Los Angeles Telecommuters Solutions Consultants

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a significant impact on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Los Angeles company to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you over challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Los Angeles, California companies to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially complex if you must manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote help for both outdated and current IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad range of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products enable a teleworker to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for integrating home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical processes might require backup Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting ISPs, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business phone environment to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP products are used by SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP service that provides the flexibility, convenience and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users working outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN architecture to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of video conferencing products from major technology companies enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can help you to manage your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with features that include voice/video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist your business to optimize your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to configure 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/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 (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-based delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create protected web portals that allows remote workers to see and update consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go to SharePoint configuration 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. For information about Progent's Exchange expertise, see deployment consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping organizations to build, manage and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that include internal data centers, teleworkers, branches, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a leading platform for public cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are marketed in a variety of plans intended for users ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower costs for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to get you past challenging IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud integration experts who can assist your business to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify access control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist you to use GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. For details, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Teleworkers
A fast, enterprise-wide switchover to a from-home business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of online IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from help requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or edit the status of their active trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with complex problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service enables you to supplement your current Call Desk staff by sharing delivery of Call Center support transparently between your regular IT support organization and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution based on the number one PSA tool for handling service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. To find out how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
At-home workers commonly use their personal devices and often work in an unsecured physical area. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security solutions consultants can assist your business to design, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and manage appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both current and older firewall appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices used by telecommuters and either reject or identify and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to verify your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security professionals with advanced credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your operations and governance policies and review your network architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more information about Progent's threat assessment services based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper about critical things to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical data so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures resulting from equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must cover diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly envision scenarios that call for a quick changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for protecting corporate information by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share data, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and wipe corporate information from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For information about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Top features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Los Angeles, California organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.