Providence Teleworkers Integration Support

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major impact on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Providence company to pick the right tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and delivers top value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Providence, Rhode Island organizations to succeed with any facet of building a high-functioning work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, data security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you have to accommodate a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote support for both legacy as well as current IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authorized at-home employees to access IT assets located at your company datacenter 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 support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote consulting for deploying home routers from a variety of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly utilized by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by providing services like Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications might demand redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for selecting ISPs, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Remote Workers
Expanding the business phone environment to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are popular with SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice service that provides the flexibility, convenience and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide high-level support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines 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 update your WAN architecture to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and content with features such as voice/video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their initial publication and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application 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 full range of features. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build protected web portals that allows remote workforce to see and update consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange expertise, see planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them safely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to co-author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers affordable online assistance for helping businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected connections to Azure for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for occasional assistance to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's top source of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud 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 assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a productive computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your business to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and track your GCP environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, company-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be activated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an affordable, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to check or update their active tickets, add information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with advanced issues. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service allows your company to expand your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive pool of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the number one PSA tool for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver world-class IT support to your telecommuters, refer to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
At-home employees typically use their personal computers and often operate in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity solutions experts can help your business to design, implement and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly complex. Progent supports both current and legacy security devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, visit firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices used by an at-home workforce and either block or spot and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to identify new attacks on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the targeted device from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint security monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this second form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all types of external and local security attacks for a network that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your network architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time in the event of storage system problems due to hardware issues, software glitches, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for an at-home workforce must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate scenarios that call for a quick switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity consultants can help your company to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share information, set up threat protection, verify compliance, and erase sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune remote endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM platform that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter environment for your Providence, Rhode Island business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.