IBM has acquired Clarity Systems, a privately-held company based in Toronto, Canada. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Clarity Systems delivers financial governance software that enables organizations to automate the process of collecting, preparing, certifying and controlling financial statements for electronic filing. To reduce the risks of potential error and the time required to create and file financial documents, Clarity Systems software allows finance professionals to seamlessly integrate information for more efficient planning, consolidation and financial reporting.

IBM, which will integrate Clarity Systems within its Business Analytics software portfolio, now has a comprehensive portfolio of business analytics software for financial professionals to plan, forecast and analyze performance, identify and manage key business risks, and report to external stakeholders with confidence. With Clarity Systems, organizations can easily combine financial statements, operational details, commentary, notes, charts and pictures into a single document, giving users the ability to reduce the possibility of errors and late filings, and quickly and easily produce documents for external filing.

Clarity Systems complements IBM’s recent acquisition of OpenPages that helps companies more easily identify and manage governance, risk and compliance activities across the enterprise through a single management system. The addition of Clarity Systems and OpenPages gives the office of the CFO a comprehensive set of solutions for financial performance and strategy management, risk management and compliance, and financial governance.

Clarity Systems also has strong capabilities in core performance management, such as budgeting, planning and forecasting. Client and partner investments in existing IBM and Clarity Systems technologies will be preserved, allowing customers to take advantage of the broader set of capabilities without the need to replace existing systems.