Lubbock Remote Workforce Integration Consultants

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a major effect on IT architecture, security/compliance, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Lubbock company to pick the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent offers support services ranging from as-needed guidance for helping you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Lubbock, Texas organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Call Desk services, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be particularly complex if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated and modern technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a secure connection for authorized remote employees to use IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a telecommuter to see and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides network managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for configuring home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance and security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
• Internet access solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Line-of-business processes might demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for picking Internet service providers, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the corporate phone system to include remote users is critical to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that delivers the versatility, convenience and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your current CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, see CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users operating outside 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 series as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver online deployment and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide range of video conferencing platforms from major technology companies enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local users and teleworkers. Many companies utilize multiple products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your existing conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for training. For details about Progent's support services for Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see 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 provide integration and debugging services for these products and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich environment of applications that create a cohesive user experience for sharing information across a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can assist your company to tune these flagship 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven access to content, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that allows at-home workers to view and update aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, see SharePoint integration and application 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, see planning and configuration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-author files. Revisions created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent offers fast and affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to build, manage and optimize cohesive hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, see Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and households to large corporations. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you through challenging IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help 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, from home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your business to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, company-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be the result of an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or augment their Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support specialists along with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests through ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to monitor or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and append screenshots and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced problems. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows you to supplement your current Call Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support services seamlessly between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service uses a co-sourcing support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, refer to Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
At-home workers typically utilize their own computers and often work in an unsecured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the creation of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security solutions experts can help your business to design, implement and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT resources in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls enable you to create a network that can be securely accessed by local users and by teleworkers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and control appropriate access rights to various groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older firewall appliances from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support services, go to firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices used by telecommuters and either block or spot and mitigate modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats at inception. When an attack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to verify your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by security professionals with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your processes and policies and review your network infrastructure to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, rank, remediate, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital information so as to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, software glitches, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must address multiple types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often envision scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing off-premises devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For details about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your telecommuters, see Intune telecommuter device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter solution for your Lubbock, Texas organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.