IBM's September agreement to acquire OpenPages will integrate Big Blue's growing suite of business analytics services to give customers a wide-ranging view of risk across their businesses and consequently a better understanding of how their companies are performing overall. IBM did not disclose the terms of the deal.

Over the past four years, the Armonk, N.Y.-based software and consulting giant has invested more than $11 billion and made more than 20 acquisitions to bolster its business analytics offerings. In fact, a week after the OpenPages deal, IBM announced the acquisition of Netezza Corp., which provides data warehousing analysis tools.

The acquisition of privately held OpenPages pushes IBM's business analytics offering to a new level. OpenPages' governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platform allows companies to aggregate the output of business analysis tools, helping CFOs to more easily identify and manage risks across the enterprise using a single system and develop a view of performance that's adjusted for risk.