Springfield Remote Workforce Connectivity Consulting Company

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a major impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Springfield organization to select the appropriate tools and adhere to leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over challenging IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Springfield, Illinois companies to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home workforce can be especially challenging if you must accommodate a combination of worker-owned equipment like PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering remote support for both legacy and modern IT products in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for making essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authorized remote workers to access IT resources located at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can help you to configure and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable a teleworker to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote support for integrating home routers from a range of manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by families and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by delivering services that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Mission-critical applications might demand backup Internet access in case the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the company phone system to include telecommuters is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based VoIP products are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection required for remote users. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide high-level support to help businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps used throughout the network. CUCM manages additional combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP products, visit CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to support these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading technology companies support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent can help you to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. For details 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 iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's support services for Webex and for additional IP video products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your network infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize 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. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build protected web portals that enables at-home workforce to view and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to 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. For information about Progent's Exchange consulting services, go to deployment consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them securely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to jointly author files. Edits made offline are uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent can provide advanced online support for helping businesses to create, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network models that incorporate physical data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure access to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Azure, see Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and services are marketed in a variety of plans designed for users ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers quick and easy remote access to consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to assess the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local Exchange environments, allowing you to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's top provider of cloud services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online contact with cloud integration experts who can help your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading set of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key applications cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist you to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for at-home workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist you to utilize GCP's management technology to administer and track your GCP environment. To learn, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Remote Workers
A rapid, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or supplement their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests to ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or revise the status of their active tickets, enter information, and append screen captures or relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with complex problems. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small companies.
• Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Service enables you to expand your current Support Desk organization by sharing responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center services seamlessly between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a collective support model utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver world-class desktop support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees typically use their personal computers and usually operate in an unsecured physical area. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of data security solutions experts can help your business to design, configure and maintain an effective security solution that protects critical IT assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable you to create a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and control appropriate permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent works with both new and older security appliances from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration expertise, see firewall integration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this second form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity validation services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all classes of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be managed by network security experts with top credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your workflows and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, fix, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional details about Progent's vulnerability analysis services based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for protecting an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring vital information so as to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system problems due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for an at-home workforce must cover diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast online help from consultants familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery products supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help your company to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Endpoint Manager offers a unified solution for protecting corporate data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. Network administrators managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share information, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive data from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. To find out about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. For information 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 work-from-home solution for your Springfield, Illinois company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.