Birmingham At Home Workers Connectivity Consulting Company

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of background assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Birmingham organization to pick the right technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns top business value. Progent offers support services ranging from as-needed expertise for getting you past occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Birmingham, Alabama organizations to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-at-home environment by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk augmentation, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the network infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be especially complex if you have to manage a mix of personal hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering online help for both legacy as well as modern technologies in virtual office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to use IT assets located at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This gives IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online support for configuring home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by providing services like Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes may demand backup Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for picking ISPs, selecting appropriate service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Expanding the business phone environment to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that provides the versatility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed across the network. CUCM supports additional mixed 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, see Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with users working 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 current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your wide area network infrastructure to work with these solutions and provide online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from major vendors support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for other video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user interface for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can assist your company to configure these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize 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 with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based access to data, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build protected portals that enables at-home workforce to see and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer to SharePoint integration and 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 services, see deployment expertise for Microsoft Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can retrieve them securely through a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. For details about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Remote Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote assistance for enabling organizations to build, maintain and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create protected access to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's consulting services for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity software and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are provided in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's support services for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud is a popular set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify identity control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which could be motivated by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Support Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online IT support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an economical, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from initial help requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or revise the status of their active tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots and attachments. Support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your current Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting delivery of Help Desk Call Center support services seamlessly between your regular support staff and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Call Desk service uses a collaborative support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide best-in-class desktop support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their personal computing devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of data security solutions experts can help your business to plan, configure and manage an effective security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and control different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration services, see firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers used by teleworkers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on every secured endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the infected endpoint from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to verify your identity via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized for this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of external and local security threats for an environment that includes remote workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with top certifications such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your processes and policies and review your network infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, prioritize, remediate, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional details about Progent's vulnerability analysis services based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for protecting a network that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical information so as to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, software glitches, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must cover diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• 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 preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can help your company to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving 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 management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for safeguarding critical data by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share information, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To find out about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized MDM platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoints current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Birmingham, Alabama company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.