Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, security, and company processes. Progent has two decades of experience helping SMBs to design, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Sandy Springs company to select the right technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and delivers top value. Progent offers services that go from on demand guidance for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Sandy Springs, Georgia businesses to with any aspect of building a high-functioning work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the network infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially complex if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online support for both outdated as well as modern technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This provides network managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote consulting for configuring home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wireless networks, typically shared by families and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
  • Internet access methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Vital processes might require redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate service offerings, and setting up redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the company phone environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist organizations tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. CUCM manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit CUCM consulting services.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist you to support your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP products, visit CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your at-home employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support services for Webex and for additional IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features such as video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and help you to optimize your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help your company to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Teams Solutions Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Integration Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that allows at-home workers to see and edit consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

Exchange Configuration Experts 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 learn about Progent's Exchange support services, go to integration consulting services for Exchange Server.

Microsoft Onedrive Integration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them safely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to jointly author documents. Edits made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent offers affordable online support for helping businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected connections to Azure services for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for At-Home WorkersExchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional help to guide you through challenging IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for At-Home WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration Services for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud is a leading collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to extend your existing 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 remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your business to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and track your Google Cloud environment. For details, see Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up 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 desktop technical support from initial help requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to check or edit the status of their current trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or attachments. Support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables you to expand your existing Call Center organization by sharing delivery of Call Center support services seamlessly between your regular support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation tool for managing service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
At-home staff members commonly use their personal computers and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security support consultants can assist you to design, implement and manage a compliant security solution that guards vital IT assets in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and control different permissions to different groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security appliances from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, refer to firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring for At-Home WorkersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted device from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for At-Home WorkersProgent's Duo authentication Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized for this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by network security professionals with top credentials including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your processes and policies and assess your network architecture to enable you to design the highest level of security for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more information about Progent's vulnerability analysis services powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about key areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical information in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage system problems due to equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, user error, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery solutions for an at-home workforce must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision circumstances that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for protecting critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for accessing information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, control how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your teleworkers, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your Sandy Springs, Georgia business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.