Fargo Remote Workforce Integration Consulting Partner

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, security/compliance, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Fargo company to pick the appropriate tools and follow best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past occasional technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Fargo, North Dakota organizations to with any aspect of creating a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the network infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online support for both outdated as well as modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to establish a secure connection for authorized at-home workers to use IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can help your company to configure and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow an at-home worker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology provides network managers significant control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote support for integrating routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by delivering services like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Business-critical processes may demand backup Internet access in case the normal connection fails. Progent can provide guidance for selecting Internet service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the business PBX system to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice products are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and security required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to maintain your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and provide as-needed integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many organizations use multiple products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help you to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the productivity of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports presence, IM, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your remote workers.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and supports 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 enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven access to data, business processes, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create secure web portals that permits at-home workforce to view and edit consolidated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint configuration 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 consulting services, go to integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can retrieve them safely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-edit files. Edits made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's support services for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote support for enabling businesses to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive network architectures that include internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with public cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading family of cloud services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features more than one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office applications and services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent offers fast and easy remote access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with local Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to guide you through tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's top source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading set 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 you to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide transition to a from-home business model, which might be activated by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive team of online IT support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from initial service requests through ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables at-home employees to track or edit their active trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your current Support Desk organization by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk support services transparently between your in-house support organization and Progent's nationwide team of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to provide world-class desktop support to your at-home workforce, go to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
At-home employees commonly utilize their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user training, and the development of policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to design, deploy and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT resources in environments that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent works with both new and legacy security devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall support services.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various devices utilized by at-home workers and either block or spot and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the targeted device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this added form of ID validation including a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that incorporates remote workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably detecting a broad range of security holes that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with advanced credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your processes and policies and assess your network infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and restoring critical information so as to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time in the event of storage system problems resulting from equipment breakdowns, software hiccups, user mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a wide array of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly anticipate circumstances that require a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help your business to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized platform for protecting corporate data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share data, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workers, see Intune telecommuter device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For details about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing a productive telecommuter solution for your Fargo, North Dakota company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.