Jersey City Teleworkers Connectivity Consultants

Expanding your remote workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, administer, optimize, and debug IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Jersey City company to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum value. Progent offers support services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you past challenging IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Jersey City, New Jersey businesses to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing online support for both outdated and current IT products in remote office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authorized remote employees to access IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote consulting for deploying home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as security issues. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by delivering services like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Business-critical applications may require redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for selecting Internet service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business PBX system to include remote users is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like messaging, voice/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.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help you to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, refer to CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as 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 Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to support these solutions and provide on-demand configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your existing conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities such as video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your remote workers.

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

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure web portals that allows remote workforce to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, see SharePoint integration 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. For details about Progent's Exchange expertise, see planning and configuration expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them safely through a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent can provide advanced remote assistance for enabling organizations to create, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that include internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate smoothly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you through challenging technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network architecture so your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your critical apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP ecosystem. For information, see Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which could be activated by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or supplement their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and append screen captures and 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 escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service enables your company to expand your existing Call Desk staff by splitting delivery of Support Desk support transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service is based on a collaborative support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class IT support to your at-home employees, refer to Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
At-home workers typically use their own devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber attacks and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user training, and the development of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of IT security support consultants can assist you to plan, implement and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both current and older firewall devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, see firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers used by remote workers and either block or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected device from the network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a device that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized as this second means of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and local security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your procedures and governance policies and review your WAN architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more information about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper about critical things to focus on for securing a network that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital data so as to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in case of storage system failures due to hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for remote workers must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts familiar with a wide range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified solution for safeguarding corporate data by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For information about Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workers, see Intune mobile endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network managers to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Jersey City, New Jersey business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.