UPDATED 15:11 EDT / JUNE 20 2014

Oracle buys LiveLOOK to plug user experience hole in its cloud portfolio

oracleCloud services and analytics hold tremendous potential to drive productivity improvements in the workplace, but technology is only as good as the user allows it to be, a detail that is often lost in the discussion about the trends disrupting the enterprise landscape today.

Oracle, however, has not allowed that fact to escape its attention as it looks for ways to reverse a series of disappointing quarters widely blamed on its sluggish response to changes sweeping through the marketplace.

To empower subscribers of its Service Cloud and to provide a more streamlined experience for their end-users, the database maker has acquired LiveLOOK, a New Jersey-based developer of customer service solutions founded and led by former Bell Labs lead software architect Igor Khalatian. The company is best known for its co-browsing software, which makes it possible for support agents to interact with a customer’s browser window to walk them through an issue.

LiveLook also offers the Presenter screen sharing tool and an array of live chat, remote support and click-to-call products besides that. Underpinning its portfolio is a focus on accessibility that Oracle says manifests in “one-click access to visual help on any device,” functionality not unlike that afforded with the embeddable SOS feature offered by arch-frenemy Salesforce. The companies have gotten closer lately but continue to compete fiercely for dominance in the customer relationship management (CRM) space.

No financial details were provided for the deal, but Oracle product development head David Vap noted that the acquisition better positions his firm to address the growing demand for consistent user experiences across devices.

Plus, the transaction buys the database maker more than 500 clients across various industries, including Accenture, PBS and Match.com, which are significantly more likely to buy into its cloud offering now that LiveLOOK’s technology is being baked into the suite. Whether they will, of course, is a different matter as the cloud’s big three–Amazon, Microsoft and Google–also work to augment their platforms with more value-added capabilities.


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