Parsippany Work from Home Employees Connectivity Advisor

Enlarging your remote workforce can have a significant effect on IT architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has two decades of experience helping SMBs to plan, deploy, manage, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that support at-home workers. Progent can help your Parsippany organization to select the right technologies and adhere to best practices in building and operating a safe virtual office ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from as-needed guidance for getting you over challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical tasks.

Progent can assist Parsippany, New Jersey companies to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home environment by delivering infrastructure configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, Help Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, backup/restore solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure needed to support a remote workforce can be especially complicated if you must accommodate a mix of personal equipment such as PCs and laptops, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote support for both legacy as well as modern IT products in remote office venues allows you to make cost-effective use of your available infrastructure and offers ready access to expertise for making necessary updates. Services available from Progent to help you to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network technology allows you to create a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources located at your corporate datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can help your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can assist your telecommuters to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a broad selection of devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) platforms allow an at-home worker to view and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the digital environment of telecommuters and ensures them a consistent and more productive work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect home networks to the Internet and support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent can provide expert online consulting for configuring routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, typically shared by families and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to connect to their router for work. This can create throughput and security issues. Progent can assist businesses to mitigate these issues by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi access point integration assistance.
• Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Mission-critical applications may demand backup Internet access in case the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for identifying ISPs, choosing sensible service offerings, and setting up high-availability Internet access. Refer to Internet access solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Extending the corporate phone environment to accommodate teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice products are used by SMBs to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a remote VoIP environment that provides the flexibility, convenience and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice consultants offer advanced support to help organizations optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia apps deployed across the network. CUCM supports additional combined media services like messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Unified Communications Manager support, see Cisco Unified Communications Manager consultants.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent's consultants can help your company to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice platforms, refer to CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like telecommuters. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products and for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Additional VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can assist you to update your wide area network architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand integration and troubleshooting services.

Video Conferencing for At-Home Workers
A broad selection of video conferencing platforms from major technology companies enable virtual discussions, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both local users and telecommuters. Many organizations use multiple conferencing products to accommodate their different partners and clients. Progent can assist your organization to maintain your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that enables real-time presence, IM, audio and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting experts.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for video calls. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for FaceTime, refer to Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for most computing devices. Delivered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint and Flash videos, network-based capture, plus editing and playback for future reference and training. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex and for other IP video products from Cisco, refer to Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams provides a portal for conferencing, contacts, and content with capabilities such as video calling, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. For details about Progent's support expertise for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and assist your business to optimize your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Software for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a rich environment of applications that create a consistent user interface for exchanging data and ideas throughout multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their initial releases and can assist businesses to deploy these flagship collaboration platforms 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 with Microsoft 365 and supports third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings that include screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, plus 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 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 configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to facilitate collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and tools for looking through enterprise-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to build protected portals that enables at-home workers to see and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to SharePoint integration 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 find out about Progent's Exchange consulting services, see planning and configuration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can save files to the OneDrive service, and colleagues can retrieve them safely through a browser. Included with Office 365, OneDrive allows remote employees to jointly author files. Edits created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's support services for OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent offers advanced online assistance for enabling organizations to create, maintain and repair integrated network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branch offices, and public cloud services. Progent offers top-tier consultant for all modes of cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve problems with cloud access, identity, and cybersecurity.

Microsoft Azure is a popular family of cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features over one hundred services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-based VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity control with Azure Active Directory, and plan data backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to establish protected connections to Azure services for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewall appliances and VPN IPsec tunnels. To find out about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, visit Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity software and cloud-based services available by subscription. Office applications and cloud services are marketed in a selection of plans designed for customers ranging from students and households to major corporations. Progent can provide fast and easy online access to experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent's experts can assist your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 integration expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the advantages of lower spending for physical infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing you to build hybrid networks. Progent's Exchange experts are available for occasional help to get you through challenging technical roadblocks and can also provide end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have easy and secure access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's consulting services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, refer to Exchange Online integration and support consulting.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud computing market and is the industry's leading source of cloud services. Progent offers fast and affordable online contact with cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with local data centers and with other public clouds like Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to build a high-uptime network architecture so your employees have a productive computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration support.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your business to extend your current IT assets with the Google Cloud Platform, and Progent's database consultants can show you how to make your critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent can assist you to set up VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for telecommuters with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent's consultants can also help you to use GCP's management tools to control and track your GCP environment. For information, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) consulting support.

Help Desk Services for Remote Workers
A sudden, company-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even a high-performing internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow businesses to outsource or supplement their Call Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services utilize Progent's extensive network of remote IT support experts combined with enterprise-class ticketing and tracking technology to offer an economical, modern Help Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that addresses all aspects of online Level 1 desktop technical support from service requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or update their active trouble tickets, add information, and append screen captures and relevant files. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent offers optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to deal with complex issues. To learn more, go to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Call Desk Augmentation Service enables your business to augment your existing Help Desk organization by sharing responsibilities for Support Desk services transparently between your in-house support personnel and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Help Desk Call Center service uses a collective support solution based on the leading professional services automation platform for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, tracking progress, and generating management reports. For information about how Progent's Help Desk Supplementation Services can help your company to deliver world-class technical support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Remote Workers
At-home employees commonly use their personal computers and often work in a poorly secured physical area. This increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for judicious deployment of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, extensive user training, and the development of policies built on best practices. Progent's seasoned group of data security support experts can assist your business to plan, deploy and maintain a compliant security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that include telecommuters.

Firewalls enable you to build a network that can be securely accessed by on-premises users as well as by teleworkers, mobile employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders. Modern firewall appliances allow you to configure and manage appropriate permissions to different classes of users and to expand your IT network and modify your cybersecurity posture as your business evolves and as network attacks grow more complex. Progent works with both current and legacy security appliances from all major vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration expertise, refer to firewall integration and support expertise.

Online Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to track the disparate devices used by remote workers and either block or spot and mitigate modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to detect zero-day threats before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected endpoint from the corporate network to contain the malware. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay secure even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection 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 phone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity validation services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for an at-home workforce.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for a network that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy remote, automated security inventory scanning for rapidly and economically detecting a wide variety of security weaknesses that can be surfaced via the Internet. Progent's security audit experts, which can be provided by security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your processes and 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 PEN Testing Platform is a cutting-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated testing of your at-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you uncover, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can help you to use NodeZero to carry out comprehensive penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your current security posture. Progent can also help you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that streamlines management and delivers maximum protection for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT assets. To learn additional details about Progent's threat analysis services based on on NodeZero's penetration test products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Penetration Test Products.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Network
To read or download a white paper describing key areas to focus on for securing a network that supports telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
The field of Data Protection involves saving and recovering vital information in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in case of storage system problems resulting from equipment issues, programming hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for telecommuters must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide fast online help from experts familiar with a broad range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iOS and Android tablets and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a managed backup/recovery service that uses cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans commonly anticipate circumstances that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's expert disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning specialists can assist your company to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has renamed and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Microsoft Endpoint Manager provides a unified environment for safeguarding critical data by managing local, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile computers and software. Remote endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure rules for accessing data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN tunnels, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or deactivated devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with Apple iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS devices. For details about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the devices of your at-home workers, refer to Intune teleworker endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, application management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment through a perpetual license. Top capabilities of Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, unifies reporting and analytics, email encryption, and integration with Microsoft apps and cloud services. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Expertise
To contact Progent about creating and maintaining a productive telecommuter solution for your Parsippany, New Jersey business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.