Company DIDs

 Your company account has been provisioned with a number of DIDs to answer calls for users and services. A DID is a telephone number that can be assigned to users or services. DID stands for Direct Inward Dialing. 

Evatel uses the DID as the called number that determines the actions to take for each incoming call. Unknown DIDs are answered with an error message. Company administrators can create or import DIDs, then assign them to users and services.

The common DID usage situations are described in the following links:

Go to Related Topics to get answers to some common questions about DIDs.

Each user can either have his/her own personal DID or have a virtual extension on the Virtual Receptionist of a company, or have both.

Viewing the List of DIDs

To access the DID administration section, click on the DID  button in the Web Portal toolbar. The DID administration page opens listing the DIDs in two categories:
  • The Active DIDs are the DIDs that have already been assigned to users and services on the system.
  • The Unused DIDs are the DIDs that have not been assigned to any user or service yet.
As the company administrator, you can add, modify, assign and unsubscribe DIDs from this window. All changes are saved after each operation.

Sorting the List of DIDs

The list of DIDs is displayed under two tabs:
  • The Active DIDs tab where you can view all DIDs that have already been assigned to users and services.
  • The Unused DIDs tab where you can view all DIDs available for assignment to users and services.
Each DID list can be sorted in ascending or descending order, by Phone Number or by User. You can also display the list of DIDs grouped by Type: Voice-Only, Fax-Only and Voice & Fax. Clicking again on the same title will reverse the sorting order.

Reserving DIDs for Future Users

As the Company administrator, you can reserve DIDs for future users as follows:
While in the DIDs view  , select the Unused DIDs tab to display the list of unused DIDs.
  • Select the DID to reserve then click on Reserved for column to reserve it for a specific user.
    A DID Properties window is displayed.
  • Select User as the type of usage for the DID, then fill in the last two fields of the DID properties as follows:
    • E-mail address of the user who will use the DID
    • Voice, Fax or Voice&Fax as the DID type
  • Click OK to confirm.

The selected DID will automatically be reserved for the user and assigned to her/him when she/he subscribes to a DID option.

Reserving DIDs for Future Services

As the Company administrator, you can reserve DIDs for future services as follows:
While in the DIDs view  , select the Unused DIDs tab to display the list of unused DIDs.
  • Select the DID to reserve then click on Reserved for column to reserve it for a specific service.
    A DID Properties window is displayed.
  • Select the service from the list ( Virtual Receptionist, Virtual Assistant, Custom Service) as the type of usage for the DID.
  • Click OK to confirm.

The selected DID will automatically be reserved for the service and assigned to it when the service is activated.

Freeing Reserved DIDs

Reserved DIDs can be freed by the company administrator as follows:
  • From the DIDs view  , under the Unused DIDs tab, click on the Free link corresponding to the DID that you want to free from its current reservation (unreserved).
  • A confirmation window opens. Click OK to free the DID, or Cancel to keep it