Expanding your at-home workforce may have a major effect on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Toronto company to select the appropriate tools and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Toronto, Ontario organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, helpdesk augmentation, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be particularly challenging if you must manage a combination of personal equipment such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from various vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote help for both legacy as well as modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to create a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to access IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable a teleworker to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
  • Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for configuring routers from all major vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration assistance.
  • Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Line-of-business applications might require backup Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate service packages, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the company PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see CUCM consulting services.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide range of video conferencing products from major technology companies support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your remote employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients 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 group video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. To learn more 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. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for additional IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity 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 and Teams Premium Solutions Consultants for TelecommutersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, 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 delivering its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Deployment Consultants for Remote WorkersSharePoint utilizes web entities to allow collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create secure portals that permits at-home workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

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. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to integration consulting for Exchange.

Onedrive Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them securely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit documents. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that incorporate physical data centers, remote workers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure Integration Services for At-Home WorkersAzure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers over 100 services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure services for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for TelecommutersAmazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers fast and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment 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, go to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud is a leading suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage, and streamline access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, organization-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be driven by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses to outsource or supplement their Help Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or update the status of their current tickets, add details, and append screenshots or relevant files. Support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex problems. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Call Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house IT support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service uses a collaborative support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home staff members typically utilize their personal devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security support experts can assist your business to design, deploy and maintain an effective security solution that guards vital IT resources in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control different access rights to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall appliances from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, refer to firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management for TelecommutersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices used by at-home workers and either block or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security 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 by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and give 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 selection of devices can be utilized as this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate several verification devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes remote workers. Progent can run online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by data security professionals with top certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your procedures and policies and review your IT architecture to allow you to implement top-level protection for your an at-home workforce.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for Work-from-Home EnpointsHorizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, remediate, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your current security profile. Progent can also help you to harden your network security and can assist you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key areas to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital information so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, software glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick remote help from experts familiar with a broad array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and unified management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager offers a unified solution for protecting critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing off-premises devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Top features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing a productive telecommuter solution for your Toronto, Ontario business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.