Registration Services update

Dear all,

As a follow up on Axel's mail in October, I would like to provide an update 
of the current status of the Registration Services at the RIPE NCC.

As you may have noticed, the wait queue has dramatically been reduced over 
the last couple of month and is now at more satisfactory 5 working days. We 
are aiming at further reducing the wait queue but our main priorities for 
the coming period is to try to stabilise the wait queue at an acceptable 
level.

Over the last period, we have taken both long term and short term measures 
that have had an impact on the wait queue. These can be summarised as follows:

1. Priority to correctly filled out requests.
Well filled-out requests are dealt with swifter and faster than other requests.

2. Less strict with documentation being 100% complete
Requests that are not 100% ok, missing relevant but not essential 
information have been approved but with a request to provide this 
information in future requests.

3. Less strict with smaller requests/ statistical sampling
Less information has been requested for smaller request and "statistical 
sampling" has been applied when evaluating some requests.

4. Stricter with LIRs who have not read relevant documentation
LIRs completely unfamiliar with relevant documentation are requested to 
read the very basics before proceeding further with the request.

5. Pro-active Assignment Window raises
The Assignment Window tool is now fully developed and in use, leading to 
more pro-active AW raises! LIRs that send in good requests with all 
necessary documentation quickly get an AW.

6. New staff
We have hired five new hostmasters, we have a good team of competent and 
dedicated hostmasters which is showing in the results coming from the 
department.

7. Tools to members
- The Asused-public tool can now be:
A) downloaded and run locally 
(http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/mem-services/tools/index.html)
B) run from our website (http://www.ripe.net/cgi-bin/webasused.pl.cgi)
C) run by sending a mail to hostmaster at ripe.net, with SENDASUSED in the 
subject line.
    - The output will be sent to the 'e-mail' contact(s) of you LIR.

We have received very good feedback on this tool and can see that it is 
resulting in better managed allocations and consequently less audit work 
for the RIPE NCC.

- Asused-public output is also automatically sent to the LIR in New 
Allocation request.
(This to encourage the LIRs to correct possible errors before the 
intervention of a RIPE NCC hostmaster.)

8. FAQ and TIPS page
http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/faq/index.html
http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/tips/tips.html
We have received very positive feedback on both the FAQ and the TIPS pages. 
It has especially proven useful for newer LIRs that also represent the bulk 
of our workload.

IN PROGRESS
9. Improving Address Request form
With input from people in the community, we are currently working on 
improving the Request form, which we hope will result in less iterations 
between the RIPE NCC and LIRs.

10. Tools to members
A secure website is currently under development, where LIRs will be able to 
log in and modify contact information, running audit tools on their own 
allocation and in the future also send in requests through the website. 
More information on this will come soon.

11. Increase of LIR courses 2001
The number of courses planned in 2001 has been increased in order to 
provide additional help and support to new LIRs.

We have used several ideas from the May17 Taskforce, also taking in 
consideration the input from the LIR working group at RIPE 37. We have 
focused on giving priority to correctly filled out requests, shifting more 
responsibility to the LIRs, providing the LIRs with useful tools, trying to 
improve documentation etc.

We are happy to see the immediate results some of these measures have had 
but we are also very aware of all the work we have ahead of us. We are 
determined to further improve both response time and quality of service and 
will continue our efforts in 2001.


Kind regards,

Nurani Nimpuno
Registration Services Manager
RIPE NCC
http://www.ripe.net