As I have a vested interest in tracking the links between personalization, customer service and advocacy, I have been following the evolution of recommender type technologies and services, of which, unfortunately there seem to be far too many to understand
to any level of detail.
Strands is one of a host of organizations crowding into this arena.
Here on their own blog, they post in detail on a new solution called Tu Cuentas - You Count in Spanish - which they have built and now deployed to BBVA's 4.1
million online users. BBVA also issued their own
press release.
The solution appears to be a mix of rich financial management tools and personalization features (also available to sit on mobile phones), integrated with personal recommendation technology. The objective being to encourage customers to use a series of applications
for personal financial management, in order to then learn more about their profile, and consequently recommend relevant products and services.
At first glance the tools look great and show how much organizations are willing to give away for free, in order to gather data which they can then exploit to deliver better, personalized services (and doubtless sell more stuff, too).