If you figure this out, please let me know. I'm in the exact same boat, and just can't get it to work. We are a Novell shop as well. Luckily we are running ZEN 7, I'm now moving on to using AdminStudio to build an .MSI. Tried everything from changing where the .MST points to hand editing and importing the .xml.
I tried it with mounted volumes and unc paths, no luck. One thing that is really weird is configuring an install to run off a thumbdrive works fine..? SMART tech support is earnest, but unhelpful. I really wanted to install from a network share, just using a batch file. we are using locked roaming profiles, all of which are currently set to point to this particular share for the office add-ins.....
It's been a trying few days at this, hope this gets resolved soon..