SAP SE, Germany-based multinational software company, on Wednesday opened SAP AppHaus Korea in Pangyo Startup Campus in south of Seoul, its first AppHaus in the Asia-Pacific region and one of three such centers joining SAP campuses in Germany and the U.S., with an aim to foster innovation and creativity in the country.

SAP AppHaus, run by SAP’s Design&Co-Innovation Center (DCC), was first opened to promote the so-called Design Thinking, a five-step problem solving process involving creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and innovation, which was first adopted and preached by d.school in the Institute of Design at Stanford University.

AppHaus is a combined term of “apps” (application) and “haus” from the Bauhause, an influential German art school founded in 1919 that had a profound influence on art, architecture and design. The German software maker hopes AppHaus Korea can help facilitate Design Thinking not only in the Korean business circles but also across broad fields in the society.

AppHaus Korea sits on the 5th floor of the Startup Campus Building located in Pangyo and covers about 1,119.73 square meters housing a kitchen (café), meeting rooms, workshop space, collaboration space and other facilities. DCC-Asia Pacific division team led by center head Christopher Han and 14 UX designers and design thinking specialists will be in charge of running the center that will offer various programs, trainings and workshops to businesses, startups and anybody who wants to adopt Design Thinking to their works.

SAP hopes AppHaus Korea to help spur creative and innovation in Korean ICT startups that could lead them to make inroads into overseas market. The company said it will also introduce more innovation-fostering projects with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP).

The German multinational software giant has prepared the opening of AppHaus Korea after SAP Chairman Hasso Plattner promised to President Park Geun-hye to open the center during his visit to Korea in September 2014.

By Lee Gyung-jin

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