APJ's First Design Thinking-Based Innovation Space
Targeting Local Communities, Government, Public Institutions, Enterprises, and Startups

The 'AppHaus Korea' of the SAP Design & Co-Innovation Center APJ (Design & Co-Innovation Center APJ, Center Director Christopher Han) opened on July 6 at the Pangyo Startup Campus in Gyeonggi Province as the first in the APJ region. The opening ceremony of AppHaus Korea was attended by more than 250 participants from various sectors, including Vice Minister Choi Jae-yoo of the Ministry of Future Creation and Science (Minister Choi Yang-hee), executives of domestic companies, startup representatives, university professors, and researchers.

Established on a 1,119.73 m2 scale at Pangyo Startup Campus, SAP AppHaus Korea plans to contribute to business innovation based on human-centered thinking, design innovation, and creative collaboration, and to serve as a bridge between domestic software and the global ecosystem. The facility will operate various programs targeting government, enterprises, society, and startups while leading innovation across society.

The establishment of AppHaus Korea was announced through a meeting between Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board, who visited Korea in September 2014, and President Park Geun-hye.

With the goal of "Contributing to Korean Innovation Based on Design Thinking and Software," SAP has accelerated preparations for the opening of AppHaus Korea, including concluding a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gyeonggi Province. The SAP AppHaus has been established in Korea as the third globally following Germany and the United States, and is the first in the Asia Pacific region.

The Design & Co-Innovation Center (hereinafter: DCC) APJ, the organization responsible for AppHaus Korea, was newly established in June 2015. The DCC APJ is a subsidiary organization of SAP for product research and development (R&D) and innovation-related activities, composed of Center Director Christopher Han (SAP Executive Vice President, Stanford University Ph.D.) and 14 UX design and design thinking experts. The DCC has received 16 awards in software and design management sectors over the past three years, including the internationally renowned design award "Red Dot Award."

Vice Minister Choi Jae-yoo of the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, who visited to celebrate the opening of AppHaus Korea, stated, "We hope SAP AppHaus Korea will accelerate innovation and convergent value creation across all domestic industries through design thinking," and added, "We expect it to contribute to securing South Korea's software innovation and design competitiveness, and fostering a global entrepreneurial ecosystem."

Since pilot operations began on June 1, AppHaus Korea has been visited by more than 130 participants, including the National University of Singapore Design School and key enterprise, university, and institutional representatives from across Asia. During the first year since its establishment, the DCC conducted 13 design thinking lectures and workshops for approximately 600 government officials from the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, the Ministry of Defense, and Gyeonggi Provincial Office.

Contributing to the activation of design thinking in enterprises, SKT established a design thinking team and subsequently collaborated with the DCC in applying design thinking to the process of discovering new business models. Going forward, the center plans to operate various programs including problem-solving for youth self-directed learning, educational innovation programs for teachers and professors, education and design thinking expert training programs targeting startups, and startup-focused programs to disseminate design thinking to society and support startups' ICT innovation and global expansion. Additionally, the DCC plans to pursue various innovation projects based on UX/UI to enable the Ministry of Future Creation and Science and domestic companies to successfully enter global markets.