As an IT admin I would love the ability to run this as a service. There would be a central management app on a server we could setup on the network. The service on each client would be setup to report back to the management server by IP or Computer Name. The management app would have a queue of blender jobs. The management app would be responsible for distributing frames to all the computers connected. Since networks like these have many computers that are used by users, the management app could be set to only send jobs between two times. It would also be responsible for each frame getting done. If a computer fails to do a frame, that frame could be resent out to another computer on the network. Computers may even drop off the network only to appear again later. It would be nice if the management app could quarry the client to see if it is idle or being used by a user.
If no one is logged in, and it is withing the time set by the admin, the management app could add that client to the list of available pc's and start sending jobs to it. Email notifications would be nice to have but not needed.