Expanding your remote workforce can have a major effect on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of background assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your West Palm Beach organization to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you past occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help West Palm Beach, Florida businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complex if you must manage a mix of personal equipment like PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote help for both legacy and current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Support services available from Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authorized at-home workers to access IT assets located at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers more control over the digital 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 VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote support for setting up routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these problems by providing services that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
  • Internet access methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, selecting appropriate service offerings, and integrating redundant Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Integration for Teleworkers
Expanding the corporate PBX system to accommodate telecommuters is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or maintain a remote IP voice service that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer advanced support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used throughout the network. CUCM supports other combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, see Cisco Unified CM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide on-demand integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that enables presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include voice/video conferencing, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging information across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can help businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms 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 and Teams Premium Integration Experts 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 replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that permits remote workers to view and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.

Exchange Integration 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, refer to integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

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

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent can provide affordable remote support for enabling organizations to create, manage and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure Integration for Remote WorkersAzure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure connections to Azure for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity applications and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy remote contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to get you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for At-Home WorkersGoogle Cloud is a popular collection of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist your organization to use GCP's management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, see Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for At-Home Workers
A sudden, organization-wide changeover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Call Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support experts combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to track or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, add information, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables you to expand your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support services transparently between your regular support organization and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver world-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers typically use their own computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support experts can assist you to plan, configure and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring Services for TeleworkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers used by telecommuters and either block or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity on a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several verification devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and internal security threats for an environment that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be managed by network security experts with advanced credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your procedures and governance policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to design top-level security for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

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

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage failures resulting from equipment issues, software hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must cover multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online help from consultants familiar with a wide array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically envision scenarios that require a temporary switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity specialists can help you to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for protecting critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For information about Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, see Intune teleworker device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM product that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints 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 deployment via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter environment for your West Palm Beach, Florida company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.