Belo Horizonte Offsite Workforce Connectivity Consulting and Support

Enlarging your at-home workforce can have a significant effect on network architecture, cybersecurity, and corporate processes. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting small and mid-size businesses to plan, deploy, manage, tune, and debug IT environments that support work-from-home employees. Progent can assist your Belo Horizonte organization to pick the right technologies and follow best practices in building and maintaining a safe virtual ecosystem for telecommuters that promotes teamwork and returns top business value. Progent can provide support services ranging from on demand guidance for getting you past challenging technical roadblocks to full project management or co-management to help you carry out mission-critical initiatives.

Progent's consultants can assist Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais organizations to succeed with any facet of creating a high-functioning work-from-home ecosystem by providing infrastructure design and configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, voice/video conferencing support, collaboration platform selection and deployment, public cloud integration, helpdesk augmentation, security monitoring, backup/restore solutions, and unified management.

Network Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Configuring the physical and software infrastructure needed to support a remote work environment can be particularly challenging if you have to manage a mix of worker-owned equipment such as desktop computers and notebooks, Internet routers, and wireless appliances from an assortment of vendors and with a mix of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's background delivering remote help for both outdated and modern IT products in virtual office solutions allows you to make efficient use of your available network infrastructure and provides you with fast access to top-tire consultants for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to help your company to implement a productive telecommuting ecosystem include:

• Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology allows you to establish a safe connection for authenticated at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your company datacenter or in a public cloud. Progent can assist your company to deploy and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your various network resources by providing online VPN configuration consulting. For businesses using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco-certified ASA experts can help your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software to provide secure VPN connections for a wide selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, macOS, Apple iOS, Linux, and Android.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable an at-home worker to see and use a remote PC's desktop. This technology gives IT managers more control over the computing environment of at-home employees and ensures them a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's virtual desktop consulting services include Windows Remote Desktop integration and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
• Routers connect at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN connections, local wireless connectivity, and firewalls. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for deploying routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router configuration services from Cisco-certified consultants.
• Home Wi-Fi networks, typically supporting an entire household and visitors, are commonly utilized by telecommuters to access their router for work. This can create performance and security problems. Progent can assist you to resolve these problems by delivering expertise like Aironet integration expertise, Cisco-certified Meraki wireless installation consulting, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
• Internet access solutions impact the performance and availability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate network. Line-of-business processes might require redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection fails. Progent offers guidance for identifying Internet service providers, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume bundles, and integrating high-availability Internet connections. See Internet connectivity solutions.

IP Voice Solutions for At-Home Workers
Extending the company phone environment to include remote users is vital to supporting a productive work-at-home solution. A broad range of cloud-centric VoIP platforms are popular with small and mid-size businesses to server telecommuters. Many enterprises rely on Cisco's current or older platforms for VoIP solutions. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or tune a remote IP voice environment that delivers the versatility, transparency and protection required for telecommuters. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice experts offer advanced support to help businesses optimize their current Cisco IP voice environments to support a growing at-home workforce.

• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Cisco Unified CM or CUCM) extends high-end IP telephony features to devices such as VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and mixed media apps deployed throughout the network. CUCM supports other mixed media services such as messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For more information about Progent's Cisco Unified CM or CUCM expertise, see Cisco Unified CM consulting services.
• Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been replaced by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent's consultants can help you to support your existing CallManager deployment or upgrade efficiently to Cisco's current IP telephony products. To find out about Progent's expertise for CallManager and Cisco's other early IP voice products, refer to Cisco CallManager consulting services.
• Cisco IP Gateways provide integration with PSTN networks and with users operating beyond the corporate firewall like at-home workers. Progent can provide expert support for Cisco's earlier generation IP gateways including the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for current Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateways. See Cisco SIP gateway integration expertise.
• Other VoIP Products supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, Intermedia Unite and 8x8. Progent can help you to enhance your wide area network architecture to work with these solutions and deliver on-demand configuration and debugging services.

