SysPrep & RIPrep

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Been studying on the next set of exams and had a few questions on both SysPrep and RIPrep. I am aware of the differences however wanted to understand the following.

1. Assuming I am creating an image of Windows XP (seeing that I can use both SysPrep and RIPrep and using the former in this instance) and I have been advised to create unique installations for the various divisions e.g. Accounting, Marketing, etc. Now I create a reference computer and perform a base installation that is common to all. I restart the computer in factory mode and install the specific software and then perform a reseal. Now the question is seeing that I have to have different variations for each division, would I have to have 3 separate reference computers or do I have 3 different harddrives for each image?

2. Now assuming I have using RIPrep. I create a reference computer and install the required software, applications, etc. I then connect to the share on a Windows Server that has the RIPrep tool installed and in this instance I assume it would be the RIS server. The RIPrep tool runs and creates an image. Is this correct?

The reason I am confused is that I know during setup of RIS, it creates a CD based image. How does it create a network based image? Is it as above?

3. Assuming again I am using RIPrep, how do I create variations for the different divisions? Do I use 3 different reference computers? I know I can use the *.sif file to automate installations as well as have variations however how do these extend to variations in software installations for each division?