Network Support for Small Companies

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your company to select the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help you to with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting environment by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure required to support a remote work environment can be particularly complex if you have to manage a mix of personal hardware such as PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated as well as modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to establish a secure tunnel for authorized remote employees to access IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers more control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for setting up routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting families and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security issues. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration help.
• Internet access methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital processes might demand backup Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying ISPs, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

VoIP Solutions for Remote Workers
Expanding the business phone environment to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by SMBs to server telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or maintain a remote IP voice service that provides the versatility, convenience and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist organizations tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, visit Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with users working outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors enable virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your existing conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for other IP video 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 portal for conversations, contacts, and content with features that include voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can assist businesses to deploy these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workforce.

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 deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven access to content, workflow, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that allows at-home workforce to see and update consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint configuration 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows home workers to co-edit documents. Edits created offline are uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to build, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that include internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve issues with cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help 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 restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's support services for Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and affordable remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to assess the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting 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 suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed assistance to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network model so your employees have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular suite of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Services for Teleworkers
A sudden, company-wide transition to a from-home business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as part of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even the most efficient internal Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive network of remote technical support experts along with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial service requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or update the status of their current tickets, enter details, and append screenshots or relevant files. Support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows your company to supplement your existing Help Desk team by splitting delivery of Call Desk support transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and generating management reports. To find out how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers commonly utilize their own devices and often work in an unsecured physical space. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires careful deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security support experts can assist your business to plan, configure and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital information resources in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration services, refer to firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices used by at-home workers and either block or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify new attacks at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this added form of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of external and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by network security experts with top credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical things to focus on for securing an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves saving and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system failures due to hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for remote workers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning specialists can help you to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting corporate data by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune mobile endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home environment, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.