Bellevue Offsite Workforce Solutions Support and Consulting

Expanding your at-home workforce can have a significant impact on IT architecture, security, and corporate workflows. Progent has two decades of experience helping businesses of all sizes to design, configure, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT networks that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Bellevue company to pick the appropriate tools and follow leading practices in building and operating a safe virtual office solution for telecommuters that facilitates teamwork and returns maximum value. Progent can provide services that go from on demand expertise for getting you past challenging IT roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you successfully complete business-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can help Bellevue, Washington companies to with any aspect of building a high-performing work-at-home ecosystem by delivering infrastructure design and configuration services, VoIP PBX expertise, voice/video conferencing integration, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, helpdesk services, data security, data protection solutions, and streamlined management.

Infrastructure for Telecommuters
Integrating the network infrastructure required to support an at-home workforce can be particularly complex if you must manage a combination of worker-owned hardware like PCs and notebooks, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various vendors and with a variety of operating systems and firmware levels. Progent's experience providing online help for both outdated and current IT products in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and provides you with ready access to expertise for implement necessary upgrades. Services offered by Progent to help you to create a high-functioning telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to establish a safe tunnel for authorized at-home workers to use IT assets situated at your corporate datacenter or in the cloud. Progent's consultants can assist you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing remote VPN integration support. For organizations using Cisco's ASA firewalls, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA consultants can assist your at-home workers to utilize Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for secure VPN connections for a wide range of endpoint devices including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable a teleworker to view and use a remote PC's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the digital environment of at-home employees and offers them a familiar work experience. Progent's virtual desktop services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops expertise.
• Routers attach home networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, home wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers expert remote support for integrating home routers from all major manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting an entire household and guests, are commonly used by at-home employees to connect to their Internet router for work. This can cause performance and cybersecurity problems. Progent can assist businesses to resolve these problems by providing expertise like Cisco Aironet integration expertise, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti Unifi WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet access methods affect the performance and reliability of connections between at-home workers and the corporate data center. Business-critical processes might demand backup Internet connections in case the normal connection fails. Progent offers guidance for picking Internet service providers, picking appropriate service bundles, and setting up redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

IP Voice Solutions for Telecommuters
Expanding the company phone environment to include teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-based IP voice platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to support telecommuters. Many enterprises depend on Cisco's modern or legacy platforms for VoIP management. Progent can assist businesses of all sizes to plan or tune a telecommuter VoIP environment that provides the versatility, transparency and protection needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE Voice experts offer high-level support to help organizations optimize their current Cisco IP voice systems to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, Voice over IP gateways, and mixed media software deployed throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages other combined media services like unified messaging, video conferencing, and customer collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM support, see Cisco Unified CM consultants.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's legacy call-processing software and has been superseded by CUCM. Progent can help you to maintain your current CallManager deployment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's modern IP telephony solutions. To find out about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy VoIP platforms, refer to Cisco CallManager expertise.
• Cisco IP Gateways enable connectivity with public telephony networks and with users operating outside the corporate firewall like telecommuters. Progent offers consulting expertise for Cisco's legacy IP gateways like the UC520, UC540 and UC560 products as well as for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway configuration expertise.
• Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to work with these VoIP solutions and deliver on-demand deployment and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A broad selection of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors support online meetings, video conferencing, chat sessions, and content sharing for both onsite workers and at-home workers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to accommodate their various partners and clients. Progent can assist you to manage your existing conferencing environment and enhance the productivity of your remote workforce.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular unified communications platform that enables real-time presence, IM, voice and video conferencing plus the seamless integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist you to deploy and maintain Skype for Business client software to support your remote employees. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, refer to Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling platform for compatible iOS and macOS computers and smartphones. FaceTime works over Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer versions of FaceTime allow as many as 32 simultaneous users for voice/video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting services for Apple FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
• Webex Meeting Center supports online conferencing for most computing devices. Offered through Cisco's Webex Cloud, Webex services include sharing granular content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media including Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based capture, plus revision and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Webex as well as for other video conferencing solutions from Cisco, see Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conferencing, contacts, and information with capabilities that include video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Teams as well as for additional Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
• Other Conferencing Apps supported by Progent's conferencing experts include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can deliver integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and assist you to tune your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for At-Home Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a powerful environment of productivity apps that deliver a cohesive user experience for exchanging information across multiple sites and on a wide range of endpoint computers. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their original releases and can assist your company to configure these critical collaboration products to optimize the productivity of your remote 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 provide real-time collaboration and communication. Developed as a replacement for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can enable chat, video meetings with screen sharing, calling, cloud voicemail, group email, as well as file and app sharing. Teams is closely integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for delivering its complete range of capabilities. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams, visit planning and deployment expertise for Microsoft Teams.