Video Conferencing for Teleworkers
A wide selection of video conferencing platforms from major vendors enable virtual discussions, video and voice conferencing, chat sessions, and screen/content sharing for both onsite workers and teleworkers. Many organizations use a mix of conferencing products to meet the needs of their various partners and customers. Progent's communications experts can assist your organization to maintain your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the productivity of your remote employees.

• Skype for Business is Microsoft's popular communications platform that enables presence, IM, audio and video conferencing as well as the seamless integration of these capabilities within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Progent offers the expertise of Microsoft-certified specialists who can assist your company to set up and maintain Skype for Business clients to accommodate your at-home workforce. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business consulting services.
• FaceTime is Apple's multiuser video calling app for iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime works on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Current editions of FaceTime allow up to 32 concurrent users for video sessions. For details about Progent's consulting 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, Webex services include sharing specific content or computer screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus revision and playback for future reference. For details about Progent's consulting services for Webex as well as for additional IP video products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
• Teams is Microsoft's follow-up for Skype for Business. Teams provides a hub for conversations, contacts, and information with features that include video calling, threaded chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting services for Teams and for additional Microsoft 365 products, visit 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 provide configuration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to tune your WAN architecture to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Software for Remote Workers
Microsoft's collaboration products are closely integrated with Microsoft's popular Office families, offering a rich ecosystem of productivity apps that deliver a consistent user interface for sharing information across 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 help businesses to configure these flagship collaboration products to maximize the effectiveness of your at-home workforce.

Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's popular Office suite, providing a rich ecosystem of applications that deliver a consistent user experience for sharing information across multiple sites and on a wide variety of endpoint devices. Progent has provided remote consulting services for SharePoint and Exchange since their initial releases and can help at-home workers set up and use these flagship collaboration platforms to maximize productivity.

Microsoft Teams works on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud services to provide real-time collaboration. Developed as a substitute for Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams can support chat, audio/video meetings with 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 Azure Entra (previously called Azure Active Directory) for supporting its complete range of features. For additional information about Progent's consulting services for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium, visit solution design and configuration expertise for Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium.

SharePoint utilizes web entities to promote collaboration and information delivery by offering policy-driven delivery of content, business processes, and tools for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint allows you to create secure web portals that permits remote workers to see and edit aggregated business intelligence by means of Wikis, Blogs, social networking sites, and Web Parts (Widgets). To find out about Progent's SharePoint support services, visit SharePoint integration 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. To learn about Progent's Exchange support services, visit planning and configuration expertise for Microsoft Exchange.

OneDrive is Microsoft�s shared cloud file hosting and synchronization service, comparable to GoogleDrive. At-home workers can save files to OneDrive, and co-workers can access them safely through a browser. Provided with Office 365, OneDrive allows at-home employees to co-author files. Revisions created offline are automatically uploaded when you reconnect to the Internet. For information about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft OneDrive, see Microsoft Onedrive integration consulting.

Cloud Integration Services for Remote Workers
Progent offers affordable remote assistance for enabling organizations to build, manage and repair cohesive network architectures that combine internal data centers, teleworkers, branch offices, and cloud services. Progent can provide top-tier consultant for all modes of public cloud service delivery including Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service. Progent can help teleworkers resolve issues with cloud access, identity, and security.

Microsoft Azure is a leading family of cloud software and services that allows you to utilize IT infrastructure, virtual servers, and key applications running on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure offers more than 100 services services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, on-demand cloud storage, email and messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and data protection. Progent can assist your organization to set up virtual machines on Azure Virtual Machines, integrate storage on Azure Storage services, streamline identity management with Azure AD, and plan backup and recovery systems with Azure Backup. Progent can also show you how to create secure connections to Azure for at-home workers by configuring and troubleshooting firewall appliances and VPN tunnels. To learn about Progent's consulting expertise for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting.

