Features

Here They Grow

Eau Claire's JAMF Software: Who are they and what do they do?

Thom Fountain |

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Walking into the JAMF Software office on Graham Avenue in Eau Claire (a space formerly housed by the Book Peddler several years ago), one thing popped out. The walls all around the clusters of desks and computer monitors are covered in white boards, scribbled with red and blue markings and reminders. While there’s an obvious practical reason for a software company to have easy access to these public boards, the boards also have an aesthetic benefit – one that’s mirrored throughout the company’s Eau Claire branch: It’s a creative place.

JAMF Software co-founder Zach Halmstad.
JAMF Software co-founder
Zach Halmstad.

JAMF Software was founded in Eau Claire in 2002 with just a couple college students who were pretty good at problem solving. It maintained with just two employees until 2007, when it started to blow up. Since then, the company has grown to over 180 employees in offices around the world – including New York and Hong Kong – but Eau Claire still maintains the company’s largest branch. In recent months, the company has made a public splash with an announcement of a new office building planned adjacent to the RCU headquarters in the Phoenix Park neighborhood and a substantial gift to The Confluence Project.

The company started with co-founder and Eau Claire native Zach Halmstad, who was working at UW-Eau Claire in the Computing and Networking Services Department (now called Learning and Technology Services) as their support tech for Mac computers. Halmstad, who was a music major and computer science minor at UW-Eau Claire, began building a piece of management software that allows dozens or hundreds or thousands of Mac computers or iPads to all function together on a single network.

All of JAMF’s software is made for Apple products, so as Apple’s popularity has exploded, JAMF Software has been right with them. One of the main services JAMF Software’s Casper Suite provides is “imaging,” which allows you to set up one computer with all the settings, programs and profiles you want and then duplicate that on every computer you have on that network. JAMF Software services large companies, universities and school systems – even Halmstad’s (and many JAMF Software employees’) alma mater: UW-Eau Claire. While the company started working with Mac computers, they’ve evolved with the tech industry and now offer many services for mobile devices like iPads and iPhones.

JAMF Software employees work in an open environment, which encourages the casual, friendly culture the company has created. They plan to carry this forward into their next downtown space.
JAMF Software employees work in an open environment, which encourages the casual,
friendly culture the company has created. They plan to carry this forward into their next downtown space.

The Creative Class of Tech:
Leveraging Music & Arts for
Business Gains

JAMF Software certainly isn’t the first larger tech company in the Chippewa Valley (see Cray and Hutchinson Technology, among others), but Mike Schatz, Eau Claire’s economic development administrator, said the company’s focus on the community is impressive.

“They are a perfect example of what we’ve been trying to promote here in Eau Claire,” he said. “Having a company like JAMF Software promoting music and arts shows the rest of the community that we need to promote music and arts.”

Schatz also said the company demonstrates that Eau Claire can work with a company that has rapid growth and either provide or attract a pool of talented, creative people for that company to feed from.

The creative atmosphere in the JAMF Software offices is no accident. Halmstad – who played piano in the jazz program at UW-Eau Claire – credits his musical background in the development of the software suite. Recently JAMF Software pledged $500,000 towards The Confluence Project, a proposed arts center and multiuse building in downtown Eau Claire that would be a partnership between UW-Eau Claire and a handful of local groups and companies. The gift gave JAMF Software the naming rights to the smaller black box theater planned in the project, which – as Ben Richgruber, the executive director of the Eau Claire Regional Arts Center, pointed out – is fitting.

"The ability to create something is the same ability to take a thousand different inputs from a customer or a product, to take all these different pieces and put them together to create something. You’re solving a problem." – Jason Wudi on the connection between artists and JAMF Software employees

“A black box theater is where very experimental, smart, innovative performances can take place, and to have a name like JAMF on there only strengthens what will be able to happen in there,” Richgruber said. “It’s such a smart, innovative, intelligent company.”

At the announcement, Halmstad spoke about the connection between his musical background and developing the software that’s now his livelihood.

“A lot of people are surprised at the leap from studying music to starting a software company. I really honestly believe that we couldn’t have done this successfully if I hadn’t had that background in music,” Halmstad said. “My piano teacher … taught me to always put emotion behind what I was playing, put myself in the shoes of the listener and see how they’d react. We’ve applied that same lesson to everything we do at JAMF.”

JAMF Software’s Chief Cultural Officer Jason Wudi (or just Wudi to most) said there are a number of artists and creators who work at JAMF Software. He said such qualifications aren’t something the company necessarily seeks out, but he can see a certain kind of person being successful in the arts and at JAMF Software
“I link it to the problem solving,” Wudi said. “The ability to create something is the same ability to take a thousand different inputs from a customer or a product, to take all these different pieces and put them together to create something. You’re solving a problem.”

Wudi has been around since the early beginnings of the company and is proud of the creative atmosphere he and others have been able to create in the company, even while growing at an extraordinary pace.


A rendering of the new building JAMF Software hopes to occupy by the end of 2014. In February the company announced plans to build in the Phoenix Park neighborhood, right next to RCU. The move will give them room to grow, which they’ll need – they nearly doubled their number of employees internationally in 2012, from around 90 to 171. Of those, 90 employees are in the Eau Claire branch, and projections put that number at 125 by the end of this year.
A rendering of the new building JAMF Software hopes to occupy by the end of 2014 – in the Phoenix Park neighborhood, right next to RCU. The move will give them room to grow, which they’ll need – they nearly doubled their number of employees internationally in 2012, from around 90 to 171. Of those, 90 employees are in the Eau Claire branch, and projections put that number at 125 by the end of this year.

