Montgomery Remote Workforce Configuration Support Partner

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a major effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Montgomery organization to select the right technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past challenging IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Montgomery, Alabama businesses to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing telecommuting environment by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, data security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you must manage a combination of personal equipment like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote help for both outdated as well as current technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to access IT assets located at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections 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 consultants can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a telecommuter to see and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers 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 VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for integrating routers from all major vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these problems by providing expertise like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for selecting Internet service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the company phone system to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a remote IP voice service that delivers the versatility, convenience and security required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, refer to CUCM consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to support these solutions and provide on-demand configuration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad selection of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many companies use a mix of products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to set up and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for other video conferencing products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities such as voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas across multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help your company to deploy these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected web portals that allows at-home workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to 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 consulting services, refer to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can retrieve them securely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-author files. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for helping organizations to build, maintain and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with public cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over one hundred services services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected access to Azure services for telecommuters by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers to achieve maximum business value. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can assist your organization to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular collection of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify access management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to use GCP's management technology to control and track your Google Cloud environment. For information, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
An emergency, company-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which might be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from initial service requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to monitor or edit their current tickets, add details, and upload screenshots and attachments. Desktop support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service allows you to expand your current Help Desk Call Center organization by sharing responsibilities for Call Center support transparently between your regular support personnel and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collective support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing service requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class technical support to your telecommuters, go to Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly utilize their own computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user training, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of IT security solutions consultants can assist you to design, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital IT resources in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile users, suppliers, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent works with both current and legacy firewall appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall configuration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by at-home workers 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 each protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect new attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be used as this second means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and internal security threats for an environment that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with advanced credentials such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your IT infrastructure to allow you to design the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper about key things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital information in order to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage failures resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, human error, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for telecommuters must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from consultants familiar with a broad array of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate circumstances that require a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for protecting corporate data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share information, set up threat defense, ensure compliance, and delete sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product through a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter solution for your Montgomery, Alabama business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.