Liverpool Remote Workers Connectivity Consultants

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Liverpool organization to select the right tools and follow leading practices in creating and operating a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you past challenging technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Liverpool, United Kingdom companies to with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Help Desk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be particularly complex if you have to accommodate a combination of personal hardware like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online support for both outdated as well as current IT products in remote office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity allows you to create a secure tunnel for authorized at-home workers to use IT assets located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide range of devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology provides network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for deploying routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these problems by delivering services like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Business-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for identifying ISPs, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and integrating redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the corporate PBX system to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy products for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software used throughout the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help you to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables presence, IM, voice and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, see 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 features that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging expertise for these products and help you to tune your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that create a cohesive user experience for sharing data and ideas across multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration products 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 provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams 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 depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create protected web portals that allows at-home workers to view and edit consolidated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit deployment consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can share them securely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's support services for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and optimize cohesive network architectures that include physical data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features over one hundred services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected access to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Office applications and services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and affordable remote contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help you to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to get you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to use GCP's management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which might be motivated by an epidemic or as part of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services utilize Progent's extensive team of online technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to check or update the status of their current tickets, enter information, and append screenshots and attachments. Support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service allows your business to expand your existing Call Center team by sharing delivery of Call Desk services seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for handling service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class IT support to your from-home workers, visit Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
At-home employees typically use their own devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user education, and the creation of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of data security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, implement and maintain an effective security solution that protects critical information assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage different access rights to various groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older security devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, go to firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices utilized by teleworkers and either block or spot and mitigate the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is put on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity on a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized as this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. For more information about Duo identity validation services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all classes of external and internal security threats for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your processes and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, fix, and verify security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to harden your network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers optimum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's threat assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time in the event of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for teleworkers must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate scenarios that require a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified solution for safeguarding critical information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your teleworkers, see Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your Liverpool, United Kingdom organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.