Forget electronic records management, it's automated records management that we desperately need

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the records profession's approach to managing electronic records and question how much progression there has been, given most processes and systems are only slight variations on those originally designed for the paper‐based world. It aims to offer a different approach, which focuses on automation and to employ some of the techniques used by well‐known and highly successful organisations such as Amazon and Google.Design/methodology/approach – The paper represents the author's own views based on his experiences as a practitioner, his role as an advisor responsible for preparing and disseminating guidance material and tools to help support the development of records management within the education sector and interest in looking to the future and records management in the Web 2.0 world.Findings – The logic underpinning the functionality found in systems such as Google, eBay and Amazon offers a potential mechanism for establishing precisely how an organisation ...