Hayward At Home Workers Configuration Support and Consulting

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Hayward organization to select the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Hayward, California businesses to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, helpdesk services, data security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the network infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must manage a combination of personal hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to establish a safe tunnel for authenticated remote employees to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a teleworker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers more control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for setting up home routers from all major vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by an entire household and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput and security problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Line-of-business processes may demand backup Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for At-Home Workers
Extending the corporate phone environment to include remote users is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide online integration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities such as video conferencing, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help you to tune your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial publication and can assist businesses to tune these critical collaboration platforms to optimize 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 provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as 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 branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create secure portals that permits at-home workforce to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit SharePoint configuration 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. For details about Progent's Exchange support services, visit deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them securely through a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows home employees to co-author documents. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you go back online. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and troubleshoot integrated network models that include internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers fix problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over 100 services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected access to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy remote access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to evaluate the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and economical online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be the result of a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity process, can overwhelm even the most efficient internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses to outsource or augment their Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or update the status of their active tickets, add details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with complex issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows your company to expand your current Call Center team by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service uses a co-sourcing support solution based on the number one PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home employees typically use their personal devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This situation increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist your business to plan, implement and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT resources in networks that include at-home workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be safely utilized by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to configure and manage different permissions to different groups of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older firewall devices from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers used by teleworkers and either block or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the impacted endpoint device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoints stay protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to confirm your identity on a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used as this second form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for an environment that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by security experts with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your operations and policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to design top-level protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's penetration test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical information in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems due to equipment breakdowns, software glitches, human error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for telecommuters must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick online help from consultants familiar with a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for safeguarding critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share data, set up threat protection, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune mobile endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Hayward, California company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.