Background
Founded in 2002 by BMW owner and entrepreneur Susanne Klatten as a non-profit organization, UnternehmerTUM has grown into Europe’s largest and most influential startup hub. By connecting academia, cutting-edge technology, and entrepreneurial talent under one ecosystem, it supports more than 100 early-stage companies every year.
With over 450 active users including employees, researchers, founders, and long-term project contributors, UnternehmerTUM operates at a level of complexity, few organizations match. Its Corporate IT drives high IT service levels and operational reliability in a hybrid IT landscape for multiple UTUM business units and teams like AppliedAI, UVC Partners, Makerspace, Munich Urban Colab, Digital Product School with 700+ devices, 230+ enterprise and production IT apps, private/public Wifi for 4 workplaces and several customer events, cluster and node environments, 2+ local data centers, man/wan networking. With multiple locations, remote setups, and a diverse mix of Windows, macOS and Linux devices, every day brings new people, new devices, new ideas, and new demands for security and trust.
Amid this pace, JumpCloud plays a critical role in helping IT maintain a stable, secure, and scalable digital backbone.
Here are some key impacts at a glance:
80% Reduction in Manual Hours
75% Faster Onboarding
The Challenge: Modernization Amid Rapid Growth
UnternehmerTUM’s journey towards modernization began with a critical need to simplify and secure a fragmented technology stack. Before adopting JumpCloud, they relied on a disjointed set of tools including:
- On-prem Active Directory (AD) for Identity & Authentication
- Intune for Mobile Device Management (MDM)
- ManageEngine for IT Service Request, Incident, and Asset Management
- 1Password / OneLogin for Credential and Authentification Management
While each tool functioned individually, together they created operational friction and limited visibility. For an innovation-driven organization, this fragmentation translated into tangible challenges:
- Security policies differed across devices and operating systems.
- Patch and update compliance were inconsistent, increasing the risk of security incidents.
- Onboarding and offboarding required navigating multiple consoles, slowing down user productivity.
- Login issues became common as users moved between locations and devices.
- IT hours were drained by manual provisioning, troubleshooting, and reconciling configurations across disparate systems.
“Unwinding those legacy dependencies while keeping operations running smoothly was one of our biggest hurdles. The fragmented setup slowed down the IT team and increased both labor and licensing costs.”
— Eli Martin Anchiraico Leiva, Desktop & AI Security Engineer, UnternehmerTUM
The Solution: JumpCloud Enables the Transformation
To streamline operations and build a secure, future-ready foundation, UnternehmerTUM chose to replace its existing legacy tools with JumpCloud. The transition was executed in strategic phases: a complete migration from on-premises Active Directory, the transfer of all devices from Intune, and moving credential management from 1Password to JumpCloud Password Manager.
JumpCloud’s comprehensive platform covered identity, device, and patch management alongside policy enforcement, providing the unified visibility and control UnternehmerTUM required.
The Results: Automation, Security, and Time Savings
By fully leveraging JumpCloud’s unified platform, UnternehmerTUM achieved dramatic operational and security improvements, turning time-consuming manual processes into automated workflows.
1. Massive Time & Labor Efficiency Gains
Centralization and automation dramatically reduced the IT team’s manual workload:
80% Reduction in Manual Hours:
Weekly operational load dropped from 20–25 hours to just 5–8 hours.
75% Faster Onboarding:
New employee onboarding decreased from 1–2 hours to 20–30 minutes.
Self-Service Empowerment:
Password reset times dropped from about 20 minutes (requiring IT intervention) to under 5 minutes with self-service capabilities, leading to a noticeable reduction in help desk tickets.
2. Unified, Cross-Platform Security Enforcement
With JumpCloud, UnternehmerTUM established consistent, organization-wide security controls:
Uniform Policy Enforcement:
Security policies are now applied consistently across both Windows and macOS devices.
Lower Risk Profile:
Automated updates, MFA, and complete device visibility replaced the “hard to track” security state, drastically lowering the risk of security incidents.
Centralized Credential Security:
JumpCloud’s Password Manager replaced fragmented credential systems with one secure, centrally managed vault.
The Future: Strategic Simplicity and Innovation
After nearly two years with JumpCloud, UnternehmerTUM views the platform not as a static solution, but as a dynamic partner. As JumpCloud continues to release new capabilities in automation and security, the organization is positioned to adopt advanced practices without adding complexity.
This partnership aligns perfectly with UnternehmerTUM’s mission: enabling people to build the future while relying on systems that are secure, resilient, and effortless to use. For Europe’s leading startup hub, this is more than an IT upgrade. It’s a strategic foundation for the next decade of innovation.
I genuinely see JumpCloud as a complete and well-rounded solution for managing both Windows and macOS environments… The platform not only modernizes how we work today but also gives us confidence in how we’ll operate in the years ahead.
— Eli Martin Anchiraico Leiva, Desktop & AI Security Engineer, UnternehmerTUM