets, designating responsibility, monitoring status, and generating management analytics. The cost for Level 1 IT support for Progent's Shared Help Desk service averages below $18 per user per month.

Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a seamless supplement to your core network support resources. Client interaction with the Service Desk, provision of technical assistance, escalation, ticket creation and tracking, efficiency measurement, and management of the service database are cohesive whether incidents are taken care of by your core IT support group, by Progent, or both. All client service calls are triaged as Level 1, 2 or 3 issues. Progent handles whatever support levels you select (usually Level 1 and Level 3). Initial service calls are assigned to your in-house network support organization or to Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC), depending on your requirements. Level 2 or Level 3 issues can be referred to Progent's Experts Team of subject matter experts (SMEs). The escalation procedure is transparent to your end users. You have unrestricted flexibility to extend or reduce your part of IT support work as required. Progent takes care of initial installation and onboarding of the professional services PSA software as well as documentation, validation and training.

Progent's Technical Response Center
Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) has been delivering remote IT assistance for over two decades and has active customers in every state in the U.S. (refer to Progent's client testimonials.) The TRC maintains the pool of veteran desktop technicians who can handle Level 1 trouble tickets, which make up the bulk of Help Desk service requests. The Technical Response Center, like Progent's Experts Team, uses the ConnectWise Manage professional services automation (PSA) software platform to streamline ticketing, tracking progress, responsibility delegation, problem escalation and reporting. This proven solution prevents problems from being overlooked and gives clients clear visibility of all services provided. The TRC targets 90% live answer rate and enables Progent's Co-managed Help Desk program to include a 60-minute service-level agreement. Service hours are 5am to 7pm Pacific Time on normal business days. Extended support times and onsite support are offered at extra cost. To learn more about Progent's TRC, see The TRC Customer Commitment.

Definition of Service Levels
Progent offers three distinct levels of online technical help, which correspond to industry-standard Tier 1 to Tier 3 support. You can define which service levels will be handled wholly or in part by Progent's support team and your in-house staff. The depth and knowledge of Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) enables fast and effective escalation and makes it possible to rely on Progent as a single source for most IT problems at any service level. In addition, Progent's provision of knowledge transfer permits key service problems to move from higher to lower Tiers as solution workflows become recorded and normalized so they can be performed by less skilled and lower-cost service personnel.

Support levels are defined as:

• Level 1 Support: Filters Service Desk requests and provides baseline technical help and debugging, like password resets, printer configurations, break/fix instructions, ticket assignment and promotion 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 service may also provide support for identified Level 2 and Level 3 issues where solutions have already been recorded.
• Level 2 Support: Generally addresses break/fix, configuration issues, troubleshooting, application or OS installations, and hardware repair such as on-premises fixes or orchestrating depot services. Level 2 support deals with promoted problems that Level 1 support is not equipped to handle. Level support can sometimes escalate to Level 3, based on the issue and the manner the Service Desk operates.
• Level 3 Support: Debugging, configuration, DBA, and migrations for server, cloud integration, messaging, collaboration, and various integration issues. Besides possessing the capability to find fixes to new problems, a Level 3 consultant typically has the most experience.

This sample implementation of Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service has a 4-phase ticket lifecycle:

1. Your clients enter requests for support via the browser-based support, a dedicated telephone number, or by sending an email to a dedicated mailbox. This automatically becomes an open request in the ticket system.
2. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) receives the open request and decides if it will be serviced or promoted to your internal Service Desk.
3. Your Help Desk receives the promoted trouble ticket request and decides the proper method to resolve the problem. If needed, your Help Desk can send the open request back to Progent for resolution by Progent's Experts Team.
4. Progent receives the updated trouble ticket request, identifies the best suited subject matter exert from the Experts Team, and assigns the designated SME to work with your IT group until the problem is fixed or closed.

Key Features of Progent's Help Desk Service
Top features of Progent's Shared Help Desk offerings are:

• Pooled Level 1 support from Progent's Technical Response Center team
• Desktop remote support available 5 days a week, 5am-7pm Pacific Time, One-hour SLA
• Discounted hourly rate with one-minute granularity for Tier 1 desktop support for clients
• Average cost of Level 1 support is about $18 per user monthly
• Level 2 and Level 3 help from Progent SME available as an option at Progent's standard consulting fees
• De-escalation permits issues that at first require Level 2 or Level 3 support to migrate to a lower, less expensive Tier once solutions are documented
• StreamlineIT provides a full implementation of ConnectWise Manage PSA software with secure multi-tenant support

• Available only in USA and territories
• One-time startup charge dependent on complexity of the solution
• Live Answer of inbound support requests to Progent Technical Response Center with a goal of 90% Live Answer of all calls
• After deciding whether server or network infrastructure support is needed, some service requests will be passed to Level 2 or 3 support
• All assistance requiring Level 2 or 3 service will be worked on by a Progent consultant pending customer approval
• 1 hour SLA for Level 1 desktop support in most cases
• Level 1 Service is for end users and covers Windows-powered computers and Apple systems
• Progent Level 2 or Level 3 support will be charged at regular hourly consulting rates
• Progent will provide skilled personnel - Technical Response Center desktop specialists during standard hours, Level 2 and Level 3 as needed
• Progent will dedicate a phone number and email mailbox for incoming service calls
• Free Remote Control agent with screen sharing for streamlined technical troubleshooting
• Free ProSight IT Asset Management system for network documentation management
• All Level 1 online service is charged at a special desktop hourly rate with one-minute granularity
• All Level 1 support is done remotely, no onsite work included
• All onsite work will be invoiced at standard consulting rates
• All onsite work will have an additional fixed fee as well as any specific travel expenses
• All travel expense projections will be disclosed and need client approval before work or travel will be performed
• Projects and separate Statements of Work will have their own estimates and fees stated and will be performed only following authorization by client

