Epikar inks MOU with Singapore's NTU Research Center

South Korea's auto distribution digital solutions company Epikar said on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for R&D cooperation with the User Experience Research Center of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The two parties plan to work together in establishing a foundation for supporting the technical development needed for applying Epikar's digital solutions in the Southeast Asian market including that of Singapore.

As part of this effort, Epikar signed up Prof. Lee Kwan Min of NTU as its Chief Scientific Adviser. Prof. Lee was the youngest vice president in charge of the UX Group and C-Lab at Samsung Electronics. He will be in charge of devising Epikar's design strategies, establishing a technical support system, and lending help with global sales efforts.

"We have high hopes that Epikar's technology and service quality will be further enhanced by recruiting a former Samsung Electronics executive who is also a world authority in the field of UI and UX," said Han Bo-seok, CEO of Epikar.

"Car distribution is an area in the world where digital transformation is particularly slow. I decided to join Epikar after discovering that it is in possession of solutions in all areas of car distribution," said Prof. Lee.

Epikar is a company that provides dealer management solutions in areas that dealers need in the auto sales process, such as test drive and after-sales service.
Despite the progress of information and communications technology, most car sales processes are still undertaken manually and Epikar allows some of these tasks to be digitally performed so that carmakers and dealers can reduce their operating costs and improve competitiveness.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com