Hey guys,
I worked for an Apple Education reseller and deal alot with remote users, ipads etc.

Basically a few options:
1. For editing on the device. OfficeHD seems to be very popular. there is another one but I can't remember the name of it right now.
2. Once you have the editor you like, connecting to the server can be achieved by using MobilEcho. This is a nice interface that has a lot of syncing features and is always being improved. This is quite expensive for unlimited licenses (High schools etc) so I would have to find out per user.
3. Citrix performs fantastic remotely, "If" setup correctly. I setup a small company with one user who works exclusively through on a hosted citrix server. He loves it because he takes his ipad into meetings and can do just about anything.
4. There are builtin ways to get access to windows shares other than mobil echo. Windows has Webdav built into IIS and with some massaging and the right app on the ipad u can access the webdav share.

PM me if you want more info...Just threw some stuff down quickly to get you some ideas!

Drew