Cambridge Telecommuters Integration Support

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a significant effect on IT architecture, security, and company processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Cambridge organization to pick the right tools and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns top value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand expertise for helping you over occasional IT roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Cambridge, United Kingdom businesses to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Help Desk augmentation, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you must manage a mix of worker-owned equipment like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering online support for both legacy and current IT products in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity allows you to establish a secure connection for authorized at-home workers to access IT assets situated at your company data center or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable a teleworker to view and interact with a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the digital ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote support for integrating routers from all major manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist you to resolve these issues by providing services that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Line-of-business processes might require redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection fails. Progent offers expertise for picking ISPs, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the business PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX products are popular with SMBs to support teleworkers. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan or maintain a telecommuter IP voice environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to assist organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia applications deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help your company to support your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice products, refer to CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter such as at-home workers. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network infrastructure to support these solutions and provide online integration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Remote Workers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from major technology companies support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies utilize multiple products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's support services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities that include IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and help you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Teleworkers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 suites, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize the productivity of your remote 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 supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, 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 Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that enables at-home workforce to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint expertise, 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. For details about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to integration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can store files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can share them securely through a web browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Teleworkers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish protected access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft Azure, see Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity software and cloud-based services offered by subscription. Microsoft apps and services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent offers quick and easy online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration services.

Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for as-needed help to guide you past challenging technical bottlenecks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to make sure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the world's top source of cloud services. Progent can provide quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your organization to design, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information 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 model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud is a popular suite of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help you to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready 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 streamline identity control for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to utilize GCP's unified management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A rapid, company-wide switchover to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for businesses to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an economical, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to check or edit the status of their current trouble tickets, enter details, and append screenshots or relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your company to supplement your existing Help Desk staff by splitting delivery of Call Desk services seamlessly between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's nationwide pool of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collaborative support model based on the leading PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can help your business to deliver world-class technical support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their personal devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical environment. This multiplies their vulnerability to cyber attacks and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support experts can help your business to design, configure and manage a compliant security solution that protects vital information resources in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls enable you to build a network that can be safely accessed by local users and by at-home workers, mobile employees, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage different access rights to different groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security as your business evolves and as network attacks become more complex. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various devices used by remote workers and either block or spot and respond to the latest cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every secured endpoint device, watching all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify new threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices remain protected even if they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized for this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory scanning for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can help you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment services based on on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To view or download a white paper about critical things to focus on for protecting a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in the event of storage system problems due to hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, human error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for remote workers must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online help from experts familiar with a broad array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/restore products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features granular recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies often envision circumstances that call for a temporary changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity consultants can assist your company to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of moving to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized solution for safeguarding critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and authenticate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, verify compliance, and erase corporate information from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint devices of your telecommuters, see Intune mobile device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered 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 deployment of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your Cambridge, United Kingdom organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.