Melbourne At Home Workers Integration Support

Expanding your at-home workforce may have a major impact on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to design, configure, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Melbourne organization to select the appropriate technologies and follow best practices in building and operating a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers top business value. Progent offers services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you past challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Melbourne, Victoria companies to with any facet of creating a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice expertise, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, security and compliance, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required for an at-home work environment can be particularly complex if you must accommodate a combination of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background providing remote help for both outdated as well as current IT products in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary upgrades. Support services available from Progent to help your company to create a productive work-at-home infrastructure include:

• VPN connectivity makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to configure and manage VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can assist your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure products allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote computer's desktop. This technology provides network managers significant control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online consulting for deploying home routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can cause throughput as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to resolve these issues by delivering services that include Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Vital applications might demand redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers guidance for selecting service providers, choosing appropriate bandwidth and data volume packages, and configuring redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Teleworkers
Expanding the business phone environment to accommodate telecommuters is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric digital PBX platforms are used by SMBs to support remote users. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help organizations of any size to plan or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to assist businesses tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers advanced telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. CUCM manages other mixed media services like messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager expertise, visit CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to support your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other older VoIP platforms, see Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to expand your WAN architecture to support these solutions and provide on-demand integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide range of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable online discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both local users and at-home workers. Many organizations use a mix of products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can assist you to maintain your current conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex capabilities include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus revision and playback for training. For details about Progent's support services for Webex as well as for other IP video products 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 content with features that include voice/video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video 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 assist you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a powerful environment of applications that create a consistent user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can help businesses to tune these critical collaboration products to optimize the effectiveness 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 on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously branded Azure Active Directory) for delivering its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint uses web entities to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-based delivery of data, workflow, and tools for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to create protected portals that enables at-home workforce to see and update consolidated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, visit SharePoint integration and application development consulting.

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 expertise for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them securely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author documents. Revisions created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers advanced remote assistance for enabling businesses to build, manage and troubleshoot integrated network architectures that include physical data centers, teleworkers, branches, plus public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Microsoft Azure offers over 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish secure connections to Azure services for at-home workers by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud-based services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and services are marketed in a selection of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoints based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help you to assess the numerous subscription bundles offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your remote workers in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 integration support.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for as-needed assistance to get you past tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management services to make sure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's top source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide quick and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to design, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the road. To learn about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your business to extend your existing IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key apps cloud ready so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design an efficient storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's experts can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to control and track your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, see Google Cloud Platform consulting services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker business model, which might be activated by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Help Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for businesses of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote IT support experts along with world-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an affordable, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to track or edit their active tickets, enter details, and append screenshots and relevant files. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent offers optional fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with advanced problems. To find out more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to expand your existing Support Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Support Desk support seamlessly between your regular IT support organization and Progent's extensive pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the leading PSA tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, establishing ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To find out how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your company to provide world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
Work-from-Home (WFH) staff members commonly utilize their personal computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical area. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of policies built on best practices. Progent's veteran roster of cybersecurity solutions experts can assist you to design, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that protects vital IT resources in environments that incorporate an at-home workforce.

Firewalls allow companies to create a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users and by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to scale your network and modify your security profile as your business evolves and as network attacks become increasingly sophisticated. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall devices from all leading vendors including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration services, see firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate devices utilized by teleworkers and either block or identify and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is put on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced AI technology from SentinelOne to detect new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected endpoint from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is autonomous, endpoints remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to verify your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used for this second means of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

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 online, automated cybersecurity inventory scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your processes and policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to implement top-level protection for your remote workers.

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 and your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, prioritize, fix, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your 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 help you to plan and implement a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides optimum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn more details about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's penetration test platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

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

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering critical data so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in the event of storage failures resulting from hardware breakdowns, software glitches, human error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for telecommuters must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically envision scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by controlling on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing mobile computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. Network admins managing the endpoint devices of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share data, establish threat protection, ensure security compliance, and delete sensitive data from lost, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For details about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your at-home workers, refer to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a one-time purchase. Key features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. For information about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home environment for your Melbourne, Victoria company, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.