Services · Desk
Desk: helpdesk and ticketing for schools, colleges and school groups
At a school, issues do not just go to IT: a projector that will not turn on, a locked account or heating that will not come on are reported by email, in the corridor or in a note left at reception, and they do not always reach the person who has to sort them out. Desk is the platform through which the school's or group's own team, whether IT, maintenance or facilities, receives every request in one place, assigns it, tracks it and closes it. It is the same platform PenwinEdu uses to handle the issues of the schools it supports, and it includes artificial intelligence that classifies tickets, prepares replies and turns solved cases into knowledge.
Email us at info@penwin.org and we'll show you how your team would work with Desk. The proposal is per school, free and with no obligation.
Who it is for: the team that handles the school's issues
Desk is designed for schools and colleges that sort out their issues with their own staff and need to bring order to them: the IT lead at a school, the maintenance team on a campus or the shared technical team of a school group. Each school or group works in its own space, with its own people registered, and teachers and other staff report what is happening without needing to know who to write to. Desk does not replace the technical support provided by PenwinEdu: it is the tool that lets the school's team do its work with the same method.
- IT teams at publicly funded private schools (concertados), private schools, universities, business schools and vocational training centres.
- Maintenance and facilities: building faults, furniture, climate control or cleaning.
- School groups with a shared team that looks after several schools.
- Teachers, support staff and anyone at the school who reports an issue.
How issues come in: a portal and an email mailbox
School staff log an issue on the portal, at https://desk.penwin.cloud (in Spanish), or send it by email. Each space has its own mailbox, and the school's usual mailbox can forward messages to it, so nobody has to change the way they work. No password is needed to sign in: a code sent by email is enough. Each person sees only their own issues, replies in the same thread, attaches photos or documents and, if a problem that has already been closed comes back, picks it up again from the earlier ticket so that what was done is not lost.
The list of people in the space is maintained by its administrator, one by one or all at once from a CSV, with a preview that shows what will change before it is applied. Anyone who writes to the mailbox without being registered is sent a short notice instead of having a ticket opened, and the administrator sees them in a list so they can be added if they belong to the school.
- Web portal in the browser, mobile-friendly, with no app to install.
- A dedicated mailbox for the space, which the school's usual mailbox can forward to.
- Sign-in with a code sent by email, with no passwords to remember.
- Staff added one by one or in bulk from a CSV.
The team's work: inbox, assignment and templates
The team works from a shared inbox in which each ticket shows its number, with the space's prefix, its status, its priority and who it is assigned to. New tickets can come in already assigned to the default technician or according to rules, and each one goes through five statuses: open, in progress, awaiting reply, resolved and closed. When the technician replies, the ticket is left awaiting reply, and when the teacher responds, it goes back into the queue without anyone having to move it.
Within each ticket the team leaves internal notes that teachers do not see, uses templates for replies that come up again and again, logs a ticket on behalf of someone who reported a problem by phone or in the corridor, and merges tickets that arrive as duplicates. Changes to many tickets at once, such as assigning, changing the status or closing, are made in bulk, with a preview that shows the result before it is applied.
- Each space's own numbering, and search by number.
- Low, normal, high or urgent priority, and the option for teachers to flag something as urgent.
- Locations on two levels, such as building and classroom, to know where each fault is.
- Internal notes, templates, merging of duplicates and bulk actions.
Deadlines in working hours, with the school's opening hours and public holidays
Each space can set a deadline for the first response and another for resolution, counted in working hours with the school's own opening hours and calendar: outside opening hours, at weekends and on public holidays the clock does not run, and the resolution deadline is paused while a reply from the teacher is pending. National public holidays come preloaded, and regional and local ones are added by the space administrator.
So that nothing passes its deadline without anyone noticing, the team receives a daily summary first thing in the morning, an alert when a ticket has less than two hours left, a reminder early in the afternoon and an immediate alert when something is assigned to them or an urgent ticket comes in. Teachers can also receive an email when their issue is resolved and when it is closed, if the administrator switches this on.
Artificial intelligence: classifying, drafting and building on past solutions
Desk brings artificial intelligence into the team's daily work. It classifies each new ticket into a category, which the technician can change, and flags when a single message raises two different problems, so they can be dealt with separately. It prepares a draft reply based on the conversation, improves the one the technician has written, translates it into Catalan or Spanish and summarises long threads so that whoever picks up a ticket can see at a glance what has happened.
