From fragmented systems to connected support: Helping ARCQE scale support for early learning facilities

Project Details

With over 20 years of experience, the Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement (ARCQE) supports the early learning community through a range of services, professional learning opportunities, and operational support for child care facilities such as day homes and day cares.

ARCQE has been a long-standing partner of Paper Leaf, and we’ve worked together on several digital projects over the years. This case study focuses on two of them: a redesigned public-facing website for ARCQE and an internal operational portal built to support their workflows.

We’ve also worked together on ARCQEtivity, which is a separate parent resource platform that child care facilities can offer directly to families as an added layer of support.

The Quick Take

ARCQE needed an internal portal to support childcare facility service delivery and reporting. Their teams were working across multiple systems, which made data fragmented, workflows inconsistent, and reporting time-consuming. For the portal, our developers consolidated information from multiple tools into a single platform, with a strong emphasis on usability and function.

At the same time, ARCQE needed a refreshed public website that could better support event integration, registration, and content management. Built to replace an outdated site, the new website delivers a more modern look and feel while making it easier for users to access information and for staff to manage content.

The Full Story

Problem Statement

The portal project was fundamentally a data consolidation challenge. Critical information lived across multiple systems, requiring manual effort to compile reports and limiting visibility across programs. Teams were navigating fragmented workflows, and extracting meaningful insights was time-consuming and inconsistent.

The website presented a different challenge. ARCQE’s previous site lacked the flexibility, scalability, and user experience needed to support its growing programs and services. The goal was to create a refreshed, easy-to-navigate website with a backend that allowed staff to manage content more efficiently and keep information organized in one place.

What We Did

Discovery

The discovery phase had three goals: understand the challenges faced by each user group, gather and prioritize requirements with the client, and provide a solid plan for the design and build phase.

Our team conducted seven stakeholder interviews across three key groups — Program Coordinators, Coaches, and Directors — to understand their day-to-day realities and surface the pain points that mattered most. We paired those conversations with hands-on product walkthroughs to see exactly where the friction lived in their existing tools. We also mapped the existing digital landscape, which confirmed that data existed in silos across separate databases and that staff were spending significant time manually formatting and compiling reports.
Our direction was clear: ARCQE needed a plan that could reduce manual reporting effort, unify fragmented processes, and scale with the organization as it grew. We delivered a robust foundation that included user personas, user stories, a technical plan, and a prioritized feature roadmap.

Design & Build

The Portal
Our developers tackled the complex work of organizing and migrating data from multiple tools into a single web application. Built using Laravel and Filament, the portal brings together program management, reporting, coach coordination, and data tracking in one place. We also introduced a dark mode/light mode toggle, giving users more control over the interface they work in every day.

The Website
To meet a pre-conference deadline, we took a phased approach — launching the new design and critical functionality first. Built on WordPress and integrated with ARCQE’s GrowthZone membership management system, the site gives staff flexible, custom content components while serving as a central hub for early learning providers. Users can easily access services, learning opportunities, funding information, workshop registration, downloadable resources, and branded merchandise.

Outcomes

The staff portal launched first, giving ARCQE’s team a single, unified home for program management and reporting. Coaches can log hours from the field on any device, coordinators can track assignments and capacities, and directors can get a real-time snapshot of what’s happening across the organization. Staff can now access data more efficiently, find information more quickly, and spend less time on manual reporting and administrative work. 

The ARCQE website launched in November 2024, giving the organization a refreshed digital presence that better reflects the breadth of its services. 

Together, these projects created a stronger digital foundation for ARCQE. With scalable systems in place for both internal operations and public-facing communications, ARCQE is better equipped to support early learning providers across the province and continue evolving its services over time.