Royal Navy

Background

The Royal Navy needed a secure, reliable way to communicate with more than 40,000 serving personnel across the globe. Sailors, engineers, medical staff, civil servants, and reserves are rarely desk-based and increasingly rely on mobile devices to access critical information.

Existing communication channels were fragmented, inconsistent, and often slow. Personnel struggled to access timely updates on training, deployments, healthcare, pay, leave, and uniform ordering. Processes such as uniform collection were inconvenient and time-consuming, requiring travel to stores with limited stock availability.

Great State’s challenge was to create an internal platform that could deliver consistent, targeted communication at scale, while supporting two-way engagement and future expansion. The solution needed to meet strict Ministry of Defence security requirements, remain flexible as needs evolved, and empower teams across the organisation without creating central bottlenecks.

Solution

Great State partnered with the Royal Navy to design and build MyNavy, a progressive web app that provides a secure, two-way communications channel for serving personnel. At the heart of the platform sits Umbraco, which Great State uses as the central control centre for content, data, and editorial management.

MyNavy was built using a headless, composable architecture. Umbraco manages structured content while integrating with identity services, APIs, and multiple enterprise systems. This approach allows features to be turned on and off, new services to be added over time, and the platform to adapt as operational needs change.

Umbraco enables nominated editors across units, bases, and departments to log in and deliver targeted announcements to specific audiences, rather than broadcasting messages across the entire force. This reduces operational load on central communications teams while ensuring information remains timely, relevant, and secure.

Great State also integrated Ucommerce to power a click-and-collect uniform ordering service, merging e-commerce data with internal Navy stock systems and managing everything through Umbraco’s editorial interface. Umbraco Forms was used to build custom forms for special uniform orders and to gather feedback during beta trials.

Impact

MyNavy is now available to the entire Royal Navy workforce and has become a core operational platform. In a single month, the app was accessed more than 168,000 times, with 72% of the force actively using the service and 84% accessing it via mobile devices.

The uniform ordering MVP was delivered in just 12 weeks, with 91% of surveyed users reporting that it saved time and improved their experience. Targeted announcements and feedback tools have strengthened two-way communication, enabling command teams to respond directly to user needs and surface improvements from within the force.

Built on Umbraco, MyNavy provides a future-ready foundation that supports continuous improvement, new services, and long-term ambition. The military-grade tool now receives 8,000 daily visits across 27 countries and has been recognised by the First and Second Sea Lords as an example of transformation best practice within the armed forces.