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Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a major effect on network architecture, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background helping small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your organization to pick the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns top business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you over challenging IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help you to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk services, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online help for both legacy as well as current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated remote 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 access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert online support for deploying routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Mission-critical applications may require backup Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying ISPs, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote VoIP service that provides the versatility, transparency and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications used across the network. CUCM manages other combined media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help you to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide as-needed deployment and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading vendors support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many companies utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to configure these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-driven access to content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that allows at-home workers to view and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go 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, go to deployment consulting for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely through a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide advanced online support for helping businesses to create, maintain and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, remote workers, branches, and cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve issues with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a popular family of cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected access to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve maximum business value. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to guide you through challenging IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your business to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline identity control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
A sudden, organization-wide changeover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity process, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or augment their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer 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 technical support from service requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or revise the status of their active tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service enables you to expand your current Call Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support transparently between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collective support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class IT support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
At-home employees typically utilize their personal devices and usually work in an unsecured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security solutions experts can help you to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital IT resources in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration services, see firewall configuration and support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers used by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. For details about Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all types of external and local security threats for an environment that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your processes and policies and assess your network architecture to allow you to design top-level security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, prioritize, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical data in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in the event of storage failures due to equipment issues, software hiccups, human mistakes, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for remote workers must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported 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 distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can assist your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting critical data by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, see Intune mobile endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and configuration 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 service or as an on-site deployment via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.