I can’t get in, they can’t get out

One thing that I’ve noticed over the past few months is the challenge that an organization firewall presents for someone like me.  I’m not an employee, or a long term contractor, just a short term consultant, so my clients can’t always invite me to collaborate using their internal tool.  Nor are they allowed to install any kind of plug-in to use an alternate tool, like Skype.  So, we “collaborate” using workarounds or web-based solutions like Dimdim (which work fine for some situations, but those clients that actually want to do videochat, I’d need to upgrade beyond free, and haven’t done that, since I already have Skype, which they can’t use at work). 

It’s frustrating on a practical level, but I wonder if it’s indicative of how far we have to go to collaborate beyond company walls.  Maybe buying the “pro” version of a product is the cost of doing business?  I don’t know if others experience the same thing and if so, any suggestions to my quandry.  I just want to be able to share/communicate/collaborate with my clients on products that they’ve already purchased, without having to get HR and/or IT approval (whole other post?). 

Pipe-dream?