Schaumburg At Home Workers Connectivity Consulting Experts

Expanding your remote workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of background assisting SMBs to plan, configure, manage, optimize, and debug IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Schaumburg company to pick the right technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers top value. Progent offers services that go from as-needed expertise for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Schaumburg, Illinois companies to succeed with any facet of creating a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, data security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a mix of personal equipment like PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from an assortment of vendors and with a variety of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's experience delivering remote help for both legacy as well as current technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement essential updates. Services available from Progent to help you to create a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to establish a safe tunnel for authorized at-home workers to access IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help you to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN integration support. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect client software for safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices including Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable an at-home worker to see and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the computing ecosystem of at-home employees and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive work 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 tunnels, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent offers expert online consulting for setting up routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by an entire household and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering services like Cisco Aironet integration consulting, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration assistance.
• Internet access methods impact the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company data center. Vital processes might require backup Internet connections in case the primary connection breaks. Progent offers guidance for selecting Internet service providers, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and integrating redundant Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Extending the corporate PBX system to include remote users is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to server telecommuters. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or maintain a remote VoIP environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and protection required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants offer high-level support to help organizations optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media apps used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team interaction networks. For details about Progent's CUCM expertise, refer to Cisco Unified CM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced 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 products. For details about Progent's support services for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, see CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with users operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise 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 configuration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your WAN infrastructure to support these solutions and deliver online configuration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad range of video conferencing products from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many companies utilize multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and customers. Progent can help you to manage your existing voice/video conferencing ecosystem and optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for iOS and Mac devices. FaceTime runs over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video solutions from Cisco, see 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 capabilities that include voice/video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, 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 expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist you to tune your network architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that create a cohesive user interface for exchanging information throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first publication and can assist businesses to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the effectiveness of your remote 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 and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and application sharing. Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. To learn more about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams, visit solution design and deployment consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based access to content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide information silos. SharePoint enables you to build secure web portals that allows at-home workforce to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. For details about Progent's SharePoint support services, see SharePoint configuration and application development expertise.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, visit planning and configuration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers can share them safely through a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive enables home employees to jointly author files. Revisions made offline are automatically uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's support services for OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration experts.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers fast and affordable remote support for enabling organizations to create, manage and repair cohesive network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and public cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all modes of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help remote workers resolve problems with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a leading family of public cloud software and services that allows you to use IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can assist your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure services for teleworkers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a selection of plans intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to large enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent can help your business to assess the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for physical infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run smoothly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to build hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange experts can provide occasional assistance to get you through tough technical bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your at-home workers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and troubleshooting expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's leading source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to create a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular suite of cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist you to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your organization to set up VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage services, and streamline access control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help you to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your GCP environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration services.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Teleworkers
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which might be driven by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity process, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk services utilize Progent's nationwide network of remote IT support specialists along with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking software to offer an economical, advanced Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests to trouble ticket generation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or revise the status of their active tickets, add details, and upload screenshots or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available the option of rapid hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced problems. For details, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to augment your existing Help Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center support transparently between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive roster of PC support engineers and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Help Desk service is based on a collaborative support solution based on the number one PSA tool for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and producing reports. To learn how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can help your company to deliver best-in-class IT support to your at-home workforce, visit Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home employees commonly use their personal computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical space. This increases their susceptibility to malware threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user training, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran team of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help your business to plan, implement and manage an effective cybersecurity solution that protects vital information assets in networks that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls allow companies to build a network that can be safely utilized by local users as well as by an at-home workforce, mobile workers, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different access rights to various classes of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow increasingly complex. Progent works with both new and legacy firewall devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support services, refer to firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and mitigate modern threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is installed on every protected endpoint device, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats on arrival. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly isolates the impacted device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, see remote endpoint monitoring for telecommuters.

Progent's Duo authentication Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity on a unit that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used for this second means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security attacks for a network that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can run remote, automated security inventory software for quickly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by network security professionals with top credentials including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your procedures and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to implement top-level security for your an at-home workforce.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous threat assessment of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, remediate, and verify security vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security profile. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for protecting 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 Remote Workers
Data Protection covers saving and recovering critical information in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in the event of storage system failures due to equipment breakdowns, software glitches, user error, cyber attack, or other causes. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to design and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for teleworkers must address diverse kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote access to consultants familiar with a wide range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and includes fine-grained recovery and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate scenarios that require a quick changeover to telecommuting. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC strategy that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager provides a unified platform for protecting corporate data by managing on-premises, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and software. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for accessing data and networks, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how telecommuters share data, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that allows network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices current and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, go to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive work-from-home environment for your Schaumburg, Illinois business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.