Sarasota At Home Workforce Solutions Consulting Experts

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a significant effect on IT architecture, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Sarasota organization to select the appropriate tools and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you past challenging IT roadblocks to full project management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Sarasota, Florida organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially complex if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both legacy as well as modern IT products in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can help your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a teleworker to view and use a data center PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote support for configuring routers from a range of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance and security issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by providing services like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point setup help.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Line-of-business processes might demand redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for identifying service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Integration for At-Home Workers
Extending the company phone system to include telecommuters is critical to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice service that provides the flexibility, transparency and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications used throughout the network. CUCM supports other combined media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, visit CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide on-demand configuration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide range of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies support virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's support services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for other IP video products from Cisco, refer to 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 capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and help you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that create 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 Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original publication and can help your company to deploy these flagship collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure web portals that allows remote workers to see and update aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to SharePoint integration 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, refer to integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote assistance for enabling businesses to create, maintain and repair integrated network architectures that incorporate physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected access to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, go to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to get you through tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to ensure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline identity control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP environment. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Remote Workers
A sudden, organization-wide switchover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be driven by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online technical support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or update the status of their current trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex issues. For more information, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to supplement your current Call Center organization by splitting delivery of Help Desk support transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's nationwide team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service is based on a collective support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly use their own computing devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical area. This increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, extensive user education, and the creation of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of IT security support experts can help your business to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards critical information resources in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and the public. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and control different access rights to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security appliances from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various computers used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several verification devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and local security threats for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and economically uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your processes and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for securing an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection involves saving and restoring critical information so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system failures due to equipment issues, software hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for telecommuters must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad array of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically envision circumstances that call for a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity consultants can assist you to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

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

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, see Intune remote endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network managers to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of new laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Sarasota, Florida business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.