Baton Rouge Teleworkers Solutions Support

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a significant effect on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Baton Rouge company to pick the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a secure virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for helping you past challenging technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Baton Rouge, Louisiana organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you have to accommodate a mix of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to create a secure connection for authorized remote workers to access IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad range of devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a telecommuter to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers expert remote support for setting up routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by families and visitors, are frequently utilized by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Business-critical processes might require redundant Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent can provide expertise for identifying ISPs, picking sensible service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the company PBX environment to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist organizations tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, visit CUCM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver online integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide range of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help your organization to manage your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and content with features such as IP voice and video calling, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and help your business to tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful environment of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your remote 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute 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 supporting its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure portals that permits remote workforce to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, go to planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely through a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows home employees to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide advanced remote support for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot cohesive network models that combine physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting services for Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are provided in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's biggest source of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your business to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify access control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to administer and monitor your GCP environment. For information, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A rapid, organization-wide transition to a teleworker business model, which might be the result of a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests through trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to monitor or update the status of their current tickets, add information, and append screen captures or relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve complex issues. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service enables your company to expand your current Call Center organization by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support services transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a collaborative support model utilizing the number one PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members typically utilize their own computing devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security support experts can help your business to plan, deploy and manage an effective security solution that guards vital information assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different access rights to different groups of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly complex. Progent works with both new and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices utilized by telecommuters and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new threats on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security threats for an environment that includes teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be managed by security experts with advanced certifications such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to design top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, rank, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to harden your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical information so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage failures resulting from hardware issues, software glitches, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online help from consultants familiar with a broad array of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision scenarios that require a quick changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can help you to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for protecting corporate information by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share information, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For details about Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, see Intune mobile endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For information about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient work-from-home environment for your Baton Rouge, Louisiana company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.