Windows 7 Planning In a keynote speech at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer introduced the beta availability of the Windows 7 operating system. The next edition of Windows was offered temporarily for testing at select Microsoft sites. During the presentation, CEO Balmer demonstrated new features and important enhancements incorporated into the new OS and driven by market feedback. Aspects addressed by Windows 7, said Balmer, cover performance, protection, dependability, functionality, extended battery life, and ease of use. In each of these categories, Windows 7 offers dramatic advantages.

Microsoft Windows 7 includes faster startup, shut down, and resumption from sleep mode; no-hassle LAN configuration and file and printer access; centralized device administration; plus advanced multitouch technology. To view Microsoft's press release, refer to Microsoft's Chief Executive Introduces Windows 7

How Progent's Consulting Professionals Can Help Your Company to Assess Microsoft Windows 7
Progent's certified consultants can assist you to pilot the beta version of Windows 7 to confirm application compatibility and to determine its speed and stability working with your applications. Progent can also help you assess the potential business advantages of adopting Windows 7. If Windows 7 fits your business, Progent can assist you to design and implement a non-disruptive upgrade to Microsoft Windows 7 from a an older release of Windows.

Progent's IT professionals offer a variety of other affordable services to enhance the productivity, dependability, protection, speed, and maintainability of IT networks that incorporate workstations based on Windows 7:

PC Desktop Support Services
Progent's Microsoft-certified desktop support consultants offer a wide array of cost-effective services to help your company to deploy, configure, repair, and administer workstations and notebooks based on Windows. Progent can offer on-premises or online help for single machines or laptops or work with your business to plan and implement a large-scale rollout of Windows 7. Progent can also configure Microsoft Office or Microsoft Dynamics business applications on your workstations so they communicate productively with all Microsoft programs, products from third-party vendors, database servers, and line-of-business services network-wide. Progent can also provide engineers and technicians to help you to plan for and complete a site move or merger designed to cause the least possible disruption of your business.

Live Virtual Training for Workstation Programs
Progent provides live virtual learning for an array of desktop programs and environments including Microsoft Excel, Word, Publisher, Project, Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Crystal Reports, and Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. Virtual training provides all the benefits of traditional classroom seminars, such as immediate communication between clients and teachers, but avoids the costs of travel and the challenge of trying to accommodate the availability of many students. Available to individuals or groups of any size, live online learning allows the trainer to conduct the seminar from a remote facility while the students can be dispersed across an office or all over the country. Live online training supports powerful learning mechanisms such as broadcast white boards, real-time questions, and shared applications. Sessions can be short and personalized for specialized topics or extended in time and wider in scope. Instructors and students can work through examples individually or as a class.

64-bit Migration Support for Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows Servers
Windows 7 is available in a 64-bit version that represents a new benchmark for desktop dependability and capacity. However, for the majority of businesses the upgrade to 64-bit processing is problematic due to the need to make a new installation on each workstation. This involves re-installing programs, saving and restoring data, and installing 64-bit device drivers. Although companies in most cases are already using 64-bit hardware, the effort needed to take full advantage of these resources can seem too time-consuming. But because Windows 7 usually calls for a from-scratch install, it represents a good opportunity to move up to 64-bit reliability and performance, which requires little if any additional work. Progent's Microsoft Gold-certified engineers have in-depth experience planning and implementing major, efficient operating system migrations of existing workstations and can help your company get the most out of your IT budget by performing the transition to Microsoft Windows 7 and to 64-bit computing at the same time.

Change Management Automation
Progent's IT management professionals can show you how to set up an information network based around Microsoft Windows 7 workstations that is easy to administer. Progent's consultants have in-depth experience providing small businesses Microsoft SMS Server 2003 consulting to streamline IT management's workload, increase network security, boost productivity by making sure that all application updates are current, police licensing compliance, and monitor patterns of software usage to enable a more efficient purchasing plan. In addition, Progent can assist your company to execute a non-disruptive migration to System Center Configuration Manager from Microsoft SMS Server 2003 for more complete management automation and can assist you to upgrade to Windows Server 2008.

Network Security Inventory and Assessment Packages
Progent's certified security consultants can deliver a selection of budget-friendly network security inventory service packages and enterprise security assessment service bundles designed to offer businesses of all sizes an opportunity to receive an objective look at the quality of their protection profile. The packages vary from a low-cost external scan and evaluation package for small businesses up to a high-level package for enterprises who have to comply with security standards required by state regulators or by vendors. For each security assessment package, engineers with top security credentials evaluate and report on collected information and make recommendations for efficient improvements.

High-availability System Design
Progent’s consulting professionals can help you to configure a fault-tolerant system infrastructure with features that can include Windows Hyper-V failover clustering, auto-failover Internet access, network load balancing, and strategic data centers. Progent provides the expertise of Microsoft and Cisco-Certified consulting professionals who can show you how to benefit from virtualization to enhance fault tolerance. Progent can also show you how to define a complete business continuity plan that incorporates periodic disaster recovery preparedness audits and testing.

Helpdesk Outsourcing and Expertise
Progent is a Microsoft Gold and Cisco Authorized Partner and Progent's online Help Desk services staff of trained technical experts offers your clients convenient access to a reliable support resource with years of background delivering telephone assistance and remote access repair for IT systems based on Microsoft and Cisco products. Progent's concentration is on giving the Call Center a positive image as a key contributor to business performance. Progent's goal is to fix rather than merely report problems. Progent offers full Helpdesk support or transparently supplement your existing Help Desk. Progent can in addition assist your company to select and implement the latest solutions for creating or enhancing your internal Call Center.

For additional information about Progent's support for Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.