The History of Document Management:
The Beginnings

When did the idea of Document Management begin?

December 07, 2021

Throughout human history, people have always tried to preserve information in one way or another. Before written languages were developed, people passed on histories and stories through oral traditions. Several early forms of information management came after oral traditions, such as cave paintings, Egyptian wall paintings, Ancient Roman scrolls, and libraries. These are all interesting in their own right, but the management of individual documents didn’t begin until much later with the invention of the Vertical File System.

Vertical File System
(Filing Cabinets)

Filing Cabinets are arguably the first form of document management. Edwin Grenville Seibels invented the vertical file system in 1898, which effectively revolutionized record keeping. The vertical file system, or file cabinets, was an easily understandable system that could organize and store files. File Cabinets took off and became the dominant way to manage documents throughout the twentieth century. Every office utilized filing cabinets to keep their documents easy to access and organize.

Despite their wild popularity, filing cabinets take a large amount of time and resources to keep up to date.

Filing Cabinets have several drawbacks:

Bulky- Large companies that need to handle vast quantities of files sometimes need whole warehouses dedicated to their filing cabinets.
Inefficient- Every document must be individually filed and organized. Then, when a document is needed, it can be hard to locate.
Not secure- Files can be easily lost, stolen, or damaged.

For many years these drawbacks had to be dealt with because there were just no better alternatives. Until the advent of computers, filing cabinets were the only viable option for document management. In our next “History of Document Management” blog, we will discuss how computers changed the future of document management.

How can DOMA help your business manage documents?

DOMA Technologies is an experienced digital solutions provider for a wide range of transformative cloud technologies. Whether you’re just getting started with digital services such as document scanning or looking to implement more advanced automation and AI tools to manage your files, we are here to answer any questions you may have.

About DOMA- Powered by Tech, Driven by People

DOMA Technologies (DOMA) was founded in 2000 as a Cloud-based document management company. Today DOMA delivers comprehensive solutions using the latest tools to help you collaborate with enterprise data. DOMA captures and transforms information through digital solutions using hyper-automation. Our data and document solutions pair traditional practices like scanning with advanced cloud technology to extract, convert, and visualize the data trapped in your documents.

These services, along with the DOMA Experience (DX) software platform are designed to help support your organization’s Digital Transformation journey. With a considerable portfolio of government, healthcare, education, and commercial business customers DOMA has the experience and infrastructure to deploy integrated solutions that address your business challenges with innovation. Contact DOMA to digitize your workflow; DOMA makes complex operations simple across a wide range of industries.

Author:

Tracey Wilder
Digital Marketing Specialist
DMT@DOMAonline.com

Digital Services

Learn more about DOMA’s Digital Services.

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