Oklahoma CIty At Home Workforce Configuration Consulting Company

Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a major effect on IT infrastructure, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of background helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Oklahoma CIty company to pick the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and returns top value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you over occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Oklahoma CIty, Oklahoma organizations to with any aspect of building a high-functioning work-from-home environment by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be especially challenging if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background providing online support for both legacy as well as modern technologies in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT assets located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can help you to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a wide range of devices such as Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This gives network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for configuring home routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically shared by families and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as security problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by providing services like Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
• Internet access methods affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes may demand backup Internet access in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking sensible service packages, and configuring redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Expanding the company phone environment to include remote users is critical to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP management. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the versatility, convenience and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can assist you to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and provide online configuration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide range of video conferencing products from leading vendors support virtual meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your current conferencing environment and optimize the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support services for Cisco Webex and for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video conferencing, threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist you to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can assist businesses to deploy these critical collaboration products to optimize 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build secure portals that enables at-home workers to see and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go to 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. To find out about Progent's Exchange consulting services, see integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them safely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-edit documents. Revisions created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote assistance for helping businesses to build, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network models that incorporate physical data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes more than 100 services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for physical infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide occasional assistance to guide you through challenging technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to cloud connectivity experts who can assist your business to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud (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 experts can help your business to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage, and simplify access control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your business to use GCP's unified management tools to control and track your GCP ecosystem. For details, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, organization-wide switchover to a telecommuter workforce, which might be the result of a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses to outsource or supplement their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support experts along with world-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or update the status of their active tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent offers the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex issues. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables your business to augment your current Call Desk team by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk support seamlessly between your regular support personnel and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support solution utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class technical support to your from-home workers, go to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their own computers and often work in an unsecured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of IT security solutions consultants can help your business to plan, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that protects vital information assets in networks that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to configure and control different access rights to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older security appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, go to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices utilized by telecommuters and either block or spot and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to allow you to design the highest level of protection for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, prioritize, remediate, and confirm security vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can evaluate 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 strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's penetration test platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital data so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage problems resulting from equipment issues, software glitches, user mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for telecommuters must cover multiple types of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast remote help from consultants familiar with a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often envision circumstances that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can help your business to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized platform for safeguarding corporate data by controlling local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and validate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To find out about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, see Intune telecommuter device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple 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 product through a perpetual license. Key features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Oklahoma CIty, Oklahoma company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.