Boyle Street Community Services (BSCS) is a not-for-profit organization supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness and poverty in Edmonton. Through interdisciplinary support, including mental health and addiction services, Youth Community Support Programs, Group Living Programs, and meaningful employment assistance, BSCS works towards its mission to end chronic homelessness. In the midst of constructing the new King Thunderbird Centre, a brand new community hub designed to streamline access to all of their services, BSCS enlisted us as their Managed Services Provider and to take the lead on the immense task of designing and implementing the network infrastructure at this new, state-of-the-art facility.
The Challenge
The King Thunderbird Centre project aimed to bring 5 temporary office locations--each operating with varying IT infrastructure standards--under one roof. The technical demands of the project were significant: Accurate needed to design a fully functional and secure IT environment which would be ready for immediate use upon move in, and the network had to be built for scale, accounting for increasing capacity demands and future growth. The design also needed to maximize inter-floor connectivity in the large, multi-level facility. All these imperatives would require close coordination with engineers, project managers, construction teams, and external vendors to ensure success.
Of utmost importance? Minimizing downtime and disruption to maintain business continuity throughout the entire process.
While frustrations with their previous IT provider had been at an all-time high, BSCS still had reservations about Accurate being able to rise to the proposed challenge--"would a new provider be that much different, better?" Andrew Yeo, BSCS's Director of Operations, later confided. "The pressure felt immense."
Would a new provider really be that much different, better? The pressure felt immense.
The Solution
Though the scale of the King Thunderbird Centre project was immense, the Accurate Projects team took its usual systematic approach to tackle the task.
First, the team completed a full network redesign, incorporating structured cabling best practices, modern network closet standards, and optimized ISP configurations. The team then carefully selected and deployed high-speed network hardware with fiber-based inter-floor connectivity for maximum performance and redundancy.
Leading up to the move, the Projects team developed a phased migration plan for each of the five office locations. Rather than attempting a single, high-risk cutover, each location transitioned on its own timeline, ensuring continuity and minimizing disruption. Several pre-Go-Live site inspections tested infrastructure readiness, verified network performance, and allowed the team to address risks before each move took place.
Finally, for each move phase, the Accurate team was onsite to ensure a smooth transition and rapid response to any issues that might arise. Cutovers were followed by quality assurance checks and documentation updates to validate stability and ensure accuracy.
The People Component
Despite Yeo's original reservations about Accurate's ability to handle the project, Project Team's communication and professionalism immediately set him at ease: "from the start, under Project Manager Ben's leadership, the Accurate team delivered in every way possible. The move felt seamless, all the logistics of decommissioning 5 sites into 1, dealing with all the infrastructure and equipment, navigating the telecoms, transferring existing accounts, collaborating with other vendors--they took on all of it and excelled."
For an organization in the middle of the most significant transition in its history, BSCS had one fewer thing to worry about, according to Yeo. "Of all the different stressors, IT was not among them, because I knew Accurate had it covered."
Of all the different stressors, IT was not among them, because I knew Accurate had it covered.
The Outcome
With the opening of the King Thunderbird Centre on December 15, 2025, people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton now walk through its doors and find a space that says, in BSCS's own words, " . . . you belong here. You deserve beauty, care, and a space created with intention."
Behind that beauty is a network that is secure, scalable, and invisible (--the way good network infrastructure should be, in our opinion). By creating an IT environment that serves and supports BSCS's mission, Accurate Networks was able to contribute, even if in a small way, to the intentionality that drove the development of the King Thunderbird Centre.
Thank you, Boyle Street Community Services, for trusting us with this momentous project! We are humbled and honored to have been a part of it.
We cannot express how grateful we are to the team for how they truly came through for us in, arguably, our biggest moment. - Andrew Yeo
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