Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major impact on network architecture, security, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Albuquerque company to select the right tools and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed guidance for getting you past challenging technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent can help Albuquerque, New Mexico organizations to with any facet of building a high-performing remote work environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk services, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for a remote work environment can be especially complicated if you have to manage a combination of personal hardware such as PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online support for both legacy as well as modern technologies in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Support services available from Progent to help you to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • VPN technology allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to use IT assets located at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a telecommuter to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for deploying home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these problems by providing expertise that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration help.
  • Internet access methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for picking Internet service providers, selecting sensible service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the company PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or tune a remote VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit CUCM consultants.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users operating beyond the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand configuration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major technology companies enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your existing conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your at-home employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with features that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, 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 debugging services for these products and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful environment of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoints. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can help your company to tune these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workers.

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 Solutions Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven access to data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected portals that enables remote workforce to see and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see SharePoint configuration and development consulting.

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 information about Progent's Exchange consulting services, refer to integration expertise for Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Deployment Consultants for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can access them securely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to co-author files. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable online support for helping organizations to create, manage and optimize cohesive network models that incorporate physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, and cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure Integration for TelecommutersAzure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to get you through tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent offers fast and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Integration Services for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud (GCP) is a leading suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your key apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your business to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
A sudden, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overwhelm 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 expand their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or edit their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to expand your existing Call Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Call Center support seamlessly between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a collaborative support solution based on the leading PSA platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your telecommuters, visit Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
At-home staff members commonly utilize their personal computers and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive user education, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support experts can assist you to design, configure and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards vital information resources in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to create a network that can be safely accessed by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different access rights to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by telecommuters and either block or spot and mitigate modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints stay protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your procedures and policies and review your network infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your an at-home workforce.

NodeZero Pen Testing for Work-from-Home EnpointsHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and verify security vulnerabilities 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 network so you can determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper describing critical things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital information in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming glitches, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore solutions for at-home workers must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from consultants familiar with a wide array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular recovery and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate circumstances that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding corporate information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, visit Intune teleworker device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Albuquerque, New Mexico company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.