Corpus Christi At Home Workers Solutions Support Services

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a major effect on IT infrastructure, security, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Corpus Christi organization to pick the appropriate technologies and follow best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that facilitates teamwork and delivers top value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you past occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Corpus Christi, Texas businesses to with any facet of building a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the network infrastructure needed for an at-home work environment can be especially complex if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware such as desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing remote support for both legacy as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for integrating home routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by an entire household and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can create throughput and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital processes may demand backup Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for picking ISPs, selecting appropriate service packages, and configuring high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the corporate PBX system to accommodate remote users is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. CUCM manages other combined media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A wide range of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable online discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies utilize multiple products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to 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 content with capabilities such as video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user interface for sharing information across multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity 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 provide real-time collaboration. Designed 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 app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based delivery of content, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that enables remote workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, go to SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

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

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them securely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows remote workers to jointly author files. Edits created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers fast and affordable online support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure connections to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and services are provided in a variety of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible client devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers to achieve maximum business value. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you past challenging IT roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to ensure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest source of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your business to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can help you make your key applications cloud friendly so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your organization to use GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP environment. For details, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Services for Remote Workers
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be activated by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even the most efficient internal Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to check or revise the status of their active trouble tickets, add information, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced issues. For details, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to supplement your current Support Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk services seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Desk service uses a collective support solution utilizing the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For details about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your business to provide best-in-class technical support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Support Desk augmentation Services.

Security for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly use their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user training, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions experts can help your business to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital IT assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to various classes of users and to scale your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate computers utilized by at-home workers and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on each protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the impacted device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced credentials such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your processes and policies and review your WAN infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, prioritize, fix, and verify security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your network security and can help you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's threat analysis services based on on NodeZero's PEN test products, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

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

Data Protection for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and restoring critical data in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage failures due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for remote workers must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick remote help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of products for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often anticipate circumstances that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for safeguarding corporate information by controlling onsite, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate apps on devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how teleworkers share data, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, go to Intune remote endpoint 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 up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, aggregated reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To learn about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Corpus Christi, Texas organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.