[ncc-services-wg] Complaints about becoming a new LIR

Have any of you recently tried to become a new LIR?!  I am helping an 
organization become a LIR and they pointed out many items that I think the 
RIPE NCC needs to take account of.  Here is what they are doing:

1) User goes to www.ripe.net

2) User clicks on 'membership' in left panel

3) User now goes to http://www.ripe.net/membership/

4) User now clicks on 'become a member'

5) User now on http://www.ripe.net/membership/new-members/index.html

6) User now clicks on "Updated Procedure for Becoming a New RIPE NCC LIR 
[08 June 2004]"

7) User now on 
http://www.ripe.net/membership/new-members/new-form-20040608.html

8) User now clicks on "More information on the new LIR procedure can be 
found here."

9) User now redirected to https://lirportal.ripe.net/newmember/index.html

10) User clicks 'I agree' at bottom

11) User now starts online application at: 
https://lirportal.ripe.net/newmember/MemberApplication.html

12) User now supplies name and email and clicks next

13) User now is asked for lots of legal info and clicks next

14) user is now asked for lots of billing info and clicks next

15) User is now asked for registry data and clicks next

16) User is now asked for mailing list subscriptions and clicks next

17) User is asked to provide remarks and clicks next

18) User now can submit the form

Now imagine a network admin is asked by his/her company to become a 
LIR.  He/she has never worked with RIPE.  They follow the process and get 
to step 13.  They stop what they are doing and contact their bosses and 
lawyers about filling in the legal info.  They accumulate the answers after 
a few phone calls and emails and now move inward to step 14.  Now they call 
the accounting dept and get the necessary info to complete this 
screen.  Hit next.  Now they call the head of the IT dept and ask who 
should be added as a contact person.  Hit next.  Whoops.  Now I need to 
know who from the IT dept should be getting local-ir and ncc-co 
emails.  Call back IT dept head.

Confused yet?  RIPE-303 which is now obsolete, but was the last available 
'Procedure for becoming a LIR', states in section 2 that one has to sign an 
official contract with RIPE: 
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/service-agreement.html  (ripe-320).  RIPE-320 
is *not* obsolete, so I guess one does have to, but the new Lirportal 
procedure makes no reference to it at all (steps 1-18).  Since ripe-303 is 
obsolete, a new user would normally not read it and therefore would not 
know about ripe-320.

IMHO, the entire new LIR procedure has been made very cumbersome and 
non-intuitive and has not been reviewed for user friendliness.  Previously, 
with ripe-230, one had all the info needed in one spot and could see very 
clearly what info and data from within the company is needed to become a 
LIR.  Nowadays, it is a 3 day job just to figure out what the LIR portal 
will be asking along the way.

I think that the RIPE NCC has to revise this entire procedure from the 
ground up.

Regards,
Hank Nussbacher