Scottsdale Telecommuters Integration Consulting Company

Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a major impact on network infrastructure, security/compliance, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Scottsdale company to pick the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over challenging technical roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Scottsdale, Arizona companies to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a mix of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering online support for both legacy as well as current technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making necessary updates. Support services available from Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authorized at-home employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a broad range of devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a telecommuter to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This gives network managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide expert remote support for integrating routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting the whole family and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and security issues. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by delivering services that include Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business processes may require backup Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate service bundles, and setting up redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for At-Home Workers
Extending the company phone system to include remote users is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a remote VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist organizations tune their existing Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with public telephony networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help you to maintain your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's support services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing 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 conversations, contacts, and information with features such as video conferencing, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, offering a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface 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 original releases and can assist businesses to configure these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity 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 deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, 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 relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that enables remote workers to view and update consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint expertise, see 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. For information about Progent's Exchange consulting services, refer to integration expertise for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can retrieve them securely through a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent can provide affordable online support for helping organizations to build, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features over one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create secure access to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to assess the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts can provide as-needed help to guide you past tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can assist your business to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to build a high-availability network architecture so your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and track your Google Cloud environment. For information, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
A sudden, organization-wide transition to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or supplement their Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or update the status of their active trouble tickets, add information, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to supplement your existing Support Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Call Desk support services seamlessly between your regular support organization and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support model utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to provide world-class IT support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly utilize their personal computing devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive end-user education, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of data security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical IT assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to create a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and control appropriate permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, visit firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers used by telecommuters and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new threats on arrival. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the impacted device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this second form of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by network security experts with top credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your operations and policies and review your WAN architecture to enable you to design the highest level of security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about key things to concentrate on for securing a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical data in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in case of storage problems due to equipment breakdowns, programming glitches, human error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning specialists can help you to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and delete corporate information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune mobile endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for authorization control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Scottsdale, Arizona organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.