From February 24–26, almost all members of SAP AppHaus Network came together for the annual global meet-up in Walldorf, Germany.
For the opening, Andre Bechtold, president, SAP Industries & Experiences, addressed the network partners with a warm welcome and underlined the strategic value of partners for SAP and its global customer base. These partners are front-runners of the human-centered approach to innovation, exploring and designing solutions with and for customers built with latest SAP technologies such as SAP Business AI.
It’s all about openness, collaboration, and storytelling
During a fireside chat, Dennis Kecskemeti, head of SAP Innovation Experience, Paul Saunders, head of SAP Customer Outcomes & Advocacy, and Andreas Wendel, head of Innovation Experience Services, answered questions asked by moderator and head of Customer Engagement Services MEE, EMEA, and APAC Kathrin Tarnai-Sindl.
All three guests had brought a personal object with a special connection to SAP AppHaus. Interestingly, two brought their mobile phones, but for very different reasons: for one it was the device to listen to audio stories when traveling or commuting, for the other it was a multifunctional gadget to do private calls when traveling, listen to music, and much more. The third guest brought a handball to remind everyone that all good things only work out when teams work together and collaborate. So, their central describing words for SAP AppHaus were storytelling, openness, creativity, multifunctionality, and collaboration.
With the new integrated approach, the closer interplay of SAP AppHaus, SAP Experience Centers, and co-innovation services will provide one continuous experience journey in an end-to-end context. SAP AppHaus is where problems are framed and ambition is created in a human-centered, exploratory, and strategic way. SAP Experience Centers translate that ambition into tangible value narratives, showcasing what’s possible with SAP, SAP Business AI, and SAP Business Suite. Co-innovation services turn inspiration into execution by piloting, validating, and scaling real solutions with customers and partners. Together, all three form a closed loop from challenge, vision, and experience to solution and impact.
“Each service within SAP’s innovation experience is strong on its own. But their real power emerges through connection and collaboration. By bringing SAP AppHaus, SAP Experience Centers, and co-innovation together, we are shaping a new way for customers and partners to work with SAP, turning ambition into confidence and inspiration into lasting impact.”
Andreas Wendel, Head of SAP Innovation Experience Services
SAP AppHaus Network members came together in Walldorf
The event agenda offered different working sessions and formats for strategic alignment, exchange on experiences in customer projects, joint marketing efforts, mergers and acquisitions, enablement, and feedback rounds on latest co-innovation formats. On top of that, there was room for networking and excursions. After hours of exchange in discussions, work groups, and sessions, the group of about 30 partner representatives visited the S.Factory, S.Mart, and SAP Experience Center. A fun bowling competition, a scavenger hunt across the Walldorf campus, and a quick glimpse at the construction site of the future SAP AppHaus Walldorf rounded out the event experience and left the partners with a comprehensive update on all things SAP related.
“During this year’s SAP AppHaus Network meet-up we focused on shaping our collaboration model for the future, on further improving our co-innovation methods together, and on learning about our different strategic needs and priorities. It is so valuable to meet the SAP AppHaus members’ representatives in person and have this lively exchange! And let’s not forget, this year it is about building bridges between our new sister teams within SAP’s innovation experience and the global SAP AppHaus Network partners.”
Svenja Mueller, Customer Engagements MEE, EMEA, APAC, and Co-Lead of the SAP AppHaus Network
About SAP AppHaus Network
For more than a decade, SAP AppHaus has collaborated closely with a growing network of more than 20 partners around the world. They have established their own SAP AppHaus locations and are fully trained in SAP’s human-centered approach to innovation. Together, all members work to drive co-innovation projects with customers, using cutting-edge SAP technologies such as SAP Business AI, Joule, agentic AI, and many more. It is about very timely enablement of all members in train-the-trainer formats to explore and design business use cases in customer workshops. Latest examples include the Designing Agentic Systems with a Human-Centered Approach SAP Learning Journey and other formats, tools, and methods offered in the specialized innovation toolkit for AI.
This allows all SAP AppHaus Network members to act as agile front-runners and co-innovation experts. They support customers regardless of their digital maturity, guiding them to unlock tangible business value around the world along SAP’s human-centered approach to innovation.
Imke Vierjahn is communications lead for SAP AppHaus.