"As we transform our product portfolio down this particular path, our ability to deliver a software development platform will enable a SaaS model. But we're not announcing today any kind of a SaaS model," said Sabbah.

A service supplier, whether it is IBM or someone else, could, for example, host a quality management process for distributed teams worldwide, Sabbah said. Such a process even could be used by different companies, said.

He called IBM's plan "a natural evolution of the capabilities that we provide today."

"It's a different way of delivering those particular capabilities [that is] much more amenable to the types of requests and business models that our customers are essentially under today," Sabbah said.

IBM's plan will include creating a community around Jazz with some technologies to be free and open source and others fee-based. It is similar to how the IBM-developed Eclipse Foundation functions, in which open-source technologies are melded with for-profit endeavors.