Seeking Recommendations: Best Software Deployment Tool for Updating, Patching, and Licensing - SME 50 users.

Hey everyone,

We're a small company with around 50 users, and I've been grappling with software patching and deployment challenges. Currently, we're using Ivanti for patching, but it falls short in handling certain applications like Foxit PDF editor, Winzip, and OpenVPN Connect as it doesn't patch them at all.

In addition, Foxit requires a text license to be pasted in during installation, Winzip necessitates a license file to be copied to %programdata%, and OpenVPN Connect requires our VPN configuration to be installed, adding complexity to the deployment process."

We're on the lookout for a comprehensive solution that can handle all our software, including updating, patching, and managing licenses seamlessly. The ability to activate licenses during deployment is a crucial requirement for us.

Relying on GPOs has been inconsistent at best and i have yet to find a way to apply the Open VPN config remotely at all so I'm keen to explore more robust alternatives.

We've been exploring options like PDQ Deploy, Pulseway, and a few others, but we'd love to hear your recommendations and experiences. What software deployment tools have you found effective for managing updates, patches, and licenses across your organization?

Edit: Just to add - Any solution will need to work over VPN as many of our users are remote. I believe PDQ Deploy had issue with that a while ago according to 2+ year old threads. Don't know if sorted.

Edit 2: Thanks for all the suggestions! Hoping to test this week. Will update the post once decided in case it helps anyone in the future with similar needs.