International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) agreed to buy Varicent Software Inc., a Canadian provider of analytics software to manage compensation and sales performance. Toronto-based and closely held, Varicent automates and integrates sales information, allowing companies to determine compensation and sales-force deployment, IBM said in a statement today. IBM, based in Armonk, New York, didn't disclose terms of the acquisition. The world's largest computer-services provider expects to generate $16 billion of analytics revenue in 2015. Varicent follows IBM acquisitions of companies, including Algorithmics Inc., Clarity Systems, OpenPages, Cognos Inc. and SPSS as it adds analytics tools to help businesses uncover trends and better deploy their employees in sales, finance, customer service and marketing. IBM's five-year plan includes boosting software to half of its total earnings, as Bloomberg stated. “Sales performance management is still viewed by many in the industry as an art versus a science, but there is plenty of opportunity for this mindset to change," said Dan Shimmerman, chief executive officer of Varicent. “As part of IBM, we can now bring our technological expertise in maturing and advancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales function to a broader range of clients across the globe."
