Enlarging your remote workforce may have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of background assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Kansas City company to pick the right technologies and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Kansas City, Missouri organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting environment by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, helpdesk services, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote help for both legacy and modern IT products in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authorized remote employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to configure and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers 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 attach home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for configuring routers from all major vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
  • Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput and security problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
  • Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Business-critical processes might require redundant Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying ISPs, selecting appropriate service bundles, and setting up redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the company phone system to accommodate telecommuters is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
  • CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, see Cisco CallManager consulting services.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
  • Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide on-demand deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your at-home employees.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex and for additional IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities that include IP voice and video conferencing, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging expertise for these products and help you to tune your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging information throughout a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship 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 Solutions Experts for At-Home WorkersMicrosoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint Server Deployment Experts for Remote WorkersSharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven access to content, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected web portals that allows remote workforce to view and update consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, see SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Configuration Consultants for Remote WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange.

Onedrive Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them securely through a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, see Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online support for helping businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve issues with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure Integration for At-Home WorkersAzure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected access to Azure services for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, go to Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and services are provided in a selection of plans intended for users ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online Integration Services for TelecommutersExchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through challenging IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS Integration for Remote WorkersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network architecture so your users have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for TelecommutersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your business to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
A sudden, organization-wide switchover to a telecommuter workforce, which might be driven by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services utilize Progent's nationwide network of online technical support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to monitor or edit their current trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
  • Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows you to augment your current Call Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's extensive pool of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collaborative support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class technical support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly utilize their own computers and often operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security support experts can help your business to design, deploy and manage an effective security solution that protects critical IT assets in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and control different permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats become more complex. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Remote Security Monitoring for TeleworkersRemote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by an at-home workforce and either reject or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security experts with advanced credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your procedures and policies and assess your network 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 PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, prioritize, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to perform thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your current security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical data so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage failures resulting from hardware issues, programming glitches, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

  • Backup/Restore strategies for an at-home workforce must cover multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote help from experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically envision scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist your business to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled 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 onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for protecting critical data by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing mobile devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can utilize Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For details about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing a productive work-from-home environment for your Kansas City, Missouri organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.