Enlarging your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, tune, and debug IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Harrisburg company to select the appropriate tools and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and delivers top business value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Harrisburg, Pennsylvania companies to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy as well as current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to use IT resources located at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a teleworker to see and use a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert remote support for integrating routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and security issues. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these issues by providing services that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration help.
  • Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes may require backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking Internet service providers, selecting appropriate service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the corporate phone system to include remote users is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice service that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services like messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users working outside the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use multiple products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities that include IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging services for these products and assist you to tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for exchanging information throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help your company to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity 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 and Teams Premium Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected web portals that allows remote workers to view and edit aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.

Exchange Integration Experts for At-Home 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. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, visit planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Onedrive Deployment Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can access them safely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows home employees to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's support services for OneDrive, visit Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and troubleshoot integrated network models that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration for TelecommutersAzure is a leading platform for cloud services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers over one hundred cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Azure, visit Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and services are provided in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through challenging IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to ensure your teleworkers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
An emergency, enterprise-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be activated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Support Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists along with world-class ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, modern Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or revise their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex problems. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your current Support Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk services seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one PSA tool for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For information about how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to provide world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their personal computers and usually work in a poorly secured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist you to plan, deploy and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical IT assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage different access rights to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall devices from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, visit firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring for TeleworkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by teleworkers and either block or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured application and give your password you are asked to verify who you are on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your processes and governance policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to implement top-level security for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for Work-from-Home EnpointsHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security profile. Progent can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper about critical things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring critical information so as to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for teleworkers must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular recovery and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies typically anticipate scenarios that call for a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your company to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for safeguarding corporate information by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how telecommuters share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Top features 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 reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Harrisburg, Pennsylvania organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.