So long as it’s software, it can be provided as a service. At least that’s what IBM seems to believe these days, hence its decision to announce cloud-based versions of IBM Concert, IBM Catalyst and OpenPages. The announcements were made at Vision 2014, a conference for finance, risk management, and sales compensation professionals held in Orlando, Florida.

Each offering has been enhanced and upgraded somewhat, yet they all evolved from on-premises software. For example, IBM Concert‘s roots go back to the company’s TM1 performance-management software that fell under its umbrella when it acquired Cognos back in 2007. TM1 was originally designed as a tool for financial analysts and CFOs, before later expanding to become a platform that made budgeting, forecasting and planning more accessible to sales teams and decision makers.

Now, the cloud version of Concert adds extra sales and compensation-management capabilities from Vericent, which IBM snapped up in 2012. The product is now on offer as a service from IBM’s Cloud Marketplace, with service options including budgeting and planning, Incentive-compensation management, and forecasting.

Last but not least, IBM is moving its governance, risk-management and compliance tool OpenPages to the cloud. It’ll be available as a managed service on SoftLayer, which has become the foundation of IBM’s cloud strategy since its $2 billion acquisition last year. Back in January, IBM said it was pouring an additional $1 billion into expanding SoftLayer’s x86 architecture across more of its data centers, a clear sign that it sees the platform as the key to accelerating its push into the cloud.

Tom Rosamilia, Senior vice president at IBM STG, recently stressed just how important SoftLayer is to Big Blue during an appearance on theCUBE at IBM Edge this week. Commenting on SoftLayer, Rosamilia said it hosted half of the mobile apps currently running on mobile devices. Acquisitions are a way to reach new customers, he said. It’s an expansion, not a substitution, for the IBM business.

As for IBM’s Project Catalyst, this is only available as a preview for now, but Big Blue says its been designed to help automate data analytics. Catalyst hasn’t even seen the light of day as an on-premises offering yet, but it’s partly based on IBM’s SPSS Modeling and Statistics Analytics Server. What IBM’s trying to do is bring its SPSS Modeling and Statistics Analytics Server’s capabilities to the masses, identifying trends and correlations to help businesses make sense of their Big Data.

IBM says that one example use-case scenario could be organizations that wish to assess their marketing performance, removing the need to carry out a full study. Marketing data would then be presented in “plain language” together with “interactive visuals”.

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