Penstripe are the UK’s leading supplier of personalised student and teacher planners, reading records and primary pupil planners. We’ve had the pleasure of working closely with them over the past 2 years on a number of projects along with consultative work to develop their technical strategy. Read more about their bespoke operational software project with us to find out about them and the work we did together.
Penstripe’s customers are school headmasters, heads of department and teachers. The software we’ve created together allows them to design their pupil’s planners online and send them straight to print. This makes things easy for their customers as well as reinforcing Penstripe’s position as innovators and industry-leaders in their domain.
One of the things that first struck us about Penstripe was just how much their customers like them. We got the chance to speak to plenty of them directly when we began our first project with customer research on software user-experience. We spoke to them about the customer service they’d had with Penstripe too and were astounded by the level of personal connection and support they conveyed.
We got to experience that same rapport in person recently when we went to help out on Penstripe’s stand at The 2015 Education Show at the NEC last week. Thousands of education professionals gather there annually for professional development and collaboration, so the show was humming with teachers, school leaders and heads. Inevitably, there were many familiar faces there for Penstripe and it was a rare opportunity for some extended face-to-face contact with their customers.
The conversations were engaging and we learnt a lot about the changes in the ways that pupils now interact with their teachers, their classes and their homework. Schools are embracing digital and Penstripe’s exhibition presence made it clear how they are supporting their customers in this transition. Whilst the majority of institutions are still very reliant on paper planners and homework diaries, there is a shift towards an integration with digital systems that is making life easier for pupils and teachers alike.
There were many new faces as well as the familiar ones; it was the perfect opportunity to explore the latest developments in education with potential new customers. illumo digital was there to help out and particularly to open up discussion of the different ways that software and technology have the potential to positively change our education systems and communication. For us it was an opportunity to better understand one of our customer’s industries; to celebrate the work we’ve done together and enjoy hearing reactions and feedback from those people who have been using the product that we developed together.
