Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Baton Rouge organization to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers top value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed expertise for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Baton Rouge, Louisiana companies to with any facet of building a high-performing remote work ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a combination of personal hardware like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online help for both outdated and current technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers significant control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online support for deploying routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration assistance.
  • Internet access methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Mission-critical processes might require redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for selecting service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating redundant Internet connections. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the corporate phone system to include teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP products are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends advanced telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
  • CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your wide area network architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide range of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing 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 portal for conversations, contacts, and content with features that include video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can help your company to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your at-home 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 Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that allows at-home workforce to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to SharePoint integration and development expertise.

Exchange Integration Consultants 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. For details about Progent's Exchange expertise, visit integration expertise for Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can access them securely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author documents. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote assistance for helping businesses to build, manage and repair cohesive network models that combine internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, and cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected connections to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online Integration Services for At-Home WorkersExchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud Platform is a leading set of cloud 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 extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your critical apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your GCP environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
An emergency, company-wide changeover to a teleworker business model, which could be motivated by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Support Desk services utilize Progent's extensive network of online technical support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests through ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to monitor or edit the status of their current tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. To find out more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your current Help Desk Call Center team by sharing responsibilities for Call Desk services seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a co-sourcing support model utilizing the number one PSA platform for handling service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class technical support to your at-home employees, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
At-home staff members commonly use their own devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user training, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran team of data security support consultants can assist your business to plan, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that protects critical information assets in networks that include at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and manage appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly complex. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration services, refer to firewall integration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring for TeleworkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices utilized by remote workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight agent is installed on every protected endpoint, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect new threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this added means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your procedures and policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your an at-home workforce.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, rank, fix, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to focus on for securing an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital data so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures due to equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must address multiple kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick remote help from experts familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate circumstances that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can help your company to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Baton Rouge, Louisiana organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.