Salem Work from Home Employees Connectivity Support Partner

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a major impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Salem organization to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Salem, Oregon organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk augmentation, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure required for a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from different manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online help for both outdated and current IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN technology allows you to create a safe tunnel for authorized at-home workers to use IT resources located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help your company to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a wide selection of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for deploying home routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by families and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as security issues. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by delivering services that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet access methods affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Business-critical applications may demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for identifying service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the company PBX environment to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are used by SMBs to support teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or tune a remote VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers enterprise telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice products, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed integration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations use a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your existing conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities 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 help your company to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details 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 provide configuration and debugging services for these products and assist your business to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoints. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can assist businesses to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your remote 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 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 can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that enables at-home workers to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer to 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 find out about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues can access them safely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent offers advanced online support for helping businesses to create, manage and optimize integrated network models that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Azure, go to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a selection of bundles intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help you to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to guide you through tough technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the world's biggest source of cloud services. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with cloud integration experts who can assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For details about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular suite of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline identity management for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A rapid, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as an element of a business continuity plan, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, advanced Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to track or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add details, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced problems. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service allows your company to supplement your existing Help Desk staff by sharing delivery of Support Desk services transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collective support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your teleworkers, see Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home workers typically utilize their own computers and usually work in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and requires careful deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned team of IT security solutions consultants can help your business to design, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to configure and manage different access rights to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent works with both new and older security appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall configuration services, see firewall support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the various computers used by at-home workers and either reject or spot and respond to modern cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, when you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized for this second means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and internal security threats for an environment that incorporates remote workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be managed by security professionals with top credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your processes and policies and review your network architecture to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital information so as to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system problems due to hardware breakdowns, software glitches, human mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online help from consultants familiar with a broad array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically envision scenarios that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can help your business to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for safeguarding critical information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter environment for your Salem, Oregon business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.