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IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced the completion of its acquisition of Varicent Software, a provider of analytics software for compensation and sales performance management.
IBM has been on a buying spree of analytics software providers, with Varicent its latest acquisition. IBM also has been beefing up its commerce play with the companys Smarter Commerce strategy. Varicent’s software automates and analyzes data across sales, finance, human resources and IT departments to uncover trends and improve sales performance and operations.
The acquisition enhances IBM’s Smarter Analytics capabilities across line-of-business operations in all industries. IBM initially announced plans to acquire Varicent in April.
“Varicent advances IBMs efforts to deliver analytics directly into the hands of front-line employees, helping them uncover new ways to remain competitive and stay ahead of increasing demand, said Les Rechan, IBMs general manager of business analytics, in a statement. “The combination of Varicents software and IBM’s deep analytics expertise delivers a comprehensive approach to managing sales performance, allowing clients to make more informed decisions faster.”
Varicent software enables companies across a variety of industries, including banking, telecommunications, insurance and retail, to facilitate and streamline quota planning, compensation, sales assignments, and managing quotas and insights into sales activities. The software takes what is traditionally a labor-intensive process, and automates and integrates all aspects of sales, client and financial performance management across the enterprise.
Varicent software, combined with IBM’s prior acquisitions in business analytics, including Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, OpenPages and Cognos, and recent investments in predictive analytics such as SPSS, will provide clients with a broad range of business analytics solutions. These acquisitions are part of IBM’s larger focus on analytics, which spans hardware, software, services and research.
The news supports IBM’s long-term growth strategy to expand the companys business analytics and optimization software and services capabilities, an area of IBM’s business that is expected to reach $16 billion in revenue by 2015.
Varicent, headquartered in Toronto, has more than 180 customers using its software, including Starwood Hotels, Covidien, Dex One, Manpower, Hertz, Office Depot and Farmers. With the closing of this acquisition, approximately 200 Varicent employees will join IBM’s Software Group.