Q: After I install System Center Configuration Manager 2012 RC, what are the key next steps?

Select the Administration workspace (Wunderbar), open Hierarchy Configuration, and select Boundaries. Select the Create Boundary action from theRibbon. Enter a name for the boundary, select the type (typically Active Directory), then enter the details such as AD site name or IP range, andclick OK.

Create a Boundary Group at Hierarchy Configuration, Boundary Groups that contains the boundary you defined. Under the References tab, allow thenew site boundary group to be used for site assignment.

Specify the network access account for each site. In the Site Configuration, Sites workspace, select the properties of a site, and select ConfigureSite Components, Software Distribution. (See screen shot below.) Select the Network Access Account tab, then specify the SCCM network accessaccount clients will use to access software: It should not be the client computer account such as for workgroup computers or untrusted domaincomputers. By default it will use the computer account of the client.
sccm2012netaccessact1

Select Discovery Methods within Hierarchy Configuration, and enable Active Directory System, User, Group, and Forest Discovery. For each you needto add the containers or groups you wish to discover from.

Select Site Configuration, Sites, then right-click your site, and select Client Installation Settings, Client Push Installation. Under the Accountstab, specify an account that has administrator privileges on the clients you wish to push the SCCM client to, then click OK. This account can begranted local administrator privileges on all clients using Group Policy to set Restricted Groups and include this SCCM client push account.

Set default client agent settings via Client Settings, and modify default client settings and create custom user and device settings, if needed.

Next you need to install Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) and Windows Deployment Services (WDS) roles, and configure Software Updates and OSdeployment. Download and install the Microsoft Report Viewer 2008 Redistributable first. You need to enable WSUS and WDS separately through Server Manager, so enable WDS first. (See the screen shot below.) Then go back and add WSUS.This will install WSUS 3.0 SP2. You will be prompted for configuration during the installation, and you can accept the defaults unless you want tochange the SQL Server database to use the same server as your SCCM database. When you’re prompted to configure WSUS, hit cancel and SCCM will dothe configuration for you!
sccm2012installwsus

This could also be done with a PowerShell command:

Add-WindowsFeature WDS, WDS-Deployment, WDS-Transport 

then

Add-WindowsFeature OOB-WSUS 

After you add WDS and WSUS, navigate to Site Configuration, Servers and Site System Roles, select your server and select Add System Roles byright-clicking from the servers context menu. Add the software update point role (see the screen shot below), and as this is the first server,select the check box Use this server as the active software update point.
sccm2012installwsus1-Copy

You should enable synchronization on a schedule, such as once a week, and select the types of updates you wish to deploy and the products you wishto deploy, along with the languages you will support.