Washington Telecommuters Integration Consulting Experts

Expanding your telecommuter workforce can have a significant impact on network architecture, cybersecurity, and company culture. Progent has two decades of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, administer, optimize, and debug IT environments that incorporate a remote workforce. Progent can help your Washington company to pick the right tools and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual solution for teleworkers that promotes teamwork and delivers maximum business value. Progent offers support services that go from on demand guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to full project management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Washington, Washington businesses to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-at-home ecosystem by delivering network infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, Call Desk services, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Network Infrastructure for an At-Home Workforce
Integrating the physical and software infrastructure needed to support an at-home work environment can be particularly complicated if you have to accommodate a combination of personal hardware like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and wireless appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing online help for both outdated and current technologies in virtual office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Support services offered by Progent to help your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated remote employees to use IT resources situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent can assist your company to configure and maintain VPN connections between your teleworkers and your various network resources by providing online VPN integration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA Firewall consultants can help your remote workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect software to provide safe VPN tunneling for a wide selection of devices such as Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms allow a telecommuter to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This provides IT managers more control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a familiar experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home networks to the Internet and support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi networks, and firewalls. Progent offers expert remote support for deploying home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration support from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wireless networks, often supporting the whole family and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to access their Internet router for work. This can create throughput and cybersecurity problems. Progent can help businesses to resolve these problems by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet configuration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi access point setup assistance.
• Internet connectivity methods affect the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the company data center. Vital applications might demand backup Internet connections in the event the primary connection fails. Progent offers expertise for selecting service providers, selecting sensible bandwidth and data volume bundles, and setting up high-availability Internet connections. Refer to Internet access solutions.

VoIP Solutions for an At-Home Workforce
Extending the company PBX system to include remote users is critical to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A variety of cloud-based VoIP platforms are popular with SMBs to support telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for IP voice management. Progent can assist organizations of any size to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and security required for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to assist businesses optimize their existing Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers advanced IP telephony features to devices like IP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager supports other combined media services such as unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and customer interaction networks. For more information about Progent's CUCM expertise, visit CUCM expertise.
• CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing software and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM. Progent's consultants can assist your company to maintain your existing CallManager deployment or migrate efficiently to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To learn about Progent's expertise for Cisco CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, visit CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable integration with PSTN networks and with clients operating beyond the corporate perimeter such as telecommuters. Progent can provide consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for current Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your WAN architecture to support these solutions and deliver online integration and troubleshooting services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from leading vendors support virtual meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many companies use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing ecosystem and enhance the experience of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications product that supports real-time presence, IM, audio and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and manage Skype for Business clients to support your remote workforce. To learn more about Progent's support services for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business integration services.
• FaceTime is Apple's group video calling platform for iOS, iPadOS, iPod and Mac computers and smartphones. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Later versions of FaceTime support as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video calls. To learn more about Progent's consulting expertise for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that embed rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, session capture, plus editing and playback for training. To learn more about Progent's consulting services for Webex and for other IP video solutions 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 IP voice and video calling, persistent chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Additional Conferencing Platforms supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and debugging services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suites, providing a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that create a consistent user interface for sharing information throughout a corporate network and on a wide selection of endpoint devices. Progent has provided online consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange Server since their original publication and can assist businesses to deploy these critical 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 supports third-party cloud services to deliver real-time collaboration. Designed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium can enable chat, audio/video meetings that include screen sharing, phone calls, cloud voicemail, group email, plus file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly branded Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of capabilities. For details about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, see solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to enable collaboration and knowledge delivery by offering policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for looking through enterprise-wide business data. SharePoint permits you to build secure portals that allows remote workers to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, go to SharePoint configuration 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 consulting expertise, visit integration consulting for Exchange Server.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud file hosting and synchronization service, similar to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and colleagues can retrieve them safely via a web browser. Provided with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables at-home employees to co-author files. Edits made offline are uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive configuration experts.

Cloud Integration for Telecommuters
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for helping organizations to create, maintain and optimize integrated hybrid network models that incorporate physical data centers, remote workers, branches, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service. Progent can help at-home workers resolve issues with cloud connectivity, authentication, and cybersecurity.

Azure is a leading platform for cloud software and services that enables you to use IT infrastructure, servers, and critical applications running on Microsoft's extensive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 cloud-based services including the ability to host Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data backup. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also show you how to establish secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN tunnels. For information about Progent's support services for Azure, go to Azure expertise.

Microsoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing family of client productivity applications and cloud services available by subscription. Office apps and cloud services are marketed in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and small offices to major enterprises. Progent can provide quick and easy remote contact with consultants knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can assist your business to evaluate the various subscription bundles available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. For details about Progent's support services for Microsoft 365, see Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Microsoft 365 Exchange Online is among the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Exchange Online provides the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, simplified management, dynamic scaling, high reliability, and other advantages inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has engineered Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing you to create hybrid cloud/onsite information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to get you through tough technical roadblocks and also offer comprehensive project management services to ensure your at-home workers have easy and safe access to your Exchange Online environment. To find out Progent's support services for Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's biggest source of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and economical online access to cloud integration consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, maintain, and debug hybrid information networks that integrate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist your company to create a high-availability network model so your employees have a consistent computing environment regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a remote branch, from home, or on the move. To learn about Progent's support services for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS consulting expertise.

