Irvine Offsite Workforce Integration Support and Consulting

Expanding your at-home workforce can have a major impact on IT architecture, security/compliance, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping businesses of all sizes to plan, configure, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Irvine organization to pick the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you over challenging technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Irvine, California organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing telecommuting ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed for an at-home work environment can be particularly complex if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote support for both legacy and current technologies in remote office venues enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to create a secure connection for authenticated at-home workers to access IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a teleworker to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier online support for deploying home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by delivering services like Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP integration help.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Business-critical processes might require backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting service providers, picking appropriate service bundles, and integrating high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Extending the business phone system to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or maintain a remote VoIP environment that provides the versatility, convenience and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help businesses optimize their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia software deployed across the network. CUCM supports other combined media services such as unified messaging, video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with public telephony networks and with users working outside the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide as-needed deployment and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from leading technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many companies utilize multiple products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent can assist you to manage your current conferencing environment and enhance the experience of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex and for other video conferencing 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 hub for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities such as video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging expertise for these products and help your business to optimize your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first publication and can help businesses to tune these critical collaboration platforms to optimize 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 provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as 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 called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build secure web portals that allows remote workforce to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, visit SharePoint integration 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 details about Progent's Exchange support services, visit integration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can access them safely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to co-author files. Edits created offline are uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair integrated hybrid network architectures that include physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist your organization to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create protected access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on 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 deploy 365 apps for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's biggest source of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to plan, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular suite of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify identity management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist your organization to use GCP's unified management tools to administer and track your GCP ecosystem. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration services.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide switchover to a teleworker business model, which could be the result of an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive network of online IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial service requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to monitor or revise the status of their current tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service allows your company to expand your existing Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk services seamlessly between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the number one PSA platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. For information about how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to provide best-in-class IT support to your telecommuters, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
At-home staff members commonly utilize their own devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of security policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to design, configure and manage a compliant security solution that guards critical information resources in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and control different access rights to various classes of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older firewall devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, go to firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this second means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and local security attacks for an environment that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by data security experts with advanced certifications including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to audit your workflows and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to allow you to implement top-level protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, remediate, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's vulnerability analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection covers saving and restoring vital information in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming glitches, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must address diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from experts knowledgeable about a wide range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically envision scenarios that require a quick switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning specialists can help your business to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for protecting critical information by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase sensitive information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To find out about Intune and how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified MDM platform that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a one-time purchase. Top features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter solution for your Irvine, California organization, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.