Cincinnati Work from Home Employees Connectivity Consulting Partner

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a significant impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Cincinnati organization to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns top value. Progent can provide support services ranging from as-needed guidance for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Cincinnati, Ohio businesses to with any facet of building a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk services, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you have to accommodate a mix of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from different manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing online help for both legacy and modern IT products in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to see and use a data center computer's desktop. This technology gives network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier remote support for integrating routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these issues by providing services that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Line-of-business applications may demand backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for identifying service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the business PBX system to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to plan or maintain a remote IP voice service that provides the versatility, convenience and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to assist businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed throughout the network. CUCM manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, refer to CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP platforms, refer to CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your wide area network infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad range of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many companies utilize a mix of products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to manage your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with features such as IP voice and video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist your business to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging information across a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help your company to deploy these critical collaboration products 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based delivery of data, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create secure web portals that enables remote workforce to view and update aggregated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, see 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. For details about Progent's Exchange support services, go to planning and configuration consulting for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can share them safely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-author files. Edits created offline are synced when you go back online. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide affordable remote support for helping organizations to create, manage and repair cohesive network models that incorporate physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a popular platform for cloud services that enables you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create secure access to Azure services for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with local Exchange environments, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you past challenging IT roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can help you make your critical applications cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist your business to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management technology to administer and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. For details, refer to Google Cloud Platform consulting support.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which could be the result of a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Call Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of online technical support specialists combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, modern Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to monitor or update the status of their active trouble tickets, enter details, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with advanced issues. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to expand your current Help Desk team by splitting responsibilities for Call Center support transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's extensive team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support model utilizing the number one PSA platform for handling help requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home workers commonly use their personal devices and often work in an unsecured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of IT security support consultants can assist you to plan, configure and manage an effective security solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network environment that can be securely utilized by local users and by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices utilized by teleworkers and either reject or spot and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly isolates the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and local security attacks for an environment that includes remote workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with advanced credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your operations and governance policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, rank, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper about key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital information in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system problems due to hardware breakdowns, software glitches, human error, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast online access to experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies often anticipate scenarios that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help you to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled 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 endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified platform for safeguarding corporate information by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, control how telecommuters share data, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For information about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help you to use this platform to manage the devices of your telecommuters, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter solution for your Cincinnati, Ohio organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.