Webster Work at Home Employees Integration Consulting Partner

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a major effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and company workflows. Progent has two decades of background assisting SMBs to plan, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Webster organization to select the appropriate tools and follow best practices in creating and maintaining a secure virtual office solution for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers top business value. Progent offers services ranging from as-needed expertise for helping you over occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can assist Webster, Texas organizations to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-performing work-from-home environment by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud connectivity, helpdesk augmentation, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed for a remote workforce can be particularly complex if you must manage a mix of worker-owned hardware such as PCs and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from an assortment of manufacturers and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background delivering online help for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office venues allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to help you to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology makes it possible to create a safe tunnel for authorized remote workers to use IT assets situated at your company data center or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to configure and manage VPN access between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA consultants can help your telecommuters to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms enable an at-home worker to view and use a data center computer's desktop. This provides IT managers substantial control over the digital environment of telecommuters and ensures remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home wireless networks, and firewall services. Progent offers expert online support for configuring routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often supporting families and guests, are frequently used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can cause performance as well as security problems. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these issues by delivering services that include Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Line-of-business applications may require redundant Internet connections in case the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate service packages, and setting up fault-tolerant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Teleworkers
Expanding the corporate PBX environment to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are used by SMBs to server remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of all sizes to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, convenience and security needed for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco VoIP environments to support an expanding at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers enterprise IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, VoIP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports other combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, visit CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. For details about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, visit Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with users working outside the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and provide online deployment and debugging expertise.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A wide range of video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and at-home workers. Many companies use multiple products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help you to maintain your existing conferencing ecosystem and enhance the engagement of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can help you to configure and manage Skype for Business clients to accommodate your remote workforce. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides online conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Cisco Webex as well as for other IP video products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for other Microsoft 365 products, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver configuration and debugging expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to optimize your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a rich environment of productivity apps that create a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas across multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can assist your company to configure these flagship collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home 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 deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and application sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to promote collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-driven access to content, workflow, and tools for looking through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that permits remote workers to see and edit aggregated business intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see SharePoint integration and 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 support services, refer to planning and configuration consulting services for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely via a browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-edit documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, see Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for Telecommuters
Progent can provide fast and affordable remote support for enabling businesses to build, maintain and optimize cohesive hybrid network architectures that include internal data centers, telecommuters, branches, and cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and security.

Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Microsoft Azure features more than 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. 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 plan data backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish protected access to Azure services for telecommuters by setting up and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. To find out about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Azure, see Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of client productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for customers ranging from students and small offices to large enterprises. Progent can provide fast and easy online contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible clients running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help you to evaluate the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your remote workers to achieve maximum business value. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in the Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online provides the benefits of lower spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with on-premises deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to get you through tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and economical online contact with cloud integration experts who can help your business to plan, deploy, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help your company to create a high-uptime network model so your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the move. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform is a popular set of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to extend your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help your organization to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with GCP Storage services, and streamline access management for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help your business to utilize GCP's unified management technology to control and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Call Center Support for At-Home Workers
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be motivated by an epidemic or as a component of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations to outsource or expand their Support Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Call Center support services utilize Progent's nationwide network of online IT support specialists combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 desktop technical support from initial help requests to ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or edit the status of their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a significant discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve advanced problems. For more information, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your company to augment your existing Support Desk team by splitting delivery of Call Desk support seamlessly between your regular support organization and Progent's extensive pool of PC support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a collaborative support solution based on the leading professional services automation tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, establishing responsibility, monitoring progress, and producing management reports. To find out how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class technical support to your teleworkers, go to Progent's Call Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home workers typically utilize their personal computing devices and usually work in an unsecured physical space. This situation increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of policies built on leading practices. Progent's seasoned roster of data security support consultants can help your business to design, implement and manage an effective security solution that protects vital information resources in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to create a network that can be securely utilized by on-premises users and by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to configure and control different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your network and adjust your security as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the various computers utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and mitigate modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a lightweight software agent is put on each protected endpoint device, watching all activity and using advanced behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the impacted device from the corporate network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For details about Duo identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that includes at-home workers. Progent can deploy online, automated cybersecurity inventory software for quickly and economically detecting a wide variety of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by data security professionals with advanced certifications such as CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist you to audit your procedures and policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to design top-level security for your remote workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can uncover, rank, fix, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal network so you can determine your present security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to plan and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that streamlines management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-premises, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's threat assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and restoring critical data so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, operator mistakes, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that combine local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for an at-home workforce must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick remote help from experts familiar with a wide array of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud storage and features fine-grained recovery and centralized management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans commonly anticipate circumstances that require a temporary switch to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning consultants can help your company to develop, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the logistics of switching to telecommuting.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management products under the name Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing on-premises endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified platform for safeguarding corporate information by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote devices and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT admins managing the endpoint devices of teleworkers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate apps on devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for permission to access information and networks, set passwords, create VPN tunnels, control how telecommuters share information, set up threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS computers. To learn about Intune and how Progent can help you to use this platform to manage the endpoint computers of your at-home workforce, visit Intune remote device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized MDM product that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product via a perpetual license. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of devices, unifies management reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based products. To find out about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining a productive work-from-home solution for your Webster, Texas business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.