Minneapolis At Home Workers Connectivity Support Partner

Expanding your remote workforce can have a major impact on IT infrastructure, security, and corporate processes. Progent has two decades of background helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Minneapolis company to pick the right tools and adhere to best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers top business value. Progent can provide services ranging from on demand expertise for helping you past occasional IT bottlenecks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Minneapolis, Minnesota businesses to succeed with any facet of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the network infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complex if you must accommodate a combination of personal hardware such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online help for both legacy and modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your existing infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity allows you to create a safe tunnel for authenticated remote workers to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a teleworker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers expert remote support for setting up home routers from a range of vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering services like Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Business-critical processes might demand redundant Internet connections in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide guidance for identifying Internet service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company phone environment to include telecommuters is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security needed for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends advanced IP telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to CUCM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, refer to CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide range of video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports presence, instant messaging, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support up to 32 concurrent users for voice/video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and 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 provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support services for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a wide selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can help your company to configure these critical 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 with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, audio/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 Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that permits remote workers to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, refer 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 expertise, go to deployment expertise for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them safely via a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to jointly author documents. Revisions created offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, visit Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent offers affordable online support for helping organizations to create, manage and optimize integrated hybrid network models that include physical data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus cloud resources. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred cloud-based services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create protected access to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, visit Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and households to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your at-home workers to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your telecommuters have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to plan, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local resources and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the move. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, go to Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help your organization to use GCP's unified management technology to control and track your GCP environment. To find out, see Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A rapid, company-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which might be driven by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center services leverage Progent's nationwide network of online technical support experts along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology 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 PC support from initial service requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or revise their current tickets, enter information, and upload screenshots or relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service enables you to augment your existing Help Desk Call Center team by splitting responsibilities for Call Center services transparently between your regular IT support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to deliver world-class technical support to your telecommuters, see Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home workers commonly utilize their personal computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user training, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran team of IT security support experts can assist you to plan, implement and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects critical information assets in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, vendors, customers, and the public. Modern firewall devices permit you to assign and manage different permissions to different groups of users and to scale your IT network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and older security appliances from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall configuration services, visit firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers utilized by at-home workers and either reject or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this second form of ID validation including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and internal security attacks for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by network security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your procedures and policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, prioritize, remediate, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's threat analysis services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage failures due to hardware breakdowns, software glitches, operator error, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate private data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for an at-home workforce must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online access to experts familiar with a broad range of products for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically envision scenarios that call for a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning specialists can help you to create, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft 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 mobile computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share information, set up threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For details about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the devices of your teleworkers, see Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint administration plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment through a perpetual license. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Minneapolis, Minnesota company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.