ARCLANTIC Enterprise's Digital Transformation with PENNEP

ARCLANTIC Enterprise (https://www.arclantic.com/) is a dynamic digital news website delivering timely and diverse content across categories such as politics, culture, entertainment, and global affairs. With a growing readership and an expanding content portfolio, ARCLANTIC sought to modernize its digital infrastructure to enhance performance, scalability, and user engagement.

ARCLANTIC Project Overview

ARCLANTIC is a fast-growing digital news site that needed a better platform to keep up with its rapid growth. Their old system, built on WordPress, was starting to slow them down—it couldn’t scale well, had performance issues, and didn’t work great on mobile devices. That’s where PENNEP came in. We helped ARCLANTIC to:

1. Migrate ARCLANTIC’s full-stack CMS architecture from WordPress to Strapi (Headless CMS).
2. Develop a modern, responsive mobile application.
3. Provide dedicated staffing support.

Migrate ARCLANTIC’s Full-Stack CMS Architecture From WordPress to Strapi (Headless CMS)

Pain Points Identified

Problem Area	WordPress Limitation
Performance	Monolithic architecture with high TTFB (Time To First Byte) and poor mobile performance.
Scalability	Difficulty in decoupling frontend/backend for multi-platform content delivery.
Security	Vulnerability through plugin dependency and legacy PHP codebase.
Customization	Rigid post structures with plugin-dependent customization.
API Support	Limited REST API support; no native support.

Why Move from WordPress to Strapi

Criteria	WordPress	Strapi
Architecture	Monolithic CMS	Headless CMS
Language	PHP	Node.js
API Access	REST (Limited)	REST (Built-in)
Flexibility	Plugin-dependent	Fully customizable schema
Performance	Server-rendered	API-first & frontend agnostic
Security	Plugin-related risks	Controlled API surface
DevOps Architecture	Backend and Frontend both in same server	Frontend AWS Amplified (Serverless) and Backend in Server

In Simple Terms:

WordPress is like a bundled kitchen—appliances, cabinets, and layout all come fixed. Great if you want simple, out-of-the-box functionality.

Strapi is like a modular kitchen—you choose where and how everything fits. It gives developers full freedom to build unique user experiences and scale quickly.

Why ARCLANTIC Chose to Switch to Strapi

ARCLANTIC’s editorial and development teams raised concerns regarding:

1. Slow performance and page load times on both desktop and mobile.
2. Difficulty scaling content distribution across multiple channels (web, app, newsletters).
3. Too many plugins and security concerns on the WordPress platform.
4. Limited flexibility in creating custom workflows or integrating new services.
5. A need for a faster and modern editorial backend to manage rich media and structured content.

After detailed consultation and technical evaluation, Strapi emerged as the ideal headless CMS to power ARCLANTIC’s growing platform needs.

PENNEP’s End-to-End Migration Process

PENNEP planned and executed the migration from WordPress to Strapi in a phased and structured manner:

Phase 1: Discovery and Planning

• Conducted a full audit of ARCLANTIC’s WordPress database, including posts, pages, categories, authors, tags, and media files.
• Identified all content types and third-party plugins that needed replacement or migration.
• Prepared a content mapping blueprint for Strapi.

Phase 2: Designing the Content Model in Strapi

• Created Content Types such as Articles, Categories, Authors, Featured Images, and Tags in Strapi using its intuitive admin panel.
• Integrated custom fields like SEO metadata, article summaries, featured labels, and publication dates.
• Enabled role-based permissions for editors, authors, and admins to maintain publishing workflows.

Phase 3: Data Migration and Media Handling

• Built custom Node.js migration scripts to export data from WordPress and import it into Strapi using its REST API.
• Used tools for accurate and lossless data transformation.
• Migrated over 2500+ articles, 5,000+ media files, and historic editorial content.

Phase 4: Testing and Quality Assurance

• Conducted thorough content validation—ensuring data integrity, correct URL redirection (301), proper image rendering, and SEO preservation.
• Performed frontend testing to ensure all API responses from Strapi served the mobile and web platforms correctly.
• Built a staging environment for ARCLANTIC's internal team to test and review before go-live.

Phase 5: Deployment and Go-Live

• Hosted Strapi on a secure, scalable Node.js environment.
• Connected Strapi to ARCLANTIC’s frontend using Next.js for server-side rendering and better SEO.
• Configured API rate limits, security headers, and authentication tokens to protect content endpoints.
• Deployed out the new CMS with zero downtime and enabled rollback points as safety nets.

Phase 6: Training and Handover

• Provided detailed user training manuals to onboard ARCLANTIC's editorial and publishing team.
• Created support documentation for content entry, media upload, SEO tagging, and publishing guidelines in Strapi.
• Offered 30-day post-launch support and on-demand engineering help for any issues.