Microsoft 365, formerly branded Office 365, is Microsoft's popular family of business productivity applications and cloud services available on a subscription basis. Microsoft apps and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles designed for customers ranging from individuals and small offices to large corporations. Progent can provide fast and affordable online access to experts knowledgeable about Microsoft 365-compatible devices running Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android technology. Progent's experts can help your business to evaluate the numerous subscription plans offered with Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 apps for your at-home workers in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's expertise for Microsoft 365, visit Microsoft 365 integration support.

Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the benefits of lower costs for data center infrastructure, easier management, on-demand scaling, high reliability, and other benefits associated with cloud computing. Microsoft has designed Exchange Online to operate seamlessly with on-premises Exchange environments, enabling customers to build hybrid information systems. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for as-needed assistance to guide you past tough IT bottlenecks and can also provide comprehensive project management services to ensure your teleworkers have convenient and safe access to your Microsoft 365 Exchange Online environment. To learn Progent's support services for Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, see Exchange Online integration and support expertise.

Amazon AWS is a pioneer in the public cloud arena and is the industry's leading provider of cloud-based services. Progent can provide rapid and affordable online contact with cloud integration experts who can help your organization to design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud services with local resources and with other public clouds like Azure. Progent also offers access to Cisco-certified CCIE networking experts to assist you to create a high-availability network architecture to make sure your employees have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your headquarters, a remote branch, from home, or on the road. For details about Progent's consulting services for Amazon AWS, see Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud is a leading set of cloud computing services that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco consulting experts can help your business to expand your current IT assets with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your key applications cloud friendly so your teleworkers can take full advantage of Google Cloud services. Progent's consultants can help your business to deploy virtual machines on Google Cloud Compute Engine, plan a cost-effective storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for teleworkers with Google Cloud Identity. Progent can also assist your organization to use GCP's unified management tools to control and monitor your Google Cloud environment. To learn, refer to Google Cloud Platform integration support.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A fast, organization-wide changeover to a from-home workforce, which might be motivated by a pandemic or as part of a disaster recovery/business continuity preparedness plan, can overwhelm even a well-staffed internal Call Center. Progent's Help Desk services allow businesses to outsource or supplement their Help Desk Call Center with Progent's online Technical Response Center team.

• Progent's Standard Call Desk services leverage Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support experts along with enterprise-class ticketing and follow-up software to offer an affordable, advanced Support Desk. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of online Level 1 desktop support from service requests through ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal allows from-home workers to track or revise their current 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 technical support charges, and Progent offers optional rapid escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 IT experts to resolve complex problems. For more information, refer to Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small businesses.
• Progent's Help Desk Call Center Supplemental Service enables your company to expand your current Call Center organization by sharing delivery of Help Desk support services seamlessly between your regular IT support staff and Progent's extensive pool of PC support technicians and subject matter specialists. Progent's shared Help Desk Call Center service uses a co-sourcing support solution based on the leading professional services automation platform for handling help requests and ticketing, assigning ownership, monitoring progress, and generating management reports. To learn how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can enable your company to provide best-in-class IT support to your from-home workers, refer to Progent's Help Desk Call Center augmentation Services.

Security for Telecommuters
Work-from-Home staff members typically use their personal devices and often work in an unsecured physical environment. This increases their vulnerability to malware attacks and requires careful configuration of corporate firewalls, anti-malware tools, MFA-based identity verification, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user training, and the creation of policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned group of IT security support experts can help your business to design, deploy and manage an effective security solution that guards critical information assets in networks that include remote workers.

Firewalls enable companies to create a network that can be securely accessed by local users as well as by at-home workers, mobile workers, vendors, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall appliances permit you to configure and manage appropriate 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 increasingly complex. Progent supports both new and older firewall appliances from all major manufacturers including Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, and Fortinet. For more information about Progent's firewall integration services, visit firewall integration and support services.

