Boise Offsite Workforce Configuration Advisor

Enlarging your remote workforce may have a significant effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping SMBs to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Boise organization to pick the right tools and adhere to best practices in building and operating a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed guidance for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Boise, Idaho companies to with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, data security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be especially complicated if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment 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 Progent's experience delivering online help for both outdated and modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to create a safe connection for authorized remote employees to access IT resources located at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to see and use a data center PC's desktop. This gives IT managers significant control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online consulting for deploying routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting the whole family and guests, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as security issues. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Mission-critical applications might demand redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, choosing appropriate service offerings, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the business phone environment to include remote users is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers advanced IP telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed across the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, see Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide on-demand deployment and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for additional IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, 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 integration and debugging expertise for these products and assist your business to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can assist businesses to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize 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 with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build protected web portals that permits at-home workforce to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint integration 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 learn about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-edit documents. Edits made offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced remote support for enabling organizations to build, manage and repair cohesive network models that include internal data centers, remote workers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers over one hundred cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create secure connections to Azure for remote workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's support services for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration experts who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to scale your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage services, and simplify identity management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to control and track your Google Cloud environment. For information, see Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
An emergency, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity plan, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses to outsource or supplement their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial service requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows at-home employees to check or revise the status of their current tickets, enter information, and append screenshots and relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service rates, and Progent makes available optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced issues. For more information, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows your business to supplement your existing Help Desk Call Center team by sharing delivery of Call Desk support services transparently between your in-house support organization and Progent's extensive pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service is based on a collaborative support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for handling service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class technical support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home workers commonly use their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support consultants can help your business to plan, implement and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards 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, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and control different permissions to various classes of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall integration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted device from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated security analysis software for quickly and economically uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with advanced credentials such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy 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 help you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage system failures due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for remote workers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from consultants familiar with a broad range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly envision circumstances that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to produce, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for protecting critical data by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat defense, ensure compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter environment for your Boise, Idaho organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.