Milwaukee Work at Home Employees Configuration Support Services

Expanding your remote workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, security/compliance, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Milwaukee company to select the right tools and follow leading practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual office solution for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Milwaukee, Wisconsin companies to with any facet of creating a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud connectivity, helpdesk services, security monitoring, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you must manage a combination of worker-owned equipment like PCs and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated and current technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to access IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can help your company 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 firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the computing ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online consulting for deploying routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by providing services like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration help.
• Internet access solutions impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Vital applications may require backup Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate service bundles, and integrating high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business phone environment to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP products are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps used throughout the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to CUCM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist you to support your current CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, visit CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to support these solutions and provide online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide selection of video conferencing products from major vendors support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to support your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with features that include video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these products and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful environment of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration products to maximize 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 supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely 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 full range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based access to data, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected web portals that permits at-home workforce to see and edit aggregated corporate intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration 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. For information about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to OneDrive, and colleagues can retrieve them securely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and repair integrated hybrid network models that incorporate internal data centers, telecommuters, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers fix problems with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure for remote workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of business productivity software and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans designed for users ranging from individuals and households to large enterprises. Progent offers quick and affordable online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. For information about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the benefits of reduced costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and additional benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing you to build hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your teleworkers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and economical online contact with cloud integration experts who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting support.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a popular collection of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your organization to extend your current IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP environment. To find out, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Support for At-Home Workers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which might be activated by a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts along with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to provide an economical, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or edit their current trouble tickets, add details, and upload screen captures or relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with advanced problems. To find out more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to supplement your existing Support Desk staff by sharing responsibilities for Call Desk services transparently between your regular support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Help Desk Call Center service uses a collaborative support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to provide world-class technical support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home employees typically utilize their own computing devices and usually work in a poorly secured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to malware attacks and calls for careful configuration of firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of data security support experts can assist you to plan, implement and maintain an effective security solution that protects critical information assets in networks that include an at-home workforce.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be securely utilized by local users and by telecommuters, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices permit you to configure and control different access rights to various groups of users and to expand your network and modify your security as your company evolves and as network attacks grow increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall appliances from all major vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration services, refer to firewall support expertise.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate computers utilized by remote workers and either reject or spot and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new attacks before they can spread. When an attack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoints stay secure even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, see remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured application and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple verification devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security threats for an environment that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your procedures and policies and assess your network architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, prioritize, fix, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional information about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, visit 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 critical areas to focus on for securing a network that supports work-from-home staff, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical information in order to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in case of storage problems due to equipment issues, programming hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for telecommuters must address diverse types of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online access to experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans often anticipate scenarios that call for a rapid switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist your business to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for protecting critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting mobile devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workers, see Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment via a perpetual license. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing an efficient work-from-home solution for your Milwaukee, Wisconsin company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.