8 Things that Changed the History of Document Management

Today’s guest “8 things” blogger is Leonard Johnson from NetDocuments.  Leonard has been in the ECM field for nearly 20 years: first at SoftSolutions, and now as the VP of Marketing at NetDocuments. At NetDocuments, Leonard has helped pioneer the concept of a SaaS document management system.

Those interested in contributing to the “8 things” series should contact me at johnmancini@aiim.org.  Rules:  700-1000 words.  Can’t pimp a product or company.  Try to be clever.  Have some fun. I reserve the right to republish (watch this space).  If you are a user and worried about legal types descending upon you I can publish without affiliation and with a cool fake name.

8 Things that Changed the History of Document Management (specifically in the legal profession)

Over the course of history, the managing of documents has brought the human race much joy, as well as utter frustration. 
Though no one person can be accredited with inventing document management, the first known system was created by nomadic tribes writing on the walls of caves.  Over time, this evolved to the scrolls system employed by ancient Rome, and as the world neared the end of the 1800s, the human race still relied on a very primitive form of document management. But over the next century, eight things happened that changed the history of document management forever.

1. The File Cabinet

In the late 1800’s, a young man named Edwin Seibels saw a world with A.D.M.D. (Acute Document Management Disorder), and he knew there had to be a way to heal the world of this ailment.  He soon invented the file cabinet, and with this, Mr. Seibels changed the way humans stored and managed documents from that point on.

2.  The Server

As the file cabinet worked well to manage documents, its popularity was also its curse, as they started piling up in office spaces everywhere. This changed however with a powerful and disruptive innovation that changed the game--computing.  Commencing with powerful, centralized mainframes, and evolving to distributed client/server architecture, organizations were now able to store documents electronically.

3. The PC

When PCs started to get distributed and connected on a LAN (local area network), firms were then able to create and store documents on their computer—power to the user! But distributed PCs managed by the local area network sent unstructured documents scattered everywhere.

Network deficiencies in the way documents were organized (e.g., the eight-dot-three character naming convention and lack of control of documents) caused many problems. There existed no version control, no audit trail, and lack of security was rampant. Though the PC was a game changer, the unstructured world of distributed PCs introduced the need for document management systems.

4. Electronic Document Management Systems

When electronic document management (EDMS) started to gain popularity in the 80s, it was a complicated tool that could only be managed by a word processing center operator (may they rest in peace).  As tools developed, the task moved to secretaries who created, named, and stored the documents. It wasn’t until companies came around in the early 90s with user-friendly systems, that the knowledge worker (e.g., business managers, attorneys) began using the DMS themselves.  This continued to evolve and now document management is used not only by secretaries and their bosses, but is now utilized to foster complete collaboration with clients, co-council, and opposing parties.

5. The Search Engine

With thousands of documents digitally scattered everywhere, the issue of locating documents became more and more important. This problem sparked another game changing innovation. DMS providers began to integrate full text searching seamlessly into the DMS.

Now, just like any Trekkie can go on Google and learn everything known to man about Spock and the Vulcan race, firms can now get on their document management service and find any document in the system within seconds.    

6. The Scanner

Even with the proliferation of computers, paper documents were still everywhere to be seen. That changed in 1985 with the introduction of the first computer scanner. Although the work of converting a room full of paper documents to electronic documents probably caused migraines for many secretaries, it ultimately allowed firms to go paperless and achieve better organization and control over documents. Scanner technology has improved drastically and today, anyone can take a 50 page document, attach a barcode to it, and it automatically scans directly into their DMS ready to edit, share, and collaborate. 

7. The Cloud

When the Internet was invented by Al Gore (or someone else), the way firms managed documents was changed once again.  No longer did firms need to buy expensive servers to locally host their data, nor pay a large IT staff to maintain it all. They instead, could outsource their servers, their IT staff, and their legacy software, to the cloud. 

With the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, the DMS infrastructure is already built into the cloud and the software is ready to go on demand accessed through a web browser.  And because the documents are not stored locally in the firm’s office, users can have the freedom to create, edit, and share documents on-the-go from anywhere in the world.  The SaaS model has also enabled smaller firms, which previously could not afford a document management, to enjoy the benefits of a DMS because SaaS allows them to pay only for what they need. 

8. The Smart Phone

As SaaS document management solutions allowed anywhere, anytime access to documents, we are seeing smart phones take that one step further by making ‘information at your fingertips’ a reality.  Users can now access their entire document database, as well search those documents and share them externally with anyone in the world directly from their iPhone®, or any other browser enabled smart phone.  As innovation continues at an ever faster rate, we can only wonder what lays ahead for document management in future years. 

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Some other items that may be of interest...

1. My awesome Harry Potter and Records Management first YouTube video (now, much to the embarrassment of my family, with 2,000+ views) 
2. My pontifications on the future of the industry  
3. My pontifications on the role of E20 technologies and the future of associations and chapters 
4. Some really cool free presentations 
5. An offer you can't refuse -- free educational seminars in your city!