Chicago Teleworkers Connectivity Consulting Experts

Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a significant impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to design, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Chicago company to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in creating and operating a safe virtual office solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and returns maximum business value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for getting you over challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent can help Chicago, Illinois organizations to with any aspect of building a high-functioning remote work environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk outsourcing, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be particularly challenging if you must manage a combination of personal hardware like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing online help for both legacy and modern technologies in remote office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• VPN connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated remote workers to access IT assets located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to deploy and maintain VPN access between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow an at-home worker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers expert online support for integrating routers from a variety of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting the whole family and visitors, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by providing expertise that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti wireless AP integration help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Business-critical processes might require redundant Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for picking ISPs, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and integrating high-availability Internet connections. See Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the corporate PBX system to accommodate remote users is vital to supporting an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of any size to design or maintain a remote VoIP environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia apps used across the network. CUCM manages other combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to support your current CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand deployment and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A broad selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies support online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and telecommuters. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications platform that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and 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 consultants who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video calls. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex and for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities such as video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your WAN infrastructure to run them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office suites, providing a powerful ecosystem of applications that create a consistent user interface for sharing information across a corporate network and on a broad selection of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can help businesses to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize the productivity 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 deliver 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, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to create protected portals that permits remote workforce to view and edit consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, visit 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, see planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can share them securely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home workers to co-author documents. Edits made offline are uploaded when you go back online. For information about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote support for enabling organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, telecommuters, branches, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud connectivity, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers more than one hundred services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure connections to Azure for remote workers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Azure, go to Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office applications and services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from students and small offices to large corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run smoothly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, enabling customers to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional help to guide you through tough IT bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to ensure your at-home workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your business to plan, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading set of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and streamline identity control for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's consultants can also assist your business to utilize GCP's management technology to control and track your Google Cloud environment. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Services for At-Home Workers
An emergency, enterprise-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a business continuity process, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services utilize Progent's extensive network of online technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from help requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or edit their active tickets, add details, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers optional rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. To find out more, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service enables you to expand your existing Call Center organization by sharing delivery of Call Center support services transparently between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a collaborative support model utilizing the number one PSA tool for handling service requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Augmentation Services can enable your company to provide best-in-class technical support to your at-home workforce, see Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members commonly utilize their own computers and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user training, and the development of security policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to design, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards vital IT assets in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile users, suppliers, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy security appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers utilized by at-home workers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is put on every protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to identify new attacks on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the targeted endpoint from the network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used for this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your information system to all types of outside and internal security attacks for an environment that includes teleworkers. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by network security experts with advanced certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help you to audit your operations and governance policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, remediate, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional details about Progent's vulnerability assessment services powered by on NodeZero's pentest products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

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

Data Protection for Remote Workers
Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in the event of storage system failures due to hardware issues, software glitches, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate private data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must address multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent can provide fast online access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes fine-grained restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly anticipate scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity specialists can help your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

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

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and software. Managed endpoint computers can be personally owned or business owned. IT admins managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for permission to access data and networks, manage passwords, create VPN tunnels, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To learn about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management platform that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing a productive work-from-home solution for your Chicago, Illinois business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.