SharePoint utilizes web sites to allow collaboration and information sharing by offering policy-driven delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for searching through company-wide business data. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that enables at-home workforce to view and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social networking web sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). For details about Progent's SharePoint consulting expertise, refer to SharePoint configuration and development consulting.

Exchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For information about Progent's Exchange support services, go to deployment consulting services for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s collaborative cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote workers can store files to OneDrive, and co-workers anywhere can access them securely via a web browser. Included with Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables remote workers to jointly author documents. Edits created offline are automatically synced when you go back online. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide affordable online assistance for enabling organizations to build, manage and repair integrated network architectures that combine physical data centers, at-home workers, branch offices, plus cloud services. Progent can provide expertise for all types of public cloud service delivery such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help telecommuters fix problems with cloud connectivity, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and critical applications hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers over 100 cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered VMs, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help you to deploy virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, configure cloud-based storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure Active Directory, and plan backup and restore systems with Azure Backup. Progent's cloud experts can also help you create secure access to Azure for remote workers by setting up and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, refer to Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, previously branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular suite of client productivity applications and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of plans designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to major corporations. Progent offers quick and easy remote contact with consultants familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible clients based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can assist your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and configure 365 apps for your teleworkers in a way that delivers maximum business value. To find out 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 the Microsoft 365 product suite. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online provides the advantages of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high availability, and additional benefits associated with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to run transparently with on-premises Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid information systems. Progent's Exchange consultants are available for as-needed help to guide you past tough IT roadblocks and also offer end-to-end project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online deployment. To find out Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a pioneer in the public cloud market and is the industry's biggest source of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and economical online access to cloud connectivity experts who can help your organization to plan, deploy, maintain, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with on-premises resources and with other popular cloud platforms such as Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to help your company to create a high-availability network model so your users have a productive computing experience regardless of whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, refer to Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud is a leading set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can assist your organization to scale your current IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's database experts can help you make your mission-critical applications cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to set up virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with GCP Storage services, and streamline access control for remote workers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent's experts can also help your organization to utilize GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your GCP environment. To learn, visit Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Call Center Services for At-Home Workers
An emergency, enterprise-wide transition to a telecommuter workforce, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as a component of a disaster recovery plan, can overstretch even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Help Desk services allow organizations of any size to outsource or augment their Help Desk Call Center by using Progent's online Technical Response Center services.

• Progent's Standard Support Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of online technical support specialists along with world-class trouble ticketing and follow-up technology to offer an affordable, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services offer an end-to-end solution that addresses all aspects of remote Level 1 PC support from service requests to trouble ticket creation, desktop sharing, issue resolution, and incident reporting. A browser-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to monitor or update their current tickets, enter details, and append screen captures or attachments. Support services are delivered at a significant price reduction off Progent's normal Level 1 technical service charges, and Progent offers optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support specialists to resolve advanced problems. To find out more, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
• Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows your business to augment your current Call Desk organization by splitting delivery of Call Center support services seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of desktop support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's co-managed Call Center service uses a collective support model utilizing the leading professional services automation platform for managing help requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, monitoring progress, and generating reports. To learn how Progent's Help Desk Augmentation Services can enable your business to provide world-class IT support to your teleworkers, refer to Progent's Support Desk supplementation Services.

Security for Teleworkers
Work-from-Home (WFH) employees commonly use their personal computers and often operate in an unsecured physical area. This situation multiplies their vulnerability to cyber threats and requires judicious deployment of firewalls, anti-malware tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, extensive end-user education, and the development of policies based on best practices. Progent's veteran group of IT security solutions consultants can help your business to design, configure and maintain an effective security solution that guards critical IT resources in environments that incorporate remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network environment that can be safely accessed by local users as well as by telecommuters, mobile workers, vendors, customers, and the public. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to assign and manage different permissions to various classes of users and to scale your IT network and modify your security as your company evolves and as network attacks become increasingly complex. Progent supports both current and legacy security appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Check Point, Juniper, and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration services, go to firewall integration and support services.

Online Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the various devices used by at-home workers and either block or identify and mitigate the latest threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) services, a small-footprint software agent is installed on each secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify new attacks at inception. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM immediately disconnects the infected endpoint device from the network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even if they are disconnected from the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, go to remote endpoint monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Progent's Duo authentication Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for at-home workers.

Security Audits can assess the vulnerability of your network to all types of outside and local security attacks for an environment that incorporates an at-home workforce. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity inventory software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's security assessment experts, which can be provided by network security experts with top credentials including CISA, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to audit your procedures and governance policies and review your network architecture to enable you to design top-level protection for your teleworkers.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that supports automated testing of your work-from-home environment as well as your internal and perimeter networks to help you find, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity vulnerabilities before threat actors can exploit them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform comprehensive pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your current security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your network security and can help you to design and deploy a cohesive cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-premises, cloud-based, remote, and perimeter IT assets. To find out more details about Progent's threat analysis solutions powered by on NodeZero's PEN test platform, visit Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Platform.

Download White Paper: Protecting a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper about critical areas to concentrate on for protecting a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Environment White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Telecommuters
Data Protection involves backing up and recovering critical information in order to avoid data loss and reduce restoration time and effort in the event of storage system failures due to hardware issues, programming glitches, user error, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection strategies can be particularly challenging to architect and maintain in hybrid networks that incorporate local data centers, cloud resources, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Restore strategies for at-home workers must cover multiple types of user-owned endpoints. Progent offers quick online help from consultants knowledgeable about a broad range of platforms for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktops as well as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Azure Backup, DoubleTake Software, CrashPlan, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up resources spread throughout a wide area network, Progent can provide ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular recovery and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) strategies typically anticipate circumstances that call for a rapid changeover to telecommuting. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness consultants and business continuity specialists can help you to develop, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for At-Home Workers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the name Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing local computers. Endpoint Manager provides a centralized environment for protecting critical data by controlling local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management suite that also features Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud-based service for managing and protecting off-premises computers and applications. Managed endpoint computers can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the enrolled endpoint computers of teleworkers can use Intune to deploy and authenticate apps on managed devices, push updates and certificates, set up policies for accessing data and networks, set passwords, create VPN connections, determine how telecommuters share information, set up threat defense, ensure compliance, and erase sensitive information from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. 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 devices of your telecommuters, visit Intune remote endpoint management expertise.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is an advanced centralized Mobile Device Management product that helps network managers to keep offsite endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for unified endpoint management plus VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery technology for access control, app management, and setup management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE operates with endpoints based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud-based service or as an on-premises deployment via a perpetual license. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast over-the-air provisioning of new notebooks, quick onboarding of new users, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated reporting and performance analytics, email encryption, and seamless integration with Microsoft apps and cloud-based services. For information about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, visit VMware Workspace ONE mobile device management consultants.

Contact Progent for At-Home Worker Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and managing an efficient work-from-home environment for your Bellevue, Washington organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.