From pouch to networks: KIPONetʹs growth and evolution

This study examines how an information system is being developed and subsequently nurtured in an organizational context. The focus is on revealing how the systems are being evolved from the initiation, through development, toward implementation and nurtured into more advanced stages of growth. The case covers developmental stages of the KIPONet system for the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), which is still growing and evolving. Extensive document review, and interviews of stakeholders followed by close observations revealed that critical success factors for systems development project are: (1) active user participation with executive support, (2) constant auditing and assessment, (3) flexible budget, (4) constant communication, and (5) intensive user training, and the source of these critical success factors is traceable back to the strategic decisions made at the initial stages of the project: (1) extensive benchmarking, (2) growing systems approach, and (3) open systems philosophy.