Zendesk rings in the acquisition of Local Measure

Zendesk’s acquisition of Local Measure has now been finalised, with the entire Australian team joining under the Zendesk for Contact Centre banner.

The acquisition was implemented via a scheme of arrangement and its closing is subject to standard conditions, including the customer experience (CX) software vendor’s shareholder approval and necessary regulatory and Australian court approvals. 

By coming together, Zendesk will be able to unify digital and voice channels within a single platform and deliver artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice and contact centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) solutions, Zendesk chief technology officer Adrian McDermott told ARN.

“[We will] continue to work together on an innovative roadmap and build the most comprehensive and innovative voice solutions in market,” he said.

ARN reported the initial acquisition in February, with Zendesk stating its acquisition of the Australian-founded company would help it expand into complex service environments and boost its AI voice capabilities.

In an interview with ARN conducted just after the acquisition, Local Measure CEO Jonathan Barouch said it had been approached a couple of times in 2024, but ultimately chose Zendesk as it “was the best home”.

“Financials aside, I think we were really passionate about our culture around our core values, and around our team,” he said.

“We do conferences every 18 months to get the team together. For us, we were looking for a place that kind of shared that spirit of entrepreneurship and camaraderie.”

“You know, it’s always scary for a small company to learn to land in a big business; … we are 60 people.”

Zendesk has already leveraged Local Measure’s technology, announcing Zendesk for Contact Centre, featuring ‘advanced voice powered by Local Measure and Amazon Connect’, at its annual Zendesk Relate conference in March.

The product is now a “fully integrated product in the Zendesk platform and gives agents access to voice capabilities such as call recordings, transcripts, sentiment analysis, complex routing and predictive dialling without switching between systems”, said McDermott.

“With Local Measure’s voice capabilities, we will be able to deliver voice technology to larger, global and more complex service environments,” he said.

The solution is already available to customers globally, including in Australia and New Zealand.

Barouch told ARN that the finality of the acquisition marks an “incredibly exciting new chapter” for the company he founded.

“We’re now focused on integrating our technology and expertise into the Zendesk platform,” he said. “This is just day one and the real work begins now to build intelligent voice solutions for our customers.”

With Local Measure now under the Zendesk brand, there is also discussion of upgrading the Australian company’s Sydney office.

Chief technology officer for North America and Asia Pacific Jason Maynard told ARN that Zendesk comes from Danish roots.

“Our founders were all Danish, so we’re very particular about furniture,” he said. “[In] all of our offices all around the world, you’ll see a lot of Danish design details … that’s a non-negotiable.

“This whole office will look mid-century modern.”

As for Barouch, he is “already measuring up the space for my Hans Wegner chair.”