SLA's needed !!! (Was: Re: ASN wait time)

On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Willy Calderon wrote:

>> We filed a request for an AS Number several weeks ago.  Ticket number is
>> NCC#2000085127.  Having finally receiving initial response from RIPE late
>> last week, we were then asked to provide contact details for the ISP that
>> we had placed in our application. The reason being that RIPE would be
>> contacting them in their time to confirm that they will accept peering and
>> allow our PA space.  Presumably this will take another few weeks for them
>> to verify that indeed our application was accurate and said ISP has agreed
>> to accept our peering details. As this is urgent, I'm quite concerned
>> whether or not this is the norm now at RIPE. 
>> 
>> Has this happened to anyone else?  That is, has their ASN application
>> been needlessly delayed like this?

Well, I must say - yes, it happened a couple of times we waited 7-14 days for
the initial response. All later responses are getting on daily or hourly
basis. A lot of times customers get angry, ask whether we can escalate the
problem to anyone within RIPE NCC.

Let's be honest: I think NCC people provide really great job for all of us
and I understand they have an enormous workload and chronic lack of human
resources. However, they should also understand us. The time when NCC
provided service mostly to academic community is over. The brave new ISP
world now asks for SLA's, escalation procedures, penalties for delays ...
And yes - most ISPs usually don't have enough staff as well. Finally - we all
contribute to NCC services and expect to get what we paid for.

Therefore, personally, I think it's time for us to start thinking how to set
up SLA's between LIRs and RIPE NCC: let's define strict time boundaries for
the first and later hostmaster answers to an IP/AS request. It doesn't matter
whether it is 5, 7 or 14 days - but let's define them and abide by them. Also,
an escalation procedure within RIPE NCC is needed (who to contact should a
request get not processed - e.g. Registration services manager and higher),
determine what happens should RIPE NCC fail to process a request within
specified time (e.g. deduce XXX EUR from next year contribution fee for each
day of delay).

Sorry if this sounds rude, but please understand our position: some of us 
have to pay large penalties to our customers if we delay with their
installations. And IP/AS requests are usually showstoppers ... :-(

Just my 0.02 cents. ;-)

Regards,
Beri

---------    Berislav Todorovic, Network Engineer    ---------
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