First Steps

• Create your custom Help Desk environment, including your internal team, locations, and client data
• Progent's consultants will work with your company's service team to review current incoming service requests
• Configure your inbound support request system to include a mailbox, software agents, and a dedicated phone number

• Progent delivers ticket management training for your company's support team
• Work together to define basic workflow and escalation procedures
• Integrate all your groups and resources that will deliver support services
• Develop the roll-out description and promotion of the new Help Desk environment
• Designate a specific location or small clusters of users to onboard initially
• Bring additional groups of users into the solution at determined intervals

• Review reports and system configuration for proper data and workflow
• Add any reports or fields needed to improve the identification or monitoring of common issues
• Identify pivotal information that might enable a higher success rate for Level 1 support calls

• All clients have been introduced to the service desk and can connect to it
• All relevant user and hardware data is entered into the service system
• You are able to transfer and administer tickets smoothly between your internal team and Progent
• You are able to monitor daily, weekly and monthly support performance

• Retain total control of your IT support issues: you decide what trouble tickets are escalated to Progent's support desk or handled by your internal service team.
• Fast availability of additional IT service professionals when you need them: Progent's professional services PSA software automatically distributes internal tickets or permits you manually forward to Progent's Technical Response Center.
• Efficiency: Progent's IT support experts will review your incoming service requests and propose additional information that would allow an improved resolution rate for common desktop requests. Progent's team can also assist you with tag management to speed up solutions.
• Transparency: Progent's Shared Help Desk is a seamless extension of your internal Service Desk with unified ticketing and documentation so no request drops between the cracks.
• Happy workers: End users have the ability to follow the status of their IT service calls rapidly and conveniently.
• Management analytics: You benefit from the metrics, responsibility assignments, and performance reporting of a modern PSA system to help you to create a custom Call Center environment that delivers maximum business value.
• Focus on your strategic business issues, not IT service calls and unhappy users: Your network managers avoid being bogged down handling day-to-day support requests.

Check Out Progent's White Paper: Is Co-managed IT a Good Idea?
Although maintaining a fully-staffed in-house IT services staff can be a burden from the cost standpoint, a lot of organizations prefer that approach because it provides them more flexibility with their IT management. But did you realize that you can still leverage the advantages of a managed IT services provider using the co-managed IT service model. Adopting the shared services model permits your business to keep in command over your IT infrastructure while supplementing your local network support group simply and affordably.

To learn more, see our white paper: Is co-managed IT a good idea? (PDF - 632 KB).

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

Related Services
Progent has packaged the ProSight suite of remote monitoring and management (RMM) services to streamline vital processes related to network administration, cybersecurity and upkeep. Any of these services can be used with Progent's Co-managed Help Desk service by deploying agent software on machines to be tracked and managed. Notifications generated by these agents can be forwarded automatically to Progent's Technical Response Center, processed via the trouble ticket and monitoring platform, and categorized for Level 1, 2 or 3 treatment.

Samples of ProSight RMM services include:

• ProSight Email Guard: Email Content Filtering, Spam Blocking and Data Leakage Defense:
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering service that incorporates the technology of leading data security vendors to deliver web-based management and world-class protection for your email traffic. The hybrid structure of Email Guard managed service integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway device to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-borne malware. Email Guard's cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and blocks most unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This decreases your vulnerability to inbound threats and conserves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway device provides a deeper layer of analysis for inbound email. For outgoing email, the onsite security gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, DLP, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more details, visit Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: AI-based Threat Scanning and Ransomware Defense:
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes cutting edge behavior machine learning tools from SentinelOne to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily get by legacy signature-matching AV tools. ProSight ASM safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to manage the entire threat lifecycle including filtering, detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top features include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware defense with SentinelOne technology.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Cloud-based Backup and Disaster Recovery:
  Progent has partnered with leading backup/restore technology vendors to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of subscription-based offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. All ProSight DPS products automate and monitor your data backup operations and enable transparent backup and rapid recovery of vital files/folders, apps, system images, and virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps you avoid data loss resulting from hardware breakdown, natural calamities, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious employees, or application glitches. Managed services in the ProSight Data Protection portfolio include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro Office 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent expert can assist you to determine which of these fully managed services are best suited for your network.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services:
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management offer organizations of any size a versatile and cost-effective solution for evaluating, validating, scheduling, applying, and documenting updates to your dynamic IT system. In addition to maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT environment, Progent's patch management services permit your IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and activities that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Learn more about Progent's patch management services.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on:
  Progent's Duo MFA managed services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a unit that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized as this second means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.