Source Code Control (SCC) is universally acknowledged by developers as an important part of developing and maintaining projects. Effective use of takes discipline because what is not checked into the repository is not saved. Opening a project several years after the fact to find out that the latest code resided on a long decommissioned computer is not a pleasant experience. It is in everyone's best interest to make sure that code is properly stored in the repository at all key points of the project's lifecycle.
The best way to maximize the effective utilization of SCC is to make it as easy to use for your staff as possible. As a result, we use a combination of two tools to manage our source code. The first is Tortoise SVN, an explorer shell based SCC system which works for almost any project type. The ease of use and concurrent-development options of TSVN have dramatically boosted our ability to collaborate, release and maintain code.
By itsef, TSVN is revolutionary if you are coming from an older style of source code control. Paired with Visual SVN Server, the benefits become even more pronounced. Visual SVN Server allows your SVN repositories to be hosted on a Windows server that can be made available anywhere in the world via https and is integrated with Windows logins (Active Directory) .
Now that my team has access to the source code repository from anywhere in the world by web browser, TSVN or other SVN client there is the ability for engineers working from disparate locations to easily collaborate and the chance of forgetting to commit changes to the repository after returning to the office is minimized because changes can be committed from the field.
An added bonus is the ability to give clients the ability retrieve updated code directly from the repository. When our clients desire it, this gives them the ability to have an active stake in development and the ability to obtain updates with little more than "right click -> update".
The best part of all of this is that Tortoise SVN is a free program and the free version of Visual SVN Server is adequate for our requirements. So, the cost of transitioning to this solution was a few hours of implementation and training which has been more than offset by the hours saved by having proper SCC applied organization-wide.