Savannah Remote Workforce Solutions Consulting Partner

Expanding your remote workforce may have a major effect on network infrastructure, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, manage, optimize, and debug IT networks that support a remote workforce. Progent can assist your Savannah organization to pick the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns top business value. Progent offers support services that go from as-needed guidance for helping you past challenging IT bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Savannah, Georgia organizations to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Help Desk outsourcing, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Setting up the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complicated if you must manage a mix of worker-owned hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and wireless APs from different vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote help for both legacy and current technologies in virtual office solutions allows you to make cost-effective use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to top-tire consultants for making essential updates. Support services available from Progent to help your company to implement a productive work-at-home ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network connectivity makes it possible to create a secure tunnel for authenticated remote workers to use IT resources situated at your company datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist you to deploy and manage VPN access between your teleworkers and your key network resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For businesses with Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA Firewall experts can assist your telecommuters to set up Cisco's AnyConnect software to provide secure VPN tunneling for a broad range of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products enable an at-home worker to view and interact with a remote computer's desktop. This gives network managers more control over the computing environment of telecommuters and offers remote users a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewall services. Progent can provide top-tier online support for integrating routers from all major vendors. See router integration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting families and visitors, are frequently utilized by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these problems by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless access point integration assistance.
• Internet connectivity solutions impact the performance and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Line-of-business processes might require backup Internet connections in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying Internet service providers, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring redundant Internet connections. See Internet access integration services.

IP Voice Integration for Remote Workers
Expanding the corporate PBX system to accommodate remote users is critical to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with SMBs to server teleworkers. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can help businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote IP voice service that delivers the versatility, transparency and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide high-level support to assist businesses tune their existing Cisco IP voice environments to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end IP telephony capabilities to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other mixed media services such as messaging, video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For details about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, visit CUCM expertise.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can help you to maintain your current CallManager environment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with PSTN networks and with users working beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your WAN architecture to work with these solutions and deliver as-needed deployment and debugging expertise.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A broad selection of video conferencing products from leading vendors enable online meetings, video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both onsite users and teleworkers. Many companies use multiple products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading communications product that enables real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing plus the transparent integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to configure and manage Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video phone platform for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's support expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most desktop or mobile devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing discrete content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session recording, plus revision and playback for future reference and training. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for other video conferencing 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 hub for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities such as IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and debugging services for these products and help you to optimize your network 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 families, offering a rich environment of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing information across a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has delivered remote consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial publication and can assist your company to tune these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity 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 and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, audio/video meetings with screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is tightly 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 complete range of features. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and configuration consulting for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web sites to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing by offering policy-driven access to data, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create protected portals that enables remote workforce to view and edit aggregated business intelligence via Wikis, Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts. To learn about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, see 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, go to deployment consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers can share them safely via a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author documents. Revisions made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's support services for OneDrive, go to Onedrive configuration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration Services for At-Home Workers
Progent offers advanced online support for enabling organizations to create, maintain and troubleshoot integrated hybrid network models that include physical data centers, at-home workers, branches, plus public cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters resolve issues with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a popular platform for cloud services that enables you to use infrastructure, servers, and key apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure features 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 you to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create protected connections to Azure services for teleworkers by setting up and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of business productivity software and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Office apps and services are provided in a selection of plans intended for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to large corporations. Progent offers fast and easy online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can help you to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and configure 365 applications for your teleworkers in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, refer to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other advantages associated with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate transparently with local deployments of Exchange, enabling you to create hybrid networks. Progent's certified Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you through challenging technical bottlenecks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to make sure your remote workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online deployment. To learn Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud arena and is the world's biggest source of cloud services. Progent can provide fast and affordable online contact with cloud connectivity consultants who can assist your business to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also can provide access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to build a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To find out about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration expertise.

Google Cloud (GCP) is a leading suite of cloud computing services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to expand your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's DBA consultants can help you make your key applications cloud ready so your teleworkers can benefit fully from Google Cloud Platform services. Progent's consultants can assist your business to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage services, and simplify access control for teleworkers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also help you to utilize GCP's management technology to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting expertise.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A fast, enterprise-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be driven by a pandemic or as an element of a business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a high-performing in-house Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services make it possible for businesses to outsource or expand their Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive team of remote IT support experts combined with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, state-of-the-art Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that handles all facets of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial service requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables teleworkers to monitor or update the status of their active trouble tickets, add details, and upload screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support rates, and Progent offers the option of fast hand-off to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with advanced issues. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Center Augmentation Service enables your business to expand your current Help Desk Call Center staff by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk Call Center services transparently between your in-house IT support personnel and Progent's nationwide team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service uses a collaborative support solution based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for managing service requests and ticketing, establishing responsibility, tracking progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplementation Services can enable your company to deliver world-class desktop support to your teleworkers, visit Progent's Call Center augmentation Services.

Cybersecurity for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home (WFH) workers typically use their own computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and requires careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive user training, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's seasoned roster of cybersecurity solutions consultants can assist you to design, implement and maintain a compliant security solution that protects critical information assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls enable companies to build a network environment that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage appropriate access rights to different groups of users and to scale your network and adjust your security as your business evolves and as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Progent works with both current and older security devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall support expertise, see firewall support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the disparate devices utilized by at-home workers and either block or identify and respond to modern threats such as ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on each secured endpoint, watching all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is spotted, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the infected device from the corporate network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight ASM agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for remote workers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a unit that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this second form of ID validation including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all types of external and local security threats for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can run remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and affordably detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by data security professionals with top credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can help your company to audit your operations and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to enable you to design the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Pentest Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can identify, prioritize, fix, and confirm security vulnerabilities before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your present security posture. Progent can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To find out additional information about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting an IT environment that supports telecommuters, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves saving and recovering critical information so as to prevent data loss and reduce recovery time in the event of storage problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, programming hiccups, user mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Restore strategies for teleworkers must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoints. Progent can provide quick online help from experts familiar with a wide array of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Popular backup/recovery solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery consultants include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed across a wide area network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that uses cloud storage and features granular recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans typically anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity planning consultants can assist your company to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has renamed and reshuffled its endpoint management platforms under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of mobile and remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a centralized environment for safeguarding corporate information by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of at-home workers can utilize Intune to deploy and validate applications on devices, push updates and certificates, set up rules for accessing information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, establish threat defense, ensure security compliance, and delete corporate data from lost, stolen or deactivated devices. Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For details about Intune and to find out how Progent can assist you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, see Intune teleworker device management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that allows network administrators to keep remote endpoints current and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for identity control, application management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with devices powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or leading distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of out-of-the-box notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For information about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote device management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter solution for your Savannah, Georgia company, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.