I’m going to take a break in the ongoing ERP discussion and touch on how Microsoft enables a mobile workforce.  There’s a ComputerWorld article that discusses the lengths to which the company goes to squash break-in attempts on their computer networks, while still allowing for employees to use company resources at home.  Typically, the more tightly the network engineers guard the network, the more inconvenient such remote access can be.  Indeed, the article cites Microsoft as saying that sometimes remote access can take as long as 5 to 15 minutes to initiate.  But it’s always worth the extra hassle; the company’s crown jewels (the source code to all of their products) are found on Microsoft’s servers.  In the end, the complex authentication schemes and products pay off; a recent snow storm blanketed Redmond and Microsoft estimated that 75% of its workforce worked from home that day without incident.