Fig 1 — OwnChat replaces Slack, Microsoft Teams and runs natively on the Own360 control plane.
Why OwnChat exists
Every enterprise spends a non-trivial slice of its software budget on the collaboration layer — yet most of that spend goes to vendors that hold the data, throttle the integrations, and charge per seat for features that should be commoditised. OwnChat exists to absorb that layer into something the enterprise owns end-to-end.
OwnChat gives the organisation one governed place to talk. Channels with topics, threads, and pinned context replace the email chain; voice calling is built in with persistent, searchable history; and vendors and customers get scoped guest channels with time-limited permissions — all of it auditable and covered by retention policies from day one.
Channels. DMs. Voice. Guests. Governed.
What it replaces
Most teams reach OwnChat after running into the limits of the legacy stack:
- Slack — channels, threads, @mentions, and pinned context carry over, and every message stays searchable, auditable, and inside your own boundary.
- Microsoft Teams — voice calling and company-wide broadcast are built in, with compliance-ready retention and archiving instead of another separate licence.
The replacement isn't a feature-for-feature clone. OwnChat keeps the workflows you actually use, drops the ones that exist only because the underlying database was relational and the vendor wanted another SKU, and adds the things the SaaS world refuses to give you: identity sharing with every other application, a unified audit trail, and an event stream other Own360 apps can subscribe to.
Capabilities at a glance
Fig 2 — Core capability surface. Every feature publishes events to the Own360 bus and is governed by the shared control plane.
Highlights
- Every message searchable, auditable, and compliance-ready
- Scoped guest access for vendors — no accidental data exposure
- Voice calling built in — no separate Zoom or Teams licence
Feature surface
- Team Channels. Dedicated channels with topics, pinned context, threads, @mentions, and company-wide broadcast.
- Voice Calls. Built-in voice calling with persistent, searchable history across all conversations.
- Guest Access. Scoped access for vendors and customers with governance controls and time-limited permissions.
- Governance & Audit. Admin controls, full audit trail, searchable history, and compliance-ready data retention.
The numbers that matter
Who uses OwnChat
Fig 3 — OwnChat delivers role-specific outcomes from a single shared workspace.
IT Admin. Full governance: retention policies, audit logs, guest access controls, and compliance-ready archiving.
Team Lead. Channels with topics, pinned context, threads, @mentions — replace the email chain with searchable conversations.
Procurement. Scoped guest channels for vendor communication with automatic expiry and data boundary enforcement.
How OwnChat fits the Own360 stack
OwnChat is one of 23+ Own360 applications that share a single control plane. The same identity provider, the same role-based access engine, the same audit log, the same event bus, and the same workflow runtime power every app on the platform.
That sharing is not cosmetic. It is what makes the platform a coherent operating layer rather than a federated bag of SaaS tools. A permission grant in OwnCentral instantly affects OwnChat. An event emitted by OwnChat can trigger a workflow in OwnFlow. An audit record from OwnChat surfaces in the same query as one from OwnERP. There is no integration project — only configuration.
Operational economics
The Own360 commercial model is deliberately simple and decidedly not per-seat. Every Own app — including OwnChat — is source-available, self-hostable, and licensed perpetually. The 10-year cost curve flattens because there is no annual seat inflation, no AI add-on SKU, and no vendor lock-in tax on the data you produce.
For finance leaders, this turns an OpEx subscription stream into a one-time CapEx outlay plus a small support footprint. For engineering leaders, it turns a vendor integration roadmap into an internal product roadmap. For security leaders, it eliminates the "data lives at someone else's URL" risk entirely.
Frequently asked questions
What is OwnChat?
OwnChat is the Own360 product for "Channels. DMs. Voice. Guests. Governed." in the Collaboration layer. It is one workspace that brings together team channels, direct messages, built-in voice calls, and time-limited guest access, with retention, audit, and compliance controls applied across all of it.
What does OwnChat replace?
OwnChat is designed to replace Slack, Microsoft Teams with a single owned, governed surface that runs on the Own360 control plane.
Who uses OwnChat?
IT Admin: Full governance: retention policies, audit logs, guest access controls, and compliance-ready archiving. Team Lead: Channels with topics, pinned context, threads, @mentions — replace the email chain with searchable conversations. Procurement: Scoped guest channels for vendor communication with automatic expiry and data boundary enforcement.
How does OwnChat fit into the Own360 stack?
OwnChat runs on top of the Own360 control plane — sharing identity, permissions, audit, and workflow services with every other Own product. There is no separate SSO setup, separate audit log, or separate integration layer. The same governance and event bus apply.
Is OwnChat self-hosted?
Yes. The entire Own360 platform — including OwnChat — is designed to run inside your VPC, your on-prem data centre, or a sovereign cloud. Source-available with perpetual licensing; no per-seat tax, no data egress, no telemetry leaving your boundary.
Related products in the Collaboration layer
- OwnWiki — Knowledge. Operations. Information Sharing.
- OwnMeet — Mira AI. Video. Transcription. Scheduling. Async.
- OwnDesk — Connect. Engage. Resolve.
See it live
OwnChat is part of the Own360 platform demo. Get in touch for a walkthrough, or browse the rest of the product stack to see how the layers compose. Full specs, metrics, and licensing live on the OwnChat product page.