Dayton Telecommuters Integration Consulting

Enlarging your at-home workforce may have a major impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has 20 years of experience helping small and mid-size businesses to design, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT networks that incorporate at-home workers. Progent can assist your Dayton organization to select the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for teleworkers that promotes collaboration and delivers maximum business value. Progent can provide support services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over occasional IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical tasks.

Progent's consultants can help Dayton, Ohio companies to succeed with any aspect of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk augmentation, endpoint security, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure required to support a remote work environment can be especially challenging if you have to manage a mix of personal equipment like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi APs from different manufacturers and with a mix of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing remote support for both legacy and modern technologies in remote office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Support services offered by Progent to assist your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to create a safe tunnel for authorized at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your key IT resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can assist your remote workers to utilize Cisco's AnyConnect software for secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of endpoint devices including Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to view and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers connect home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local wireless networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier remote consulting for integrating routers from a range of manufacturers. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, often shared by families and guests, are commonly used by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput as well as security problems. Progent can help businesses to mitigate these problems by delivering expertise that include Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP setup help.
• Internet connectivity methods impact the speed and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate network. Mission-critical processes may require backup Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for identifying ISPs, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume packages, and setting up redundant Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the business phone system to accommodate remote users is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based digital PBX products are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's modern or older products for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to design or tune a telecommuter IP voice environment that delivers the flexibility, transparency and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer high-level support to help organizations tune their existing Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) delivers high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices like IP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports additional mixed media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see CUCM consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, visit CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Additional VoIP Products supported by Progent include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to update your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and provide online deployment and troubleshooting expertise.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of video conferencing products from leading technology companies enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both local workers and teleworkers. Many organizations utilize a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your current conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your at-home employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for virtually all desktop or mobile devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex and for other IP video solutions from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conversations, contacts, and content with features that include voice/video conferencing, persistent chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 apps, refer to Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these products and assist your business to tune your WAN architecture to run them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office and Microsoft 365 suites, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that create a consistent user experience for sharing data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help your company to tune these flagship collaboration products to maximize 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. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can support chat, video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to enable collaboration and information delivery by providing policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and utilities for searching through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected portals that permits remote workers to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence via Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, go to 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 support services, see integration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can retrieve them securely via a browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home employees to co-author documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, visit Microsoft Onedrive integration experts.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide fast and affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, manage and troubleshoot cohesive hybrid network models that combine internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, and cloud services. Progent offers expertise for all types of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of public cloud software and services that enables you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure includes more than 100 cloud-based services including hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, application development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to create protected access to Azure for teleworkers by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's expertise for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and affordable remote contact with experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible client devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your teleworkers to achieve top business value. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 integration services.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most popular cloud-based applications in the Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high availability, 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 create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional assistance to guide you past tough technical bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management services to make sure your at-home workers have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Microsoft 365 Exchange Online configuration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest source of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can help your business to plan, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local data centers and with other public clouds such as Azure. Progent also can provide the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist your company to build a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, at home, or on the road. To find out about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud is a leading suite of cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can assist your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA experts can show you how to make your critical apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on Google Cloud Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's management tools to administer and monitor your GCP ecosystem. To learn, go to Google Cloud Platform consulting expertise.

Help Desk Call Center Services for Remote Workers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be motivated by a pandemic or as an element of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk support services leverage Progent's extensive team of remote technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to provide an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all facets of online Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests through trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to monitor or revise their active trouble tickets, enter information, and append screen captures or relevant files. Desktop support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers the option of fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to resolve advanced issues. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service allows your business to augment your current Call Desk staff by splitting delivery of Help Desk support services transparently between your regular IT support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Support Desk service uses a co-sourcing support solution based on the number one professional services automation tool for managing help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To find out how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can enable your business to deliver best-in-class IT support to your from-home workers, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center supplementation Services.

Cybersecurity for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home employees typically utilize their own computing devices and often operate in a poorly secured physical space. This increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity solutions consultants can help you to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards critical IT assets in environments that include at-home workers.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and manage different access rights to different classes of users and to expand your network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy firewall appliances from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. For details about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall integration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it possible to track the various computers utilized by telecommuters and either reject or spot and respond to the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is put on each secured endpoint device, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art AI technology from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately isolates the infected endpoint device from the network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To learn more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For details about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of external and local security threats for a network that includes teleworkers. Progent can run online, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and economically uncovering a wide variety of security holes that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security assessment consulting services, which can be provided by network security experts with top credentials such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your procedures and governance policies and review your IT infrastructure to enable you to design top-level protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and verify cybersecurity vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can assist you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your network security and can assist you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn more information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, see Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To read or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting a network that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection involves backing up and restoring critical information so as to prevent data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage system problems due to equipment breakdowns, programming glitches, human mistakes, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly difficult to design and manage in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore solutions for teleworkers must address multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote help from experts familiar with a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect resources spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies commonly anticipate scenarios that call for a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can help your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC strategy that includes the process of moving to telecommuting.

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

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, configure policies for permission to access data and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how home-based workers share information, set up threat protection, ensure compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can help your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your at-home workers, visit Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoint devices current and protected. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To learn about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about building and managing a productive telecommuter solution for your Dayton, Ohio company, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.