Mobile At Home Workforce Connectivity Consulting

Expanding your telecommuter workforce may have a significant effect on IT architecture, security, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of background helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Mobile company to select the right tools and adhere to leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Mobile, Alabama businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Help Desk services, data security, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required to support an at-home work environment can be especially complicated if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote support for both legacy as well as current technologies in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist you to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• VPN technology allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated at-home workers to use IT resources situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can help your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad range of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow an at-home worker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This gives IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for setting up routers from a range of vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically supporting families and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these problems by providing expertise that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP setup assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business applications may require backup Internet access in case the normal connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting ISPs, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for an At-Home Workforce
Expanding the company phone system to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting an effective at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-centric digital PBX products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for IP voice solutions. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or maintain a remote IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to assist businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media applications deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager environment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, visit CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to expand your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and provide on-demand integration and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad range of video conferencing products from major technology companies enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the experience of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that supports presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with features that include IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these products and help you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a powerful environment of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original releases and can help your company to tune these critical collaboration products to optimize 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 integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings that include 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 called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint enables you to create protected portals that permits remote workers to see and update consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint support services, go 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 consulting services, visit integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them safely through a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-edit documents. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent can provide advanced online assistance for helping businesses to build, maintain and troubleshoot cohesive network models that include physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular family of public cloud services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure features over one hundred cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve top business value. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with local Exchange environments, enabling customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to guide you past challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer comprehensive project management services to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your business to design, implement, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular collection of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to expand your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your key applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access control for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also assist you to use GCP's management technology to control and monitor your GCP environment. For details, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
An emergency, company-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which could be the result of a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a well-staffed in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or supplement their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's extensive network of online IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to offer an affordable, modern Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all facets of online Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident 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 screenshots and attachments. Support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent offers optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with complex issues. For details, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables you to augment your current Call Desk organization by splitting delivery of Help Desk support transparently between your regular support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To find out how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to provide world-class technical support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
At-home employees commonly utilize their own computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical space. This multiplies their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support experts can help you to design, configure and maintain an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical information resources in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to build a network that can be securely utilized by local users and by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks become more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall support expertise, visit firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the various devices used by teleworkers and either reject or identify and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint agent is installed on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is autonomous, endpoints stay protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a unit that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this second means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. For details about Duo identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security threats for an environment that includes an at-home workforce. Progent can run online, automated security inventory scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your business to audit your operations and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to allow you to implement top-level security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you identify, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides optimum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's threat assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key areas to concentrate on for securing an IT environment that incorporates telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring critical data so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage problems resulting from equipment issues, programming hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to design and manage in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick online access to experts familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly anticipate scenarios that require a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager features a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by controlling on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how home-based workers share data, set up threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your teleworkers, visit Intune remote endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Top features of Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Mobile, Alabama business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.