Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Sydney organization to select the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Sydney, New South Wales organizations to with any facet of building a high-performing telecommuting environment by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home work environment can be especially complex if you must accommodate a combination of personal hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote support for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to access IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software for secure VPN connections for a wide range of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a teleworker to see and use a data center PC's desktop. This provides network managers more control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
  • Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote consulting for integrating routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by providing services like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point setup assistance.
  • Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Vital applications may demand redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying service providers, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating high-availability Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the company PBX environment to include teleworkers is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the versatility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages additional mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to Cisco Unified CM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist your company to support your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide as-needed deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with features such as voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams Solutions Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with 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 enable chat, 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 (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create protected web portals that enables remote workforce to view and update aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and development consulting.

Exchange Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to deployment consulting for Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely via a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author files. Revisions created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for helping businesses to build, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with public cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for At-Home WorkersAzure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes more than 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist you to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for TelecommutersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for At-Home WorkersGoogle Cloud is a leading collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify identity management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your business to use GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP environment. To find out, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which might be activated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's extensive team of online IT support experts combined with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to track or edit their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots and attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced problems. For more information, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables you to expand your current Call Center organization by splitting delivery of Call Desk support seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading PSA platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver world-class IT support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers commonly utilize their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of data security solutions consultants can assist you to plan, implement and maintain an effective security solution that guards critical information assets in environments that include telecommuters.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and the public. Modern firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring and Management Services for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used for this added form of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of external and internal security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and affordably uncovering 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 including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your procedures and governance policies and review your WAN architecture to enable you to design top-level protection for your remote workers.

NodeZero Pen Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper describing critical areas to focus on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time in the event of storage failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, user error, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must address diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast remote access to experts familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically anticipate circumstances that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can help your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized solution for safeguarding critical data by controlling onsite, 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-based service for managing and securing mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Sydney, New South Wales business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.