Lower Manhattan Remote Workforce Configuration Advisor

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a significant effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience helping SMBs to plan, configure, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Lower Manhattan organization to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers top business value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Lower Manhattan, New York organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform customization and training, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, data security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the network infrastructure required to support a remote workforce can be especially challenging if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from various vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing online support for both legacy as well as current technologies in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and offers fast access to top-tire consultants for making essential upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated at-home workers to access IT resources located at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist you to configure and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing online VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall consultants can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for safe VPN connections for a wide selection of endpoint devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a teleworker to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers substantial control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI consulting.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier online consulting for setting up home routers from all major vendors. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting families and visitors, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by delivering services that include Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration help.
• Internet access solutions affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company network. Mission-critical processes may require redundant Internet access in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying ISPs, picking sensible service bundles, and integrating fault-tolerant Internet access. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the corporate phone system to include telecommuters is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are used by small and mid-size businesses to server remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or older products for IP voice management. Progent can help organizations of any size to design or tune a telecommuter VoIP environment that provides the flexibility, transparency and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed across the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, see CUCM consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other older IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall such as at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your wide area network infrastructure to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of video conferencing platforms from leading vendors enable virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many companies use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent can assist you to maintain your current conferencing ecosystem and optimize the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist you to configure and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home employees. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 concurrent users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, visit 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 content with features such as IP voice and video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other 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 products and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Remote and Hybrid Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, offering a powerful ecosystem of productivity apps that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a broad range of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help your company to deploy these critical collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app 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 supporting its full range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by providing policy-based delivery of data, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build secure portals that allows at-home workers to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts. For information about Progent's SharePoint expertise, go to SharePoint configuration 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 consulting services, see deployment consulting for Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. Remote users can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can retrieve them securely through a web browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to co-edit documents. Edits made offline are automatically synced when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's support services for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent offers fast and affordable online assistance for enabling businesses to build, maintain and optimize cohesive network architectures that combine internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers fix issues with public cloud access, identity, and security.

Azure is a popular family of cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure includes over 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can assist you to deploy VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure Active Directory, and design data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure access to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud services offered by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist you to evaluate the various subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling you to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide as-needed assistance to get you through tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management services to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers quick and economical online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to design, deploy, manage, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to build a high-availability network model to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS consulting services.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading suite of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can show you how to make your mission-critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist you to utilize GCP's management technology to control and monitor your Google Cloud environment. For details, see Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Telecommuters
An emergency, organization-wide transition to a telecommuter business model, which might be motivated by an epidemic or as a component of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services make it possible for organizations to outsource or supplement their Support Desk with Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists along with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking software to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from initial help requests through trouble ticket generation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to check or update their active trouble tickets, enter information, and upload screen captures and relevant files. Support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical support rates, and Progent makes available the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to resolve advanced problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your current Help Desk staff by sharing delivery of Call Desk support services transparently between your regular support personnel and Progent's nationwide team of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Desk service uses a collaborative support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class technical support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for At-Home Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically utilize their personal computing devices and usually operate in a poorly secured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, thorough end-user education, and the development of policies built on leading practices. Progent's veteran roster of data security support experts can help you to plan, configure and maintain a compliant security solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewalls enable you to create a network that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, suppliers, customers, and the public. Modern firewall appliances allow you to assign and manage different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as network attacks grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older firewall devices from all leading manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices used by at-home workers and either reject or identify and respond to the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is installed on each protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning from SentinelOne to detect new attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the targeted endpoint device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for at-home workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a unit that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used for this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all types of outside and internal security threats for a network that incorporates telecommuters. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for rapidly and economically uncovering a broad range of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security experts with top credentials such as CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your operations and governance policies and assess your WAN architecture to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, prioritize, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your current security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to plan and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more information about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to focus on for protecting an IT environment that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Teleworkers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring vital data so as to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time in case of storage system problems resulting from equipment issues, software hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for telecommuters must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of platforms for backing up Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision circumstances that require a rapid switch to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity consultants can help you to create, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Remote Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms 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 offers a centralized platform for protecting critical information by controlling onsite, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and software. Managed endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of at-home workers can use Intune to deploy and validate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for permission to access data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, set up threat protection, ensure security compliance, and wipe sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. To find out about Intune and how Progent can help you to use this platform to manage the endpoint devices of your at-home workforce, visit Intune telecommuter device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by 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 via a perpetual license. Top capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud products. For information about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Lower Manhattan, New York company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.