Perth At Home Workforce Configuration Consultants

Expanding your at-home workforce can have a significant impact on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Perth organization to select the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Perth, Western Australia companies to with any aspect of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the network infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help you to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a secure connection for authenticated remote employees to use IT assets situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers substantial control over the computing environment of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for deploying routers from all major vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by an entire household and guests, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by providing services that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration help.
• Internet access solutions impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Mission-critical processes may demand backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for identifying service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating redundant Internet access. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the corporate phone system to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice products are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, refer to CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad range of video conferencing products from leading vendors enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more 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 and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with features that include video conferencing, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging information throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven access to data, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create protected web portals that permits at-home workforce to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to 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 find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, visit integration consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them securely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home employees to jointly author files. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to create, manage and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes 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 telecommuters resolve issues with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for cloud services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to guide you past challenging technical roadblocks 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. For information Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading collection of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to control and track your GCP ecosystem. To find out, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which could be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an affordable, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to track or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, add details, and append screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve complex issues. To learn more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service allows you to expand your current Call Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Call Center services transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members typically utilize their personal computers and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist your business to design, deploy and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical information resources in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older security devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support services, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the various devices used by teleworkers and either reject or spot and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the infected device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you log into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are via a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of external and local security threats for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory software for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your network infrastructure to allow you to design the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, rank, remediate, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about key things to focus on for protecting 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 Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital information so as to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage system failures due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, human error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for at-home workers must cover multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly envision scenarios that require a temporary changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for protecting critical data by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For information about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple 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 deployment via a one-time purchase. Key features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Perth, Western Australia company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.