West Palm Beach Offsite Workforce Connectivity Advisor

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a significant effect on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your West Palm Beach company to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns top value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed guidance for getting you past challenging IT roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist West Palm Beach, Florida organizations to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk services, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be particularly complex if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote help for both outdated and modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to use IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to see and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology gives IT managers more control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers expert online consulting for setting up routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by providing expertise like Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Business-critical applications might demand redundant Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for picking Internet service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and configuring redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the company PBX system to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice service that delivers the versatility, transparency and protection needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see CUCM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with users operating outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your wide area network architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading vendors enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use multiple products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent can help you to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via 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 editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex and for other IP video solutions from Cisco, visit 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 such as voice/video conferencing, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these products and help your business to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can assist your company to tune these flagship collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, 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 Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to allow collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven access to data, business processes, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that permits at-home workers to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit SharePoint configuration 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 find out about Progent's Exchange support services, go to deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers can share them securely via a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide advanced remote support for enabling businesses to build, manage and optimize integrated network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branches, and public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers resolve issues with public cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of cloud services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish protected access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running 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 telecommuters in a way that delivers maximum business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through challenging IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's top provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to cloud connectivity experts who can assist your business to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud 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 help your company to build a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud is a leading collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to use GCP's unified management tools to control and track your GCP ecosystem. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 PC support from service requests through trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or update the status of their current tickets, add details, and append screen captures and relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve complex issues. To find out more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows you to augment your existing Call Desk team by splitting delivery of Help Desk Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class desktop support to your telecommuters, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their personal computing devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to malware threats and calls for careful configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist your business to plan, deploy and manage an effective security solution that protects vital IT resources in environments that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable you to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration services, refer to firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate devices utilized by an at-home workforce and either reject or spot and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used for this second form of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be managed by security professionals with top credentials such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your operations and governance policies and assess your network architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical data in order to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time in case of storage system problems due to hardware issues, programming glitches, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must cover diverse kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of products for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often envision scenarios that call for a temporary switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help you to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based 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 off-premises devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and erase sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, see Intune remote endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that helps network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google 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 through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your West Palm Beach, Florida company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.