Alpharetta Work from Home Employees Integration Consulting Company

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Alpharetta company to pick the right tools and follow best practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers top value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand guidance for getting you over challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Alpharetta, Georgia businesses to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must manage a mix of personal hardware like PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote support for both outdated and current technologies in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated at-home workers to use IT resources located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers more control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online consulting for setting up routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting families and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications might require redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. See Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business phone environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products 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 online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors support virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many companies utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit 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 deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can help your company to tune these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness 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 works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web entities to promote collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based access to data, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that allows at-home workers to see and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint configuration and application 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, see integration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can retrieve them safely via a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-author documents. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide advanced online assistance for helping businesses to build, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure connections to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft applications and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from students and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to get you through challenging technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your business to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key apps cloud ready so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage services, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to utilize GCP's management tools to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For information, visit Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Remote Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter workforce, which might be activated by an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or expand their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to check or update their current trouble tickets, add details, and append screen captures or relevant files. Support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your existing Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center services transparently between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing reports. To find out how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class IT support to your at-home employees, refer to Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home employees commonly utilize their own devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity solutions experts can assist you to plan, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that guards vital IT assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to create a network that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and control different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this second means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and local security attacks for a network that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis scanning for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be managed by data security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your processes and policies and assess your WAN architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional details about Progent's vulnerability analysis services based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing critical things to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital data in order to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage failures due to equipment issues, programming glitches, user mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly envision circumstances that call for a rapid changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help you to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for safeguarding corporate data by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing off-premises computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share data, set up threat defense, verify compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your Alpharetta, Georgia organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.