Phoenix Work from Home Employees Connectivity Support Partner

Enlarging your telecommuter workforce can have a significant impact on network infrastructure, security, and company workflows. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, administer, optimize, and troubleshoot IT environments that incorporate work-from-home employees. Progent can help your Phoenix company to select the appropriate technologies and follow leading practices in creating and operating a secure virtual solution for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand guidance for helping you over occasional technical bottlenecks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you carry out business-critical initiatives.

Progent can assist Phoenix, Arizona businesses to succeed with any aspect of building a high-performing work-from-home ecosystem by providing network infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, cloud integration, Call Desk outsourcing, cybersecurity, data protection solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for a Remote Workforce
Integrating the network infrastructure required for an at-home work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to manage a combination of personal equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless APs from various vendors and with a mix of OS software and firmware levels. Progent's background providing remote support for both legacy and current technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make cost-effective use of your existing network infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement essential updates. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a high-functioning work-at-home infrastructure include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity makes it possible to establish a secure connection for authenticated remote workers to access IT resources located at your corporate data center or in a public cloud. Progent's consultants can help you to deploy and manage VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration support. For organizations with Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can help your remote workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN connections for a wide selection of devices including Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) products allow a telecommuter to view and use a data center PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers significant control over the digital ecosystem of telecommuters and offers them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI solutions.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewalls. Progent can provide top-tier online support for deploying home routers from a range of vendors. See router configuration support from Cisco-certified experts.
• Home Wireless networks, often shared by the whole family and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause throughput as well as security issues. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these issues by delivering services like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki WiFi installation expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi wireless AP setup assistance.
• Internet access solutions affect the performance and availability of connections between at-home workers and the company network. Vital processes may demand backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking ISPs, picking sensible bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Integration for Telecommuters
Expanding the company PBX environment to include teleworkers is critical to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based IP voice products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support remote users. Many larger organizations rely on Cisco's modern or older platforms for IP voice solutions. Progent can assist organizations of any size to plan or tune a remote VoIP service that delivers the flexibility, transparency and security required for teleworkers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts can provide advanced support to assist organizations tune their current Cisco VoIP systems to support a growing remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as IP phones, media processing platforms, Voice over IP gateways, and multimedia software deployed across the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other mixed media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM support, refer to Cisco Unified Communications Manager consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by CUCM. Progent can assist you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early VoIP platforms, refer to CallManager consulting.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with public telephony networks and with clients working beyond the corporate firewall such as telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 product lines and for modern Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your wide area network infrastructure to support these VoIP solutions and deliver as-needed integration and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for an At-Home Workforce
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing products from major technology companies enable online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen sharing for both local workers and telecommuters. Many organizations utilize a mix of products to meet the needs of their different partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist you to manage your current conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your at-home workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to configure and maintain Skype for Business client software to accommodate your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, visit Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video sessions. To learn more about Progent's support services for Apple FaceTime, see Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex services include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Webex as well as for other IP video products from Cisco, see 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 information with features that include IP voice and video conferencing, persistent threaded chat, plus file sharing. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 apps, visit Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide configuration and troubleshooting expertise for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your WAN infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Collaboration Platforms for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office families, providing a powerful environment of applications that deliver a cohesive user interface for sharing information throughout multiple sites and on a broad selection of endpoints. Progent has provided online consulting support for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their first releases and can help businesses to tune these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity 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 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, 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 relies on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its full range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, see solution design and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint uses web entities to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based delivery of data, business processes, and tools for searching through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to build protected portals that allows remote workforce to view and edit consolidated corporate intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, visit 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 find out about Progent's Exchange expertise, go to planning and configuration consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can share them securely through a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home workers to co-edit documents. Edits created offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For details about Progent's consulting services for OneDrive, see Onedrive configuration experts.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide affordable online support for helping businesses to create, manage and repair cohesive hybrid network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, remote workers, branches, plus cloud resources. Progent can provide expertise for all types of cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help telecommuters fix issues with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of public cloud services that allows you to utilize infrastructure, servers, and critical apps running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure features more than 100 services services such as the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure AD, and design data backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you establish secure access to Azure services for telecommuters by configuring and troubleshooting firewalls and VPN tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Azure, go to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of business productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans designed for users ranging from students and households to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and affordable remote contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to assess the various subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. To learn about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most popular cloud-based applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product suite. Exchange Online offers the benefits of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits inherent with cloud computing. Microsoft has engineered Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to operate smoothly with local deployments of Exchange, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants can provide as-needed help to guide you through challenging IT bottlenecks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to make sure your telecommuters have easy and secure access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. For information Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, visit Microsoft 365 Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a trailblazer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest provider of cloud-based services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud integration experts who can help your organization to design, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot hybrid information networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises resources and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to help you to build a high-uptime network architecture to make sure your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For information about Progent's expertise for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a leading suite of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA experts can help you make your key apps cloud friendly so your telecommuters can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to set up virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage solution with GCP Storage services, and simplify access management for telecommuters with Google Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to administer and monitor your Google Cloud ecosystem. For information, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration expertise.