Keeping It (Feeling) Small:
Growing the Culture

Among the intentional steps JAMF Software has taken to maintain a small, start-up vibe to the ever-growing company is Zero Month. Wudi gets excited as he starts talking about the monthly orientation program that is required of new employees, which – having been through various new-job orientations myself – doesn’t seem like it should be that exciting. But Zero Month is different than most: It’s an orientation to the company, not just the job. Wudi, Halmstad and CEO Chip Pearson show employees the ropes themselves, and newbies get to experience each department before being trained into their own. It lets new employees understand the company as a whole and get to know the higher-ups as well as their desk neighbors.

And as far as I could tell, it’s working. Daisy Hingding – who’s been at JAMF Software since last year in the support department – said Zero Month was a welcome look at the bigger picture of the company. Right away Hingding – who moved to Eau Claire to take the job – was able to meet coworkers (some of whom helped her find her first place in the city).

All the [business] folks that would come here would always come to the office, eat dinner with us, have a 50¢ beer at happy hour down on Water Street with us, and they would leave and always go ‘Now I understand why you’re in Eau Claire.’ – Jason Wudi on the appeal of keeping JAMF Software in Eau Claire

The office itself is also a huge contributor to the overall culture as well. The current Eau Claire branch employs 97 people, only a couple of whom have their own offices. There are desks everywhere in the open spaces of the converted store, but many employees lounge on couches with laptops, giving the office more the vibe of a hip coffee shop or bar.

JAMF Software’s Project Specialist Julia Johnson started at the company by arranging their old office, and now – among other things – ensures the office maintains that culture. She worked with the owner of the current office space to expose some of the brick and cut windows through to give more natural light, and she’s heavily involved in preparing the plans for the new office building.

That open, relaxed atmosphere is one of the reasons Ryan Yohnk works at JAMF Software. Yohnk, a personable 20-something who takes his time before he speaks, graduated from UW-Eau Claire with degrees in development and math and the expectation that he would have to move to a tech market to find a job. In his last few years at the university, Yohnk interned in the support department at JAMF Software (he was one of the first interns) and slowly worked his way into a job. While he was in technical support, Yohnk was able to help out and become steadily more involved with the development side of things before more recently becoming a software architect for the company.

The social, casual feel of the office certainly makes going to work a little more fun, but Wudi and Yohnk both said it also helps get things done. Yohnk said the relationships he’s developed with coworkers make it easier to approach colleagues and it keeps him feeling like they’re all on the same page.

Software Architect Ryan Yohnk and co-founder Zach Halmstad work together on a couch in the JAMF Software office. The company encourages alternative workspaces and has very few offices in its building to encourage a relaxed atmosphere.
Software Architect Ryan Yohnk and co-founder Zach Halmstad work together on a couch in the JAMF Software office. The company encourages alternative workspaces and has very few offices in its building to encourage a relaxed atmosphere.

Close To Home:
Making It All Work in Eau Claire

Yohnk’s expectation to end up in a bigger, more tech-heavy market than Eau Claire points to an interesting question: Why is JAMF Software still in Eau Claire? While there are offices around the world – mainly in major tech hubs – the Eau Claire office continues to grow. Both Halmstad and Wudi attribute the local growth to the fact that JAMF Software has maintained close relationships with local universities that are able to help funnel prospective employees and interns, and that is apparent: 35 percent of employees are UW-Eau Claire graduates. The company also boasts a large internship program, and a number of those gigs turn into full employment (much like Yohnk’s did).

To remain in Eau Claire, though, JAMF Software has to move. While many JAMF employees I talked to expressed some nostalgia about their current office, plans for the new building are ambitious and right on track with the company’s culture. Johnson said the company is taking very intentional steps to ensure the community and vibe of the current office stays intact, no matter how large the company gets. Wudi described that the largest space (and the prime real estate) is going to be devoted to an employee lounge and kitchen, not a CEO’s corner office as is often the case. Johnson said it goes down to every detail, taking into account everything from sun glare on computer screens to sound design to keep things quiet around the office.

The new building will offer the company room to grow even more. In 2012 alone, JAMF Software hired 80 employees – many to the Eau Claire office. Along with that, the building solidifies JAMF Software’s intentions to stay here and continue to utilize the relationships and talent it has found in the Chippewa Valley – as well as the culture.

“When I travel and go work, flying to New York or wherever I end up, they always say ‘Where are you from?’ and I say ‘Eau Claire’ and they’ve never heard of it.” Wudi said. “But when we got to a spot where we have this office and we started to bring a few customers in, all the folks that would come here would always come to the office, eat dinner with us, have a 50-cent beer at happy hour down on Water Street with us, and they would leave and always go ‘Now I understand why you’re in Eau Claire.’ ”

JAMF </stats>

2002 year JAMF Software
was founded

180 employees worldwide

97 employees in Eau Claire

35% employees that are UWEC alum

2 million+ Apple devices managed worldwide

31 Fortune 100 companies served

9 top 10 universities using JAMF products