Pasadena Offsite Workforce Configuration Consulting and Support

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a major impact on IT architecture, security, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting SMBs to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Pasadena organization to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in building and operating a secure virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and returns top value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed expertise for getting you over occasional technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Pasadena, California businesses to with any facet of creating a high-functioning remote work ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk outsourcing, security and compliance, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote work environment can be particularly challenging if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both legacy as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to use IT resources situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote computer's desktop. This gives network managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers expert remote support for integrating home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by delivering services that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Mission-critical processes may demand redundant Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking sensible service packages, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for Teleworkers
Expanding the corporate PBX environment to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to server telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of any size to plan or maintain a remote IP voice environment that provides the versatility, convenience and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations optimize their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) extends high-end telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online configuration and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad range of voice/video conferencing platforms from major technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize multiple products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other video conferencing solutions 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 IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can help businesses to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, 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 (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based access to content, business processes, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that allows remote workers to view and edit consolidated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint configuration and application development consulting.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit integration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-author documents. Edits created offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for helping businesses to create, maintain and repair integrated hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branches, and public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create protected connections to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from students and households to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide occasional help to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your teleworkers have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the world's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can assist your organization to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to create a high-availability network architecture so your users have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud is a leading set of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your business to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage, and simplify identity control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and track your GCP environment. To learn, see Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which might be driven by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses to outsource or supplement their Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support experts combined with world-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to track or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add details, and upload screen captures and attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve complex problems. For more information, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service enables you to supplement your current Help Desk Call Center staff by sharing delivery of Call Center services transparently between your regular support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collective 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. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your telecommuters, refer to Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees typically utilize their personal computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough user education, and the development of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of data security solutions consultants can help you to design, configure and manage an effective security solution that guards vital information resources in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be safely accessed by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and control different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration services, refer to firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers utilized by at-home workers and either reject or spot and mitigate the latest threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to identify zero-day attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the impacted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of ID validation including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can deploy remote, automated security analysis software for rapidly and affordably detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced credentials including CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your procedures and governance policies and review your WAN architecture to enable 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 autonomous testing of your at-home environment and your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security profile. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for protecting an IT environment that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, operator mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for remote workers must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often envision scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help you to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

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

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 protecting remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, determine how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, verify compliance, and delete sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. For information about Intune and how Progent can assist you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Pasadena, California organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.