Charleston Offsite Workforce Connectivity Consulting and Support

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a major impact on IT infrastructure, security, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Charleston organization to pick the right technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent can provide support services ranging from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Charleston, South Carolina businesses to with any facet of creating a high-functioning telecommuting environment by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be particularly complex if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from different vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote help for both legacy and modern IT products in remote office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated at-home employees to access IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable a telecommuter to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for setting up routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting families and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet access methods affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical applications may require backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for picking service providers, picking sensible service offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the company phone system to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or maintain a telecommuter VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and deliver online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies support online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and help you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help your company to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app 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 supporting its full range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create protected web portals that enables at-home workers to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see SharePoint integration 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to deployment consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-edit documents. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online support for enabling organizations to build, maintain and optimize integrated network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve issues with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure features more than one hundred services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected connections to Azure for telecommuters by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's expertise for Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to get you past tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-availability network model so your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud is a leading set of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and streamline identity control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. To find out, visit Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or edit the status of their current tickets, enter information, and append screenshots and attachments. Support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced issues. For details, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows you to expand your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support services seamlessly between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class desktop support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Support Desk augmentation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly utilize their personal devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical environment. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions experts can assist you to plan, implement and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical IT resources in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network that can be safely accessed by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with top certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your processes and governance policies and assess your WAN infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and verify security weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital data so as to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage system failures due to hardware issues, programming glitches, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for telecommuters must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online access to experts familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate scenarios that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help you to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

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

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises devices and software. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share information, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and erase corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workers, see Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Charleston, South Carolina organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.