Memphis Remote Workforce Configuration Consulting Company

Enlarging your remote workforce may have a significant effect on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has two decades of background helping small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can help your Memphis organization to select the right technologies and adhere to best practices in building and operating a safe virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past occasional technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Memphis, Tennessee organizations to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning telecommuting environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, Help Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be particularly complex if you must accommodate a mix of personal hardware such as PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both outdated as well as modern technologies in virtual office venues enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for making essential updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a productive telecommuting infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to create a secure tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT assets located at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad selection of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable a telecommuter to view and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives network managers significant control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert remote consulting for configuring routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting an entire household and guests, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can help you to resolve these problems by providing services that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes might demand redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting service providers, choosing sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and setting up redundant Internet access. See Internet access integration services.

VoIP Solutions for Remote Workers
Extending the business PBX system to accommodate telecommuters is vital to supporting a productive at-home workforce. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can help organizations of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter IP voice service that delivers the flexibility, convenience and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, visit Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your existing CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating outside the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide online deployment and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from major vendors support virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help you to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 concurrent users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or 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 IP video solutions 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 portal for conversations, contacts, and content with capabilities that include voice/video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these products and help you to optimize your network architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich environment of applications that create a cohesive user interface for sharing information across a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist your company to deploy these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your at-home 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 deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build protected web portals that enables remote workers to view and edit consolidated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint integration and 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 find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to integration consulting services for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues anywhere can access them securely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to co-edit files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, go to Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers advanced remote support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and repair cohesive hybrid network models that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide 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 teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over one hundred services services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and design backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected connections to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, see Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Microsoft applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans intended for users ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to guide you past challenging technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's expertise for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud services. Progent offers quick and economical online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to design, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to build a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud is a popular suite of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your organization to scale your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also assist you to use GCP's unified management technology to control and track your GCP ecosystem. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a from-home business model, which could be driven by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations to outsource or supplement their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of online technical support experts along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an economical, modern Help Desk Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal enables from-home workers to track or update their current tickets, enter information, and append screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with advanced issues. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your existing Support Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk services transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive roster of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service uses a collaborative support model based on the number one professional services automation platform for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. For details about how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your at-home employees, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
At-home workers typically utilize their personal devices and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber attacks and calls for judicious configuration of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, thorough end-user training, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security support consultants can assist your business to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile users, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to configure and control appropriate access rights to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats become more complex. Progent supports both current and older security devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration expertise, visit firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers used by an at-home workforce and either block or identify and respond to the latest cyber attacks like ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on each secured endpoint, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify new attacks on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately isolates the impacted device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints stay protected even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, go to remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and give your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used for this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several verification devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the vulnerability of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy online, automated security inventory software for rapidly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by data security experts with top certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist you to evaluate your operations and policies and assess your network architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, remediate, and verify security weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical information in order to avoid data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in the event of storage system problems due to hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, user mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate in-house data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery solutions for telecommuters must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from experts knowledgeable about a broad array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/restore products supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features granular restore and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically anticipate circumstances that call for a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity planning specialists can assist your business to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of moving to an at-home workforce.

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 mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and securing off-premises devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on managed devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for accessing information and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, control how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune can be used with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. To find out about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your at-home workers, go to Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for authorization control, application management, and setup management of endpoint computers. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, 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-premises product through a one-time purchase. Top features of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To get in touch with Progent about creating and maintaining an efficient telecommuter environment for your Memphis, Tennessee business, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.