Washington Offsite Workforce Configuration Support

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a significant impact on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Washington company to select the appropriate tools and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you over challenging technical bottlenecks to full project management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Washington, Washington businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk outsourcing, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required to support a remote work environment can be particularly complex if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both outdated and current technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making necessary updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote employees to use IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides network managers significant control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote support for setting up home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can create throughput and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by providing services that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business applications might demand redundant Internet access in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for picking service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating redundant Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business PBX environment to include teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice service that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to help businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, visit CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide range of video conferencing products from leading vendors enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your existing voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications platform that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for other 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 conferencing, contacts, and content with features such as video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a consistent user interface for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help your company to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your remote 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 works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, 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 called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that enables at-home workers to see and update aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange 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, visit planning and configuration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely through a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home employees to jointly author documents. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent offers fast and affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and repair cohesive network architectures that include internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve issues with public cloud access, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features more than 100 services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure access to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you through tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-availability network model so your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage, and streamline identity management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A sudden, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which could be driven by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to monitor or revise the status of their active tickets, add details, and append screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with advanced problems. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service enables you to augment your existing Call Center staff by splitting delivery of Help Desk Call Center support seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a collective support solution based on the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class technical support to your at-home employees, refer to Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their own computing devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security support experts can assist you to plan, configure and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in networks that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely accessed by on-premises users and by teleworkers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances permit you to configure and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support services, refer to firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate devices utilized by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new attacks before they can spread. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the targeted endpoint device from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be used as this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can run online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be managed by security experts with top credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your workflows and governance policies and review your network architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat analysis services based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring critical information in order to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures due to equipment breakdowns, software hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and includes granular recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies typically envision scenarios that call for a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can assist you to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for safeguarding corporate data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote computers and software. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share information, establish threat protection, ensure compliance, and wipe corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by 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 deployment via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Washington, Washington business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.