Sacramento Telecommuters Integration Consulting

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Sacramento organization to pick the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you over occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent can help Sacramento, California businesses to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed for an at-home workforce can be especially complex if you must manage a combination of personal equipment like PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from various vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online help for both outdated and current IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to access IT assets situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote computer's desktop. This gives IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for configuring home routers from a range of vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by families and guests, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by providing services that include Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications might demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers guidance for identifying service providers, selecting appropriate service offerings, and configuring fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the business phone system to include remote users is vital to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and security needed for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional combined media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help you to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, visit CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies support online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling app for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for additional IP video solutions 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 content with capabilities such as IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms 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 tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, offering a powerful environment of applications that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help your company to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

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

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as 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 branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that enables remote workers to view and edit aggregated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, visit SharePoint configuration and development expertise.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, go to deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can retrieve them safely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-edit files. Revisions made offline are synced when you go back online. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create secure access to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity software and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Office applications and services are provided in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers top business value. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to get you past challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to ensure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can assist your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to build a high-availability network architecture so your users have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to 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 help you to scale your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help you to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your business to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP ecosystem. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
An emergency, company-wide transition to a telecommuter workforce, which could be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk support services leverage Progent's extensive team of online IT support experts combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from help requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to monitor or update the status of their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or attachments. Support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support charges, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with advanced issues. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to augment your current Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting delivery of Call Desk support seamlessly between your regular support organization and Progent's nationwide team of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support model utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home staff members commonly use their own devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This multiplies their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of data security solutions consultants can help your business to design, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be securely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and control appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security devices from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration services, visit firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers utilized by telecommuters and either reject or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on each protected endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the impacted device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoints stay secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification on iOS, Google 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 on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized for this second means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a wide variety 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 credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your procedures and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper describing critical areas to focus on for protecting an IT environment that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital data in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage system failures due to equipment breakdowns, software hiccups, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for telecommuters must address diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online access to consultants familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning specialists can assist you to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled 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 onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for protecting critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune remote device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management platform that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and managing a productive telecommuter environment for your Sacramento, California organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.