Help Desk Services for Teleworkers
An emergency, organization-wide changeover to a teleworker workforce, which could be the result of an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery process, can overstretch even a high-performing internal Call Desk. Progent's Call Center services allow businesses of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support experts combined with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up software to offer an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 PC technical support from help requests through trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows telecommuters to track or update the status of their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and relevant files. Technical support services are provided at a significant price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop support charges, and Progent makes available optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to deal with advanced problems. To learn more, see Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Help Desk Supplemental Service allows you to supplement your existing Help Desk organization by splitting responsibilities for Help Desk support services seamlessly between your in-house support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's co-managed Call Desk service is based on a collaborative support model utilizing the number one professional services automation platform for managing service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and generating management reports. For details about how Progent's Call Desk Supplementation Services can enable your company to provide world-class desktop support to your telecommuters, visit Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
At-home employees commonly use their own computing devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This situation increases their vulnerability to cyber threats and calls for judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote monitoring, extensive end-user training, and the development of security policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of cybersecurity support consultants can help you to design, implement and maintain an effective security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that incorporate telecommuters.

Firewalls allow you to create a network environment that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by at-home workers, mobile employees, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices allow you to assign and control different permissions to different groups of users and to expand your IT network and adjust your cybersecurity posture as your company evolves and as cyber threats become more sophisticated. Progent supports both current and legacy security devices from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, refer to firewall integration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Monitoring makes it possible to watch over the disparate computers utilized by teleworkers and either reject or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is put on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats on arrival. When an attack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the targeted device from the network to quarantine the malware. Since the ProSight Active Security Monitoring agent is autonomous, endpoints remain secure even if they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. For more information about ProSight ASM, refer to remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for remote workers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your network to all classes of external and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates remote workers. Progent can run online, automated security analysis software for rapidly and affordably uncovering a wide variety of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit experts, which can be provided by network security experts with advanced certifications including CISA, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your business to evaluate your workflows and policies and assess your network infrastructure to allow you to implement the highest level of protection for your at-home workers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that supports autonomous threat assessment 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 threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to determine your present security posture. Progent's NodeZero experts 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 provides optimum protection for on-prem, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To learn additional details about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment
To read or download a white paper about critical areas to focus on for securing an IT environment that includes telecommuters, click:
Protecting a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves saving and recovering vital data in order to avoid data loss and reduce recovery time and effort in case of storage problems due to hardware issues, programming hiccups, operator error, cyber attack, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate in-house data centers, cloud resources, and an at-home workforce.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must address diverse kinds of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers fast online access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for backing up Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX servers and desktops as well as laptops, iPads and smartphones. Popular backup/restore solutions maintained by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed throughout a hybrid network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery subscription service that uses cloud-based storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management capabilities.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly envision scenarios that require a temporary changeover to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning consultants and business continuity specialists can help your company to create, document and test a DR/BC plan that addresses the process of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Telecommuters
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager provides a unified solution for safeguarding critical information by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is part of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting mobile devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for accessing information and resources, manage passwords, establish VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, verify compliance, and erase corporate data from missing, stolen or decommissioned devices. Intune works with iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. To learn about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the endpoint computers of your telecommuters, see Intune remote device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network administrators to keep offsite endpoints up to date and protected. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch for centralized endpoint management along with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for authorization control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or leading distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-site product via a perpetual license. Top features of Workspace ONE include rapid remote deployment of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all categories of endpoints, unifies management reporting and analytics, email encryption, and tight integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For details about Progent's expertise for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE remote endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To contact Progent about creating and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Phoenix, Arizona business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.