Albany Offsite Workforce Integration Support Services

Enlarging your remote workforce may have a major impact on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Albany organization to pick the appropriate technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and delivers top value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand expertise for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Albany, New York companies to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-from-home environment by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Call Desk services, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be especially complicated if you must manage a mix of personal equipment like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing remote help for both outdated and current technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authorized at-home employees to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a teleworker to view and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for integrating routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting an entire household and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and security issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by providing expertise like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup help.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Business-critical applications may demand backup Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, picking appropriate service bundles, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Extending the corporate phone environment to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers advanced telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist you to support your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide 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 SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand integration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies use multiple products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit 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 provide integration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to tune your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich environment of applications that create a consistent user experience for sharing information across a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help your company to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-driven access to content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected web portals that permits remote workforce to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint integration and development consulting.

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. To find out about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for enabling businesses to create, maintain and optimize integrated network architectures that include internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, and public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create protected connections to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Azure, visit Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your business to use GCP's management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud environment. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to monitor or revise their current tickets, enter details, and append screenshots or attachments. Desktop support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent offers optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to augment your current Support Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk support transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading PSA tool for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver world-class technical support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly use their own devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user training, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of data security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards vital information assets in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, suppliers, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to configure and control appropriate access rights to different groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats become more complex. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration services, refer to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices used by remote workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint from the network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints stay secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized for this second means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes remote workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your procedures and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for remote workers must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts familiar with a wide range of platforms for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies typically envision circumstances that require a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can assist your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part 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 devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, verify compliance, and delete corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workforce, visit Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management platform that allows network managers to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Albany, New York company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.