Tom Duffy

Outplacement for laid-off workers and incentive pay for returning employees are just a few of the tools companies are using to cushion the blow of layoffs.

Electronic design automation firm Mentor Graphics Inc. has 65 offices spread among 22 countries, and they're all tied together via 25 servers running Microsoft Corp. Exchange 5.5. Tending to such a far-flung network without a comprehensive messaging management tool would be all but impossible.