Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Garland company to select the appropriate technologies and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Garland, Texas companies to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned equipment like desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both outdated as well as current technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

  • Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to access IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert online support for configuring home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
  • Internet access methods impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Business-critical processes might demand redundant Internet access in case the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting Internet service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the corporate PBX system to accommodate telecommuters is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
  • CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
  • Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and provide online configuration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent can assist your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features such as video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can help businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration products 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 Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and 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, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint Server Deployment Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven access to content, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build protected portals that allows remote workers to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint configuration and development consulting.

Exchange Configuration Experts for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For information about Progent's Exchange support services, go to integration consulting for Exchange Server.

Onedrive Integration Experts for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for helping businesses to create, maintain and optimize cohesive hybrid network models that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure Integration Services for TelecommutersAzure is a leading family of public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to get you past challenging IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to ensure your remote workers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's top source of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Integration for Remote WorkersGoogle Cloud Platform is a popular suite of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist you to use GCP's management technology to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, company-wide changeover to a teleworker business model, which could be activated by an epidemic or as part of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or augment their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC support from initial service requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or update their current trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced problems. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
  • Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows you to expand your current Help Desk organization by splitting delivery of Call Center services transparently between your regular support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a collective support solution based on the leading PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home workers commonly use their own devices and usually work in an unsecured physical space. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of data security solutions experts can help you to plan, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that guards vital information assets in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to create a network that can be safely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring for At-Home WorkersOnline Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices utilized by at-home workers and either block or identify and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints stay protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Remote WorkersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to verify your identity on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized for this added means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security professionals with top credentials such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your processes and policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to design top-level protection for your at-home workers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more information about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital information so as to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage problems resulting from equipment issues, software hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a broad array of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision scenarios that call for a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for safeguarding corporate data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component 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 devices can be user owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share information, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM product that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of new laptops, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote 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 solution for your Garland, Texas company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.