Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of background assisting SMBs to design, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Niterói company to select the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and returns top value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand expertise for helping you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Niterói, Rio de Janeiro organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online help for both legacy as well as modern technologies in remote 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 updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to create a secure connection for authorized remote employees to access IT assets situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a teleworker to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online support for deploying home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point setup assistance.
  • Internet access solutions impact the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes might require redundant Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for identifying ISPs, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating high-availability Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the corporate phone environment to include remote users is critical to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice solutions. Progent can help businesses of any size to plan or tune a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers advanced IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports other combined media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see CUCM expertise.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver online deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 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 online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate 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 video conferencing 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 such as IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can assist your company to deploy these flagship 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 Solutions Consultants for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build protected web portals that allows remote workers to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration and development consulting.

Exchange Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersExchange 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 find out about Progent's Exchange support services, see deployment consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Experts for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely through a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote support for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft Azure is a popular platform for public cloud services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than one hundred cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Azure, see Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud Platform is a leading collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be motivated by an epidemic or as a component of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for organizations to outsource or augment their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote IT support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC support from service requests through ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to check or revise their current trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers the option of rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with complex problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Help Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center services seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's extensive pool of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service uses a co-sourcing support model utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class desktop support to your from-home workers, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
At-home employees typically utilize their own computers and often operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist your business to design, deploy and manage an effective security solution that protects vital IT assets in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support services, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management Services for TeleworkersOnline Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks like 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 using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the infected device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, rank, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment services based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about key areas to focus on for securing a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital data in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures due to equipment issues, software glitches, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must cover multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote help from consultants familiar with a wide array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly envision circumstances that call for a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for safeguarding critical information by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how telecommuters share information, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and wipe sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your teleworkers, see Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter environment for your Niterói, Rio de Janeiro business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.