Google Cloud Platform is a leading collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help you to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud friendly so your at-home workers can take full advantage of Google Cloud Platform services. Progent can assist you to deploy virtual machines on GCP Compute Engine, design a cost-effective storage solution with Google Cloud Storage, and streamline access management for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also help your organization to utilize GCP's management tools to administer and track your GCP environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Support for Remote Workers
An emergency, company-wide switchover to a telecommuter business model, which could be driven by an epidemic or as part of a disaster recovery preparedness plan, can overstretch even a well-staffed internal Call Desk. Progent's Help Desk Call Center services allow organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk with Progent's online Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

• Progent's Standard Help Desk Call Center support services leverage Progent's nationwide network of remote technical support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to offer an affordable, state-of-the-art Call Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 PC technical support from initial help requests to ticket generation, desktop sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows teleworkers to check or update their active tickets, enter details, and append screen captures or attachments. Technical support services are delivered at a substantial discount off Progent's ordinary Level 1 desktop service charges, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT specialists to deal with complex issues. For details, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services outsourcing for small companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows your company to supplement your existing Call Desk staff by splitting responsibilities for Call Desk support services transparently between your in-house support organization and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Help Desk service uses a collective support model utilizing the leading professional services automation (PSA) tool for handling help requests and trouble tickets, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and producing reports. To find out how Progent's Call Center Augmentation Services can help your business to provide world-class desktop support to your at-home employees, go to Progent's Help Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home staff members commonly utilize their own devices and often work in a poorly secured physical environment. This increases their susceptibility to cyber threats and calls for careful deployment of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote monitoring, intensive user education, and the creation of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of cybersecurity support consultants can assist your business to plan, deploy and manage a compliant cybersecurity solution that guards vital information assets in environments that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable you to build a network that can be safely utilized by on-premises users as well as by telecommuters, mobile users, vendors, clients, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to various groups of users and to expand your IT network and modify your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated. Progent supports both new and older security devices from all leading vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. To learn more about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall configuration and support expertise.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers used by at-home workers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest threats such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint agent is installed on every protected endpoint, monitoring all activity and using advanced machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to identify zero-day threats at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring instantly disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to quarantine the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices stay protected even when they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. For more information about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, refer to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo MFA Service Plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are on a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized for this second form of authentication including a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for teleworkers.

Security Audits can evaluate the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and internal security threats for an environment that includes telecommuters. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis scanning for quickly and economically detecting a broad range of security weaknesses that can be found over the Internet. Progent's endpoint security audit consulting services, which can be managed by data security professionals with top certifications such as CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your operations and governance policies and review your IT architecture to enable you to implement the highest level of protection for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a breakthrough penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution as well as your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, remediate, and confirm security weaknesses before malicious hackers can exploit them. Progent's pentest experts can help you to deploy NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your perimeter and your internal IT infrastructure in order to evaluate your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also assist you to harden your network security and can assist you to design and implement a cohesive cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and delivers optimum protection for on-premises, multi-cloud, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional details about Progent's threat assessment solutions powered by on NodeZero's pentest platform, visit Consulting Services for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

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

Data Protection Solutions for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves backing up and restoring critical data in order to avoid data loss and minimize recovery time in case of storage failures due to hardware issues, software glitches, operator error, malware, or any other reason. Dependable data protection strategies can be especially challenging to architect and manage in hybrid networks that combine in-house data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore solutions for remote workers must address diverse types of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent offers fast remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products 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 backup/recovery experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To protect data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a managed backup/recovery subscription service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and centralized management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity strategies commonly envision circumstances that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity planning specialists can help your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes 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 encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of mobile and remote devices and Configuration Manager for managing onsite endpoints. Endpoint Manager offers a centralized environment for safeguarding critical information by controlling local, mobile, and home-based endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Remote endpoint devices can be personally owned or company owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of telecommuters can utilize Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push patches and certificates, set up rules for accessing data and resources, manage passwords, create VPN connections, control how teleworkers share information, establish threat protection, verify security compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Intune runs with iOS/iPadOS, Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X computers. For details about Intune and how Progent can help your company to use this platform to manage the devices of your at-home workforce, refer to Intune teleworker device management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced unified Mobile Device Management (MDM) product that helps network administrators to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint administration combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery technology for access control, app management, and configuration management of endpoints. Workspace ONE operates with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-site deployment via a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include rapid over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, immediate onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all classes of devices, aggregated management reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, 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 consultants.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient telecommuter environment for your Washington, Washington business, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.