As each ticket is resolved, the AI suggests its internal summary, with the symptom, the cause and what solved it, which the technician reviews, and the validated cases make up the space's knowledge base. When a similar issue comes in, the ticket shows how the earlier ones were solved and the team does not have to start the diagnosis all over again. Throughout, the team has the final say: nothing is sent to teachers until a person has reviewed it and pressed send.
- A category for each ticket, which the technician can change, and a warning when a message contains two issues.
- Draft replies, improvements to the text, translation between Spanish and Catalan, and thread summaries.
- A knowledge base built from solved cases, so that similar ones are solved sooner.
- Always reviewed by a person before anything is sent.
Separate spaces, roles and set-up
Each space is kept separate from the others: what comes into one cannot be seen from any other. Within the space there are two roles, administrator and technician, and the emails teachers receive are sent in the school's name. PenwinEdu sets up the space with its mailbox, its numbering, its calendar and an initial set of reply templates, and from there the administrator loads the staff list, adjusts the deadlines and alerts and gets to work.
Behind Desk is PenwinEdu, the trading name of Baby Penguin, SL, which has specialised in education for more than twelve years. It is the same platform PenwinEdu's own technical team uses every day to handle the issues of the schools it supports, and it is designed with schools in mind: the school's own opening hours and public holidays, the locations in a building with classrooms and the difference between whoever reports a fault and whoever fixes it.
- Platform: https://desk.penwin.cloud (in Spanish)
- Contracted per school; the proposal is free and comes with no obligation.
- Contact: info@penwin.org
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Desk and PenwinEdu's technical support?
PenwinEdu's technical support is a service: its technicians handle issues with the infrastructure they manage at the school. Desk is a platform: the school's or group's own team uses it to handle its issues, whether they concern IT, maintenance or facilities. Both rely on the same technology, because PenwinEdu's support also works with Desk, but in Desk the people who receive, assign and resolve the issues are the school's own staff.
How do teachers report an issue in Desk?
Whichever way they prefer: from the Desk web portal, at https://desk.penwin.cloud (in Spanish), or by email. Each Desk space has its own mailbox, and the school's usual mailbox can forward messages to it so that nobody has to learn a new address. The person then sees their issue, replies in the same thread, attaches photos and, if the school switches this on, receives a notification when it is resolved and when it is closed.
Do staff need a password to use Desk?
No. Desk is accessed with a one-time code sent by email, with no passwords to remember or reset. The space administrator adds staff one by one or in bulk from a CSV, and each person sees only their own issues. Anyone who writes to the mailbox without being registered is sent a short notice instead of having a ticket opened, and the administrator sees them in a list so they can be added.
How does Desk calculate response and resolution deadlines?
In working hours, with the school's own opening hours and public holidays, when the space administrator switches the deadlines on. Outside opening hours, at weekends and on public holidays the Desk clock does not run, and the resolution deadline is paused while a reply from the teacher is pending, so only the time during which the issue depends on the team is counted. National public holidays come preloaded, and regional and local ones are added by the space administrator.
What does Desk's artificial intelligence do, and who decides what is sent?
Desk's AI classifies each ticket into a category, which the technician can change, and flags when a message raises two different problems; it prepares draft replies, improves the technician's text, translates it between Spanish and Catalan and summarises long threads; and, when each ticket is resolved, it suggests the symptom, the cause and the solution for the case, which the technician reviews, to build a knowledge base so that similar cases are solved sooner. The final say always rests with the team: nothing is sent to teachers until a person has reviewed it and pressed send.
Can a school group with several schools use Desk?
Yes. In Desk, a group with a shared team can look after all its schools from a single space, with locations organised on two levels, for example school and building or building and classroom, plus a free-text detail to pinpoint where each fault is. Each space is kept separate from the others, so what comes into one cannot be seen from any other.
Can Desk be used on a mobile?
Yes. Desk works in a mobile browser, with no app to install. The portal is adapted to small screens, so a technician can check the inbox and reply from the classroom or the corridor, and a teacher can report an issue with a photo taken on the spot.
How much does Desk cost and how is it set up?
Desk is contracted per school, and you can request a free, no-obligation proposal by emailing info@penwin.org. PenwinEdu sets up the space with its mailbox, its numbering, its calendar and an initial set of reply templates; after that, the school's administrator loads the staff list, adjusts the deadlines and alerts, and the team starts working from https://desk.penwin.cloud (in Spanish).
Let's talk about your school
Email us at info@penwin.org with details of your school, or fill in the contact form, and we'll reply with a specific proposal.