Downers Grove Teleworkers Configuration Support

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, security/compliance, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of background assisting businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can assist your Downers Grove organization to pick the right technologies and adhere to best practices in creating and maintaining a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that facilitates collaboration and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand expertise for getting you past challenging technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Downers Grove, Illinois organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-functioning remote work environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud connectivity, Call Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from various manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote help for both outdated as well as current IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for implement essential upgrades. Services available from Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a safe tunnel for authorized at-home employees to access IT assets located at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key network resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a teleworker to see and interact with a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, home wireless connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote support for integrating home routers from a variety of vendors. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist you to mitigate these issues by delivering expertise that include Aironet integration consulting, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Business-critical applications might require redundant Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers expertise for selecting ISPs, picking appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet access. Refer to Internet access integration services.

VoIP Integration for Telecommuters
Extending the business PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining an effective work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based digital PBX platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco VoIP environments to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends enterprise telephony features to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed across the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP products, see Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with clients working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and provide as-needed configuration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide selection of video conferencing products from leading vendors support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and content sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many companies utilize a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their different partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that supports presence, instant messaging, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent 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 specialists who can assist you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for compatible iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as 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 other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include IP voice and video conferencing, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 apps, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich environment of applications that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging information throughout a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can assist businesses to configure these critical collaboration products 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 with Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is closely 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 capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that enables remote workers to view and update consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, refer 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 learn about Progent's Exchange consulting expertise, visit integration expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues anywhere can retrieve them safely through a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows home employees to co-author files. Edits created offline are synced when you reconnect to the Internet. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for At-Home Workers
Progent offers affordable online support for enabling organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network architectures that combine internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, plus public cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all modes of cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with cloud access, authentication, and security.

Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and key applications hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you establish secure connections to Azure services for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and services are provided in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from students and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers fast and affordable online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist you to evaluate the various subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you through tough IT roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the world's leading provider of cloud services. Progent offers fast and economical online contact with cloud integration consultants who can assist your organization to plan, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-uptime network model to make sure your users have a consistent computing environment whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. For information about Progent's 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 (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify identity control for at-home workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP ecosystem. For details, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a telecommuter business model, which might be driven by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a high-performing in-house Help Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Call Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support experts along with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to provide an economical, modern Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 PC support from help requests to ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to check or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add information, and append screen captures or attachments. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant discount off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex issues. For details, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service allows your business to supplement your current Call Center organization by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support services transparently between your regular support personnel and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver world-class IT support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Help Desk supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
At-home employees commonly use their personal devices and usually operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of IT security support experts can help your business to plan, configure and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that guards critical information assets in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network that can be safely accessed by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and control different permissions to various classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all major manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall configuration services, go to firewall integration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate computers used by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect new threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the threat. Since the ProSight ASM agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For details about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added form of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all classes of external and local security attacks for a network that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security professionals with top certifications including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your operations and policies and assess your IT architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated threat assessment of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you expose, rank, fix, and verify security weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure so you can determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to design and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, refer to Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and recovering vital information in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage failures resulting from equipment issues, programming glitches, user mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that combine in-house data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for telecommuters must address diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick remote help from consultants familiar with a wide array of products for backing up Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly envision circumstances that require a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can assist you to create, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the name Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for safeguarding critical information by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and resources, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat defense, verify security compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune runs with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X endpoints. For details about Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM platform that allows network administrators to keep off-premises endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site deployment through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote deployment of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home environment for your Downers Grove, Illinois company, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.