Easiest Method of Deploying Apps for HelpDesk Staff / Ron's Web Tools for 2012?

[BzowK]

Good Afternoon All!

 

I have just set up and configured SCCM 2012 for the company I work for. I've used 2007 in the past and love the product! It's a big improvement from LANDesk which they used before I arrived.

 

My company has about 12 local helpdesk staff plus a few others randomly spread out. One of the tasks they preform is application deployment. Currently, they connect the desktop of a remote machine, open shared folders, and install everything manually - yuck! I've already set up many Applications and Packages which will not only silently deploy, but include all configurations as well.

 

Here's my issue...

 

I need to find out the easiest method (currently) possible for them to deploy software to computers.

 

Previously when I used 2007 at another company, I used Ron's Web Tools which worked perfectly for my needs. I tried setting it back up again with 2012, but some of the files it requires do not exist in 2012 . I keep searching online daily in hopes someone has updated it with the recently released SDK, but no luck yet.

Also, I already set up the Application Catalog already here, too, complete with all details like documentation, icons, and categories. Unfortuantly, that idea got nixed as they thought it would cause more trouble than help.

 

Here is the current solution I'm using...

 

At least for now, the easiest thing I could come up with is the following:

 

1. Created a Collection Folder named "Application Deployment" which inside holds a Collection named for each application they need to deploy. These Collections have no queries.

 

2. Deployed / Advertised each Application to it's corresponding Collection I created above. All are set to immediatly install.

 

3. Deployed SCCM Admin Console to each of their computers. They now have rights and have been trained only to be able to copy a hostname to one of these existing Collections, then use Right Click Tools to force a machine policy refresh if needed.

 

Even though much better than the 2007 console, it can't beat Ron's Web Tools' page where you chose / typed a hostname, selected a package to deploy from a list, then clicked Deploy.

 

Anybody know of a 2012 compatible tool which may do this or info on any being developed? Free is best .

 

Thanks!

[tmiller_hockey]

I'd love to see something like this as well!

[jkabaseball]

I use something similar. I have collections just for installing applications. I use SCCM injector to add computers to the collections. It works well, but you see every collection and can add to any collection. I am going to give it a try with an intern and SCCM 2012 next week some. I'll let you know what I end up doing.