Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a major effect on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Beverly Hills company to select the right technologies and follow best practices in building and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed expertise for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Beverly Hills, California businesses to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting environment by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Help Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned equipment like PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote help for both legacy as well as modern technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to use IT resources situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for setting up routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
  • Internet access methods affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting Internet service providers, selecting sensible service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the corporate phone system to include teleworkers is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are used by SMBs to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or maintain a remote IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer advanced support to help businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications used throughout the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver online deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from leading vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, audio 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, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities such as video conferencing, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to tune 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 Integration Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-based access to data, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that permits remote workforce to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.

Exchange Deployment Consultants 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 support services, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them securely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-author documents. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent offers fast and affordable remote assistance for enabling businesses to create, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure Integration for TeleworkersMicrosoft Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create protected connections to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help your business to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to guide you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your business to use GCP's management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A fast, company-wide switchover to a from-home workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from help requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to check or revise their active tickets, enter information, and append screen captures or relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve complex problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
  • Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your existing Support Desk staff by sharing delivery of Call Center support transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service is based on a collaborative support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
At-home employees typically utilize their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for careful deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user training, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of data security support experts can help you to design, implement and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that include remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely utilized by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring and Management Services for TelecommutersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers utilized by teleworkers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted device from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity on a unit that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with advanced credentials such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to implement top-level security for your an at-home workforce.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper describing critical areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital data so as to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in the event of storage system failures resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Recovery solutions for remote workers must address diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager offers a unified solution for protecting critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For information about Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Top features of Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of new laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Beverly Hills, California business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.