KnowledgeCenter

KnowledgeCenter and Trend Micro come to together on their first outing as partners to sponsor Systemetric, the Hills Road Sixth Form College Robotics Team.

Systemetric will enter the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition, a prestigious U.S based robotics competition entered by over 1,500 high schools across the U.S, as well as many international teams from places as far afield as Brazil, Israel and the Netherlands.

About FIRST organisation

The aim of the FIRST organisation is to raise the profile of Science and Engineering in schools, along with instilling a strong sense of teamwork, responsibility and 'gracious professionalism' in every student who takes part. As part of this, they run a series of competitions aimed at various age groups, of which the FIRST Robotics Competition is just one.

The Competition

The competition itself involves building a robot capable of completing tasks set for that particular years game, which can vary from using rubber rings to play a three-dimensional game of Connect-4 to a robotics version of basketball. If this wasn't enough of a challenge in itself for a team of high school students, the robot has to be designed, built and programmed in six weeks around a busy school schedule. Nevertheless, even with such challenges facing Systemetric, the team has consistently performed well, having won the New York regional competition outright in 2004 and been semi-finalists in 2006, along with a string of other trophies to their name.

The Team

The Systemetric Team consists of around 30 students, along with a small team of adult mentors to guide the students. The entire team, along with a subset of the mentors, go out to New York every spring to compete with their creation, competing against up to sixty other U.S high schools in the regional heat.

Teacher-mentor to Team Systemetric, David Massey says:

"Our continued participation is solely dependant on the generosity of the companies and individuals who sponsor us, and without their support this would never happen. By KnowledgeCenter and Trend Micro sponsoring us, they will be helping to train the next generation of scientists and engineers, some of whom may well end up using the skills that KnowledgeCenter and Trend Micro have helped to develop by sponsoring us."

KnowledgeCenter swept the team and individual awards at the Worshipful Society of Marketors Golf Day held at the prestigious RAC Golf Club near Epsom in April. A popular charity event with the City, the golf day is also well supported and attended from the sports world. The KnowledgeCenter team comprising MD Kevin Osborn, FD Jim Donoghue and Marketing Consultant and ex Lions and England star Matt Perry took the team prize whilst Jim won the individual competition. A second team comprising staff from the underwriter company Mitsui also competed whilst KnowledgeCenter sponsored the first hole. The prizes were presented by Austin Healey. The Rainbow Trust Children's Charity was the worthy beneficiary of the day.

Following on from success at the RAC Club members of the team joined KnowledgeCenter client Catlin's team and continued its winning ways by taking the honours at the Middlesex County Cricket Club Golf Day. The winning team comprised KnowledgeCenter MD Kevin Osborn, Tim Peters Group Head of Reinsurance Asset Management at Catlin, Steve Ryland of Swiss Re and Leon Douch of Ascot.

2007 was a tremendous year for KnowledgeCenter. Set out below are some of the milestones:

• New Clients - New clients included leading Lloyd's Brokers Price Forbes for whom we have built a binder/lineslip management solution and Besso.
• Existing Clients - We were also engaged in major deliverables for existing clients including QBE, Catlin and THB.
• Product Launches - Key investments in 2007 saw two major launches - KC 1 View and KC Binder Manager as well enhancement of our flagship KCenter solution. KC 1 View provides a tightly integrated Microsoft Outlook environment for a familiar and intuitive user experience and/or via a web browser for those users that need/want to work away from the office. The solution utilises market leading products that include "KCenter" for document management and workflow and "Exari" for document assembly. KC Binder Manager is an "End to End" solution for Brokers and Underwriters of all sizes who place or manage Facility, Binder or Line Slip business.
• Partnerships - Management consultancy Watertrace took a strategic shareholding in KnowledgeCenter in 2007. Their reputation and expertise in business strategy, business process change, compliance, project management and system selection and implementation dovetails with our own solutions and products to provide a comprehensive resource and skill set for brokers and underwriters looking to manage change and deploy strategic solutions enabling them to grow their businesses. The combined resource of Business Consultants and IT professionals available to clients now numbers 70.
• Office Move - Expansion through the first part of 2007 made an office move imperative. In August we relocated to 100 Fenchurch Street. The larger state of the art offices will enhance our service to clients even further As you can see we are not resting on our laurels.

KCBinder Manager is an "End to End" solution for Brokers of all sizes who place or manage Facility, Binder or LineSlip business. Utilising market leading products that include "Kcenter" for document management and process control and "Exari" for document assembly, as well as ACORD XML output for interoperability, KCBinder Manager provides a fully process managed, compliant and extendable capability presently unique within the market.

For ease of use KCBinder can be deployed through a tightly integrated Microsoft Outlook environment for a familiar and intuitive user experience and/or via a web browser for those users that need/want to work away from the office.

Key benefits of the offering include improved business corporate performance through the provision of a faster turnaround for submissions; a consistent approach to managing Binder type business and the significant reduction in the duplication of data.

On the 16th December 2006, Warren a veteran of nearly 20 years with the Old Colfeians RFC 1st XV - suffered a stroke during a first team match. The stroke has seriously inhibited his right hand side and speech. Whilst he has made good initial progress at Kings Hospital, he is shortly to return home where his rehabilitation will continue for the next 18 months to 2 years. Warren and his partner, Samantha, have a two year old son and sickness pay from his employers will end shortly meaning his family will then be reliant on social security. As a result Old Colfeians RFC has opened a fund to help support his treatment and family during this time.

Contributions from events such as a City Lunch and Auction and donations from outside the club - for example from the Front Row Union Club (ex international front row players) - have been hugely important and gratefully received by Warren and his family. If you would like to make a donation that will make a huge difference to Warrens life, please send your contribution to:

HSBC Bank
Sort Code: 400415
Account No. 91722786
Reference: OCRFC re Warrens Evans.