Strands Blog

Two of the largest banks in the world are already using Strandsʼ technology to offer their customers a better overview of their personal finances.

Financial services companies that offer personal finance solutions increase their customer retention by up to four times.  This proves the importance of relying on this technology to build customer loyalty. In Spain, BBVA was the first to implement Strands’ technology last November and to launch the Tú Cuentas service.  A month after it’s launch, more that a 130,000 users had already tried the tool and to this day, more than 250,000 customers have already improved their personal finance management.

Now, Strands is proud to announce that ING has launched TIM for their customers in the Netherlands. The Dutch bank has chosen Strands technology to offer new services to their customers that allow them to better manage their expenses and income.

For the moment, TIM has been launched in the Dutch market in a private beta and only for a limited number of customers who have applied to participate in this pilot phase.  In the future, ING will offer the service to the bank’s online customers in the Netherlands.

The main goal of the new tool is to allow users to have a clear and complete overview of their financial situation.  Some of the innovative functionalities of the new tool include:

Automatic categorization of information:  The application automatically categorizes the users’ information into a set of predefined categories that make it easier to manage (for example, food, household…).

Analysis of a customers’ finances:  Based on the categorization, the information is presented to the user in a graphical way, enabling him to analyze his financial situation to better understand what his money is spent on.  The customer can see the evolution of his income and expenses in time and print pre-defined reports to consult at any time.  The information is displayed on the screen in an simple way that can be easily interpreted at first glance.

Comparisons with other users:  The service also allows users to compare themselves anonymously with other community members of his choice.  This helps customers better understand their financial situation and compare it to other collectives which can be useful to him or her.

Budgets and alerts:  The service allows the user to define his own budgets for different expense categories and set up alerts on their evolution by email or SMS

To learn more about Strands Personal Finance Technology, download the PDF brochure and discover why hundreds of thousands of people are using it to manage their personal finances.

Less than a year ago we announced that Strands would power a personal finance tool for BBVA’s 4.1 million online users, and today it is getting high praise from Josh Bernoff, Forrester analyst and co-author of the best selling book on social technologies, Groundswell:

I continue to be impressed with the breadth and depth of BBVA’s social technology offerings; this is the most advanced bank in the world when it comes to social technologies.  For example, they have built Tú Cuentas a tool customers can use to benchmark their spending against their peers, and Actibva, a financial community.  Learned: Once a company gets started with applications, the pace of social applications accelerates.  Have seen it here and at Dell, Intuit, Best Buy, and other places.

Developed by BBVA and Strands, BBVA Tú cuentas (You count, in Spanish) is an innovative personal finance tool that allows online users to better manage their personal finances, offering friendly analysis tools to better understand spending and savings.  Likewise, Strands’ own moneyStrands provides similar services to users in the United States and abroad.

Additionally, Strands recommendation technologies power Actibva Predicciones, a community-based prediction network offered as part of BBVA Actibva.  Through Actibva Predicciones users can ask the crowd’s opinion, express opinions through a market game, and win points and prizes based on accurate predictions.

We are looking forward to further developing our technology through agreements with other banks looking to offer new value-added services to their users.  To learn more about Strands Personal Finance Technology, download the PDF brochure and discover why hundreds of thousands of people are using it to manage their personal finances.

We are excited to announce Javier Gómez Noya as the latest addition to the Strands Team.  Javier is one of the best active triathletes in the world, winning the 2008 ITU Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver, and finishing fourth in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Javier is now competing in the United States under the sponsorship of Suunto, Louis Garneau, Oakley, Nike, and Cervélo among others.  You can follow his training at Strands.com/javiergomeznoya.

Team Strands athlete Jason Hartmann was the first American finisher and fourth overall at the Steamboat Classic in Peoria, Illinois on Saturday.  Hartmann covered the 4-mile course in 18:20, while Strands teammate Justin Young finished seventh in 18 minutes, 42 seconds.

The men’s champion was Ridouane Harroufi of Morocco who narrowly defended his title over Kenyan John Yuda.  The pair ran 17:44 and 17:46, respectively.  Boaz Cheboiywo (Kenya) claimed the final podium position in 18 minutes, 2 seconds.  Complete results are available at http://onlineraceresults.com.

Team Strands Weekend Race Recap
In Duluth, Team Strands athlete Mike Reneau finished fifth at the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon.  Reneau ran 1:05:56.  Eugene Kebenei of Kenya won the half marathon title in 1:05:15.  Complete Results are available at http://www.onlineraceresults.com.

Ryan Kirkpatrick cruised to a 15-second vistory in 14:52 at the Sailin Shoes 5k in Colorado Springs—missing the course record by only 4 seconds.

The 23rd International Association of Ultrarunners 100 km World Cup took place in Torhout, Belgium over the weekend, and was lead by Team USA from start to finish.  With an overall time of 23:41:08 Team USA took Gold in the International competition, followed by Russia (24:32:06) and Japan (24:41:21) rounding out the top three.  Full results and race info can be found at http://www.iau-ultramarathon.org/

Team USA’s Kami Semick (Bend, OR) finished first overall in the Women’s race with a time of 07:37:23, and teammates Devon Crosby-Helms (Seattle, WA) and Meghan Arbogast (Corvallis, OR) finished 07:59:17 and 08:04:28 respectively.

Both Kami and Meghan are local Team Strands runners, and you can discover out how they prepare for upcoming races by checking out their training logs on Strands.com.

Returning to one of the most hallowed sites in the sport, the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will take place at Hayward Field, site of the ‘72, ‘76, ‘80, and the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.  Eugene has long been dubbed “Track Town, USA” for its rich track and field history and the community’s overwhelming appreciation of the sport, and Strands has 20 tickets to give away.

The top winner will receive 1 pair (2 passes) of All-Session passes, good for all days and all events of the 2009 USATF Track & Field Championships.  Four runners-up will each win 3 Individual Session passes, good for all events for 1 day each (date of passes TBD).

To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post and include your Strands.com Username.  For extra style points, add your favorite running quote or include a link to your favorite running video on the internet.  Winners will be chosen at random from the comments below, and all winners will be announced by June 24th.

For more information about the event, please see the USATF event website.

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Follow Meghan’s training @ http://www.strands.com/nutmegrunner

Meghan’s tip of the week…get regular massage therapy. Massage is a great tool to keep you healthy and running faster than ever. Massage therapy keeps your muscles supple and strong by promoting blood circulation, elasticity, flexibility and relieving stress from both workouts and everyday life. And did I mention; it feels great!

A quick note: after your first session of massage you may not feel like normal, your legs may feel “heavier” than usual. However, with continued therapy you will see the results you are looking for, namely an increase in work capacity and faster times.

Think massage therapy would be too much of a burden on your wallet? Think again. Search online or the phone book for a local college offering massage therapy. Students are always looking for volunteers on which to hone their skills. And it is great for you because you get a person who is enthusiastic about what they are doing and usually at a deeply discounted price. I personally have tried many different massage therapists and can say without a doubt that Suzie, a student at St. Paul College, gives the best massages. In an hour’s time my legs go from tired and sore to feeling refreshed and ready for my next workout.

Massage is just one little piece in the puzzle of becoming the best runner you can be. People often emphasize the importance of a great workout, but you shouldn’t forget that recovery from workouts is equally as important.