Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major effect on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of background assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Savannah company to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Savannah, Georgia organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk augmentation, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for an at-home work environment can be especially complicated if you have to accommodate a combination of personal hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authorized remote employees to access IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow an at-home worker to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
  • Routers connect home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online support for configuring home routers from a variety of vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup help.
  • Internet access methods affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate service bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the corporate PBX environment to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice service that provides the versatility, transparency and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, visit CUCM consulting services.
  • CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help your company to support your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
  • Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed deployment and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major technology companies enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for exchanging information across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help your company to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your remote 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 Solutions Experts for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with 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, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Integration Consultants for Remote WorkersSharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create secure portals that allows at-home workers to see and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

Exchange Deployment 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. For information about Progent's Exchange support services, refer to planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Experts for Remote WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can access them safely through a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent offers affordable remote support for helping businesses to create, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, plus cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure 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 establish protected access to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration for TeleworkersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from students and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy remote access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for TeleworkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to get you past challenging technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for TeleworkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a leading set of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with GCP Storage, and streamline access management for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to utilize GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for At-Home Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide transition to a from-home business model, which could be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to provide an economical, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to track or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your business to expand your existing Call Desk organization by splitting delivery of Call Desk support services transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Support Desk service is based on a collective support solution utilizing the number one PSA platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for At-Home Workers
At-home workers typically utilize their own devices and often operate in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist your business to plan, implement and manage an effective security solution that guards critical IT assets in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by telecommuters, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate access rights to different groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall integration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring for TeleworkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TeleworkersProgent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used for this second means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. For details about Duo identity validation services, go to 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 includes at-home workers. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with top credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your operations and governance policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your remote workers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, fix, and verify security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves saving and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system problems resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for teleworkers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online access to experts knowledgeable about a wide range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly envision circumstances that require a temporary changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can assist your company to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized platform for safeguarding critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share information, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and wipe corporate data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For details about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform 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 application delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, 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 features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home environment for your Savannah, Georgia business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.