The Woodlands Work from Home Employees Solutions Consulting

Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a major effect on network architecture, security/compliance, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting SMBs to design, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your The Woodlands company to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help The Woodlands, Texas businesses to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from different vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing remote help for both outdated and current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authorized at-home employees to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers more control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for deploying routers from a range of vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by delivering expertise like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Business-critical processes may require redundant Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking service providers, choosing sensible service packages, and integrating redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the corporate phone system to accommodate telecommuters is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that delivers the versatility, convenience and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can assist your company to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, visit CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users operating beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's support services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex and for additional IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help you to optimize your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing information across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can assist businesses to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness 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 on top of 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 and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings that include 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 Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure portals that permits remote workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, 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. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can share them safely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to co-edit documents. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. For information about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for helping organizations to build, manage and troubleshoot integrated network architectures that include physical data centers, remote workers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, 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 family of public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure features more than 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and households to large enterprises. Progent can provide fast and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help your business to assess the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can help your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading collection of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to expand your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your business to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP ecosystem. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A sudden, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be motivated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or augment their Support Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of online technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 PC support from 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 edit their current trouble tickets, add details, and append screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to augment your existing Call Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk support services transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a collective support solution based on the number one professional services automation platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, go to Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
At-home employees typically utilize their personal computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user training, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of data security support experts can help you to plan, implement and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT assets in environments that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to configure and control different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall appliances from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support services, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers used by remote workers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the infected device from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added means of ID validation including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, see 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 internal security threats for a network that includes remote workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by network security experts with top certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to evaluate your procedures and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, remediate, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security profile. Progent can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for protecting a network that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital data so as to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage problems due to hardware issues, software glitches, human error, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for telecommuters must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast remote access to experts familiar with a wide range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often envision scenarios that call for a temporary switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for protecting critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, verify compliance, and erase corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your teleworkers, visit Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of new laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. For details about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your The Woodlands, Texas organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.