Remote Endpoint Security Monitoring makes it easy to watch over the disparate computers used by an at-home workforce and either reject or spot and mitigate modern cyber attacks such as ransomware. With ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight software agent is put on every secured endpoint device, monitoring all activity and utilizing state-of-the-art machine learning and full execution context from SentinelOne to detect zero-day attacks at inception. When an attack is discovered, ProSight Active Security Monitoring immediately disconnects the impacted device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Because the ProSight Active Security Monitoring software agent is self-contained, endpoint devices remain protected even when they are not connected to the Internet. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight ASM, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for teleworkers.

Progent's Duo MFA Managed Services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used as this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for telecommuters.

Security Audits can assess the exposure of your network to all classes of external and internal security attacks for a network that incorporates at-home workers. Progent can deploy remote, automated cybersecurity analysis software for quickly and affordably detecting a broad range of security gaps that can be found over the Internet. Progent's security audit consulting services, which can be provided by data security experts with top credentials including CISM, CISSP, and GIAC, can help your business to evaluate your workflows and governance policies and assess your IT infrastructure to allow you to design the highest level of security for your telecommuters.

Horizon3.ai's NodeZero PEN Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver automated threat assessment of your at-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can find, rank, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before threat actors can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to deploy NodeZero to carry out thorough pentests of your perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your present security profile. Progent's NodeZero experts can also help you to harden your existing network security and can help you to design and deploy a unified cybersecurity strategy that simplifies management and provides maximum cyber defense for on-prem, multi-cloud, remote, and perimeter IT resources. To find out additional information about Progent's vulnerability assessment solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, refer to Consulting Services for NodeZero's Pentest Platform.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home Environment
To view or download a white paper describing key things to focus on for protecting a network that incorporates work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection Solutions for At-Home Workers
The field of Data Protection covers backing up and recovering vital information so as to prevent data loss and reduce restoration time in the event of storage problems resulting from hardware breakdowns, software hiccups, human mistakes, cyber attack, or any other reason. Reliable data protection solutions can be especially difficult to architect and manage in hybrid environments that combine private data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

• Backup/Recovery strategies for at-home workers must address multiple kinds of personally owned endpoint devices. Progent offers quick remote access to consultants knowledgeable about a wide range of products for protection Windows, Apple and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Leading backup/recovery products maintained by Progent's data protection consultants include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, CrashPlan, Retrospect, and Time Machine. To back up data spread throughout a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services, a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud storage and features fine-grained restore and unified management.
• Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plans typically anticipate circumstances that require a temporary switch to an at-home workforce. Progent's expert disaster recovery planning experts and business continuity specialists can help your business to produce, document and test a DR/BC plan that includes the logistics of switching to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for Teleworkers
Microsoft has rebranded and reshuffled its endpoint management products under the title Endpoint Manager, which includes Intune for cloud management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for protecting critical data by managing local, mobile, and at-home endpoints.

Microsoft Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and securing remote devices and software. Managed endpoint devices can be user owned or business owned. IT administrators managing the endpoint computers of at-home workers can use Intune to provision and validate applications on devices, push patches and certificates, set up policies for permission to access data and resources, set passwords, establish VPN connections, control how telecommuters share information, establish threat protection, ensure compliance, and wipe corporate information from missing, stolen or decommissioned endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune works with Apple iOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS endpoints. For information about Microsoft Intune and to find out how Progent can assist your company to use this platform to administer the endpoint devices of your at-home workers, visit Intune telecommuter device management experts.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified Mobile Device Management product that allows network managers to keep offsite endpoint devices up to date and secure. Workspace ONE incorporates VMware AirWatch technology for centralized endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual software delivery platform for identity control, application management, and setup management of endpoints. Workspace ONE runs with devices based on Windows 10, macOS, Apple iOS, Google Android, Chrome OS, or popular distros of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is available by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises deployment via a one-time purchase. Top features of VMware Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, immediate onboarding of new employees, policy set up and enforcement for all classes of endpoints, unifies reporting and performance analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To find out about Progent's support services for VMware Workspace ONE, see VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management consultants.

Contact Progent for Remote Workforce Support Services
To get in touch with Progent about building and maintaining an efficient telecommuter solution for your Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais business, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.