Norfolk At Home Workforce Integration Advisor

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a major impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to design, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Norfolk organization to pick the right technologies and follow leading practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand guidance for helping you past occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Norfolk, Virginia companies to succeed with any aspect of building a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the network infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment like desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering remote support for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to implement a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to access IT assets located at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for secure VPN connections for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker 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 work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote support for setting up home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and guests, are frequently utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by delivering expertise like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Vital processes might demand redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking service providers, picking sensible service bundles, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Telecommuters
Expanding the corporate PBX system to include remote users is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, refer to CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and deliver online integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco 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 acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities such as IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist you to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based delivery of content, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that allows remote workforce to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer to 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, see planning and configuration expertise for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can share them safely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables home workers to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced remote support for helping organizations to build, maintain and optimize cohesive network architectures that include physical data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers fix issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore 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 firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud services available by subscription. Office applications and services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network architecture so your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist you to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also assist you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A sudden, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be activated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or supplement their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists along with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from service requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to check or revise their active trouble tickets, add details, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows your business to augment your current Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support services seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a collaborative support solution based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers commonly use their own computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity support consultants can help you to design, implement and maintain an effective security solution that protects vital information assets in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and control different permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more complex. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by teleworkers and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight agent is installed on each protected endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the impacted device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, 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 ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple verification devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by data security experts with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to design top-level protection for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and verify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical data in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware issues, programming glitches, human error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of products for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often anticipate scenarios that call for a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help your business to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for safeguarding corporate data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To learn about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, see Intune remote endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Norfolk, Virginia company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.