Grand Rapids Work from Home Employees Connectivity Consultants

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a major impact on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Grand Rapids organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and operating a secure virtual office ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for helping you past occasional technical bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Grand Rapids, Michigan companies to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home environment by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the network infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be especially complex if you have to manage a combination of personal equipment such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote help for both outdated as well as modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for implement essential upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help you to implement a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN connections for a broad selection of devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable a telecommuter to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This technology gives IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier online support for setting up routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless access point integration help.
• Internet access solutions affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Vital applications may require redundant Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting service providers, selecting appropriate service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Expanding the company phone environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or maintain a remote IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to help businesses tune their existing Cisco IP voice environments to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major vendors support virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help you to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports 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 can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's support expertise for Webex and for other video conferencing products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that create a consistent user interface for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration platforms to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workers.

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 integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to promote collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that permits remote workers to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, see SharePoint integration and application 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 details about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, refer to deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them safely through a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables remote employees to jointly author files. Edits created offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for helping organizations to build, maintain and optimize cohesive network architectures that combine physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of 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 resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of cloud services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, visit Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are provided in a selection of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy online access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to get you through challenging technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's leading source of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your organization to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to expand your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can help you make your critical apps cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To find out, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Telecommuters
A fast, organization-wide switchover to a telecommuter business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from initial service requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to check or revise their current tickets, enter details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced issues. For more information, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Support Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to supplement your current Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk services seamlessly between your regular support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service uses a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For details about how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide world-class IT support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
At-home staff members typically use their personal devices and often work in a poorly secured physical space. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough user training, and the creation of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of data security solutions experts can assist you to plan, configure and manage an effective security solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and control different access rights to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration services, go to firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices utilized by an at-home workforce and either reject or spot and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the infected device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this added form of ID validation including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. For details about Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that incorporates teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis software for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be managed by security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your workflows and policies and review your network infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of security for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, rank, remediate, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's vulnerability analysis services powered by on NodeZero's penetration test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Platform.

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

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and restoring critical information in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage system failures due to equipment breakdowns, programming hiccups, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to design and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for at-home workers must address diverse types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a wide range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and features granular recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically envision circumstances that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help you to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized platform for safeguarding corporate information by managing onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can utilize Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share data, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and wipe corporate data from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune mobile device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Grand Rapids, Michigan business, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.