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@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