IBM has gotten as predictable in its acquisitions as it used to be in its suits.

It's buying another analytics house. This time it's Varicent Software from up Toronto way. And again IBM isn't saying what it's paying.

Nine-year-old Varicent does analytics software for compensation and sales performance management. More specifically, it automates and analyzes the collection and reporting of sales data across finance, sales, HR and IT.

Blue figures it can be used horizontally, and combined with other stuff in its grab bag delivered through on-premise or cloud models.

Les Rechan, the general manager of business analytics at IBM, said the Varicent purchase would advance Blue's efforts to get analytics into the hands of front-line employees in the name of improving the bottom line.

The stuff reportedly provides a single management system that relies on a sophisticated calculation engine to model and analyze the effectiveness of incentive spend as well as streamline territory assignments and manage quotas.

IBM quotes Gartner as saying that organizations that adopt compensation management solutions can expect to reduce errors by more than 90% (in whose favor one wonders) and reduce processing times by more than 40%.

Varicent claims upwards of 180 customers including Hertz, Office Depot and Farmers. The deal should close this quarter. All of Varicent's employees are expected to join IBM's Software Group.

The Toronto house, a competitor of Xactly and the publicly traded Callidus Software, raised a $35 million C round from FTV Capital, RBC Venture Partners and Edgestone Capital in late 2009. It reportedly generates about $35 million in sales.