Outcome & Benefits Realized

With Strapi in place, ARCLANTIC has experienced significant improvements in performance, flexibility, and user experience:

Improvement Area	Before (WordPress)	After (Strapi)
Page Load Time	5-7 seconds avg.	<2 seconds avg.
Mobile Performance Score	48/100	90+/100
Publishing Workflow	Dependent on plugins	Custom, built-in content workflows
Content Flexibility	Only web-based delivery	API-first delivery to Web, App, Newsletter
Security & Maintenance	Frequent plugin updates	Reduced attack surface
Content Creation Speed	Slower due to cluttered UI	Faster due to clean, minimal CMS backend
Search Engine Optimization	Have to Do Manual	Automatic

Develop a Modern, Responsive Mobile Application

ARCLANTIC is currently working towards enhancing its digital presence by developing a modern, responsive mobile application that delivers breaking news, editorials, and multimedia content directly to its growing audience. The goal is to ensure a seamless user experience across iOS and Android devices, aligned with the recently migrated Strapi headless CMS infrastructure.

PENNEP is leading the end-to-end mobile app development, focusing on performance, usability, and real-time content integration.

Project Status: In Development

PENNEP is currently progressing through the following phases of development:

• UI/UX Design: Being finalized and reviewed
• Front-End Development: Under active construction (60% complete)
• API Integration with Strapi CMS: Ongoing
• User Authentication & Push Notification System: Being implemented

Core Goals of the Mobile App

The app is being developed to:

• Deliver real-time news and editorial updates
• Provide personalized content experiences based on user preferences
• Enable push notifications for breaking news
• Support offline reading and bookmarking
• Allow user account creation and management

Technology Stack (In Use)

PENNEP is using a modern and scalable technology stack to build ARCLANTIC’s cross-platform mobile application using React Native. This enables a single codebase to power both iOS and Android versions, reducing time-to-market while maintaining high performance and native-like experience.

Layer	Technology	Description
Mobile Framework	React Native	Used for building cross-platform mobile apps using JavaScript and native components
UI Design & Prototyping	Figma	Creating high-fidelity, responsive designs with reusable components
App Runtime & Tooling	Expo	Providing a managed workflow for building, testing, and deploying React Native apps, including OTA updates, development builds, and device previews
Content Management	Strapi (Headless CMS)	Serving structured content to the mobile app via secure APIs
Backend User and Auth Management	AWS Serverless	Managing user authentication and backend business logic

Provide Dedicated Staffing Support

To support ARCLANTIC’s growing digital news platform, PENNEP is providing end-to-end staffing services—to ensure seamless content creation and user engagement. Creative Roles Provided by us is as follows:

• Publishers & Content Strategists: Overseeing news content planning, scheduling, and digital publishing workflows using Strapi CMS.
• Journalists & Reporters: Creating original, high-quality articles, features, and news stories for digital and mobile audiences.
• Editors: Reviewing, editing, and proofreading content to ensure clarity, grammar, tone, and brand consistency.
• Video Editors: Producing short-form news reels, interviews, and feature videos for ARCLANTIC's multimedia sections and social platforms.
• Graphic Designers: Designing infographics, banners, post thumbnails, and social content tailored to ARCLANTIC’s editorial tone and visual identity.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM) Experts: These specialists grow ARCLANTIC’s online presence by promoting content across platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Outcome & Benefits

• Faster go-to-market for new digital content and platform features
• Scalable staffing with flexibility across project stages
• Enhanced content production with quality and brand alignment
• Reduced hiring overhead for ARCLANTIC by using PENNEP’s ready-to-deploy experts

Current Engagement Status

• Ongoing resource allocation based on sprint planning and content cycles
• Continuous coordination with ARCLANTIC’s internal leads
• Real-time adjustments as project priorities evolve

Conclusion

The partnership between ARCLANTIC and PENNEP has helped ARCLANTIC move into a more modern and powerful digital news channel. By switching from WordPress to Strapi, ARCLANTIC now has a faster, more flexible platform that works better on both web and mobile devices.

PENNEP is also building a user-friendly mobile app, so readers can get news anytime, anywhere. On top of that, PENNEP is providing skilled team members—like journalists, editors, video editors, and designers—so ARCLANTIC can keep producing high-quality content without delays.

This collaboration is helping this news channel grow faster, work more efficiently, and keep its readers engaged. With PENNEP’s ongoing support, ARCLANTIC is well-prepared for a strong and successful digital future. If you're looking to upgrade your digital presence or need expert technical support—get in touch with PENNEP today and let’s build something great together.