@Jay: Yeah I know Renderman is still a standard and widely used in big Post houses, but here in the Netherlands we have only a few of those and only one has Renderman.
So here it is not a big player.
What I don't get is that people @ Digital Domain use VRay when they already have Mental Ray ( for free assuming they have network licenses) which are more or less the same ( except for the fact that Vray is better implemented as GUI renderer) Renderman is a different beast altogether and can turn around displacement as if it is nothing and nowadays it has become a bit cheaper only around EUR 1000 ex Vat vor a RMS license and they have Renderman on Demand( rendering in the cloud) which could be a viable option for freelancers and a nice buffer when it comes to crunch time in the large facilities( scalability).
I for one am a great fan of Renderman

I understand the pipeline stuff as well, but nowadays with new technologies and ever increasing internetspeeds ( at least in the netherlands)they can sure come up with a system where people can submit their work and it get's back upped or incorporated in the pipeline.
I knew a guy @Dreamworks who told me that they were moving to a system ( or have already done so) where the data is stored on a remote facility and the workstations basically only have a monitor and a keyboard and a wacom/mouse etc.

@Honest:
Yeah I hear that a lot, but these facilities are mostly dependances of the original company and I heard ( again from the guy I knew @ Dreamworks)that these facilities where called internally ( on featurefilms) the sequel departments because the people at the western facilities got sick and tired ( and left the company) of animating and texturing the same characters over and over again so in order to keep them ( in the company) and happy they do/did this.

The Non Disclosure thingies are mostly a trust thing, everytime I visit Guerrilla I have to sign one of those NDA agreements...at the end of the day it's but a piece of paper and I believe that if someone is serious in doing his job ( and keeping it i might add) he won't breach security if someone has that urge I doubt that being physical present will change his or her urge.

I don't know how it is in the UK but here in the Netherlands we have a lot of freelancers who work for the same circle of companies so I doubt secrecy is the biggest issue ( especially since most leaks come from physically present people who are to enthousiastic on twitter or facebook).

Dailies can go through a webex meeting and once every two weeks you fly over ( if needs be) and discuss things.

I think it would save on costs tbh you don't have to pay for computers, licenses can go over VPN, no travel expenses, reallocationcosts.
I am not saying it is the next thing I just think it can be a great addition, I also thing this is something that would or can work better on midlevel companies ( SMB level) who can't afford to reallocate people and are more fluctuating in the amount of work they have.