(lfolland) From what I can tell, Suse uses RPM packages by default. However, there are a couple of tools that can be helpful: yast or yast2 and rug which uses Novell's ZenWorks.
For Yast, you will want to add Software repositories, such as http://mirror.cs.uwaterloo.ca/suse above.
Information in this area is meant for use by CSCF staff and is not official documentation, but anybody who is interested is welcome to use it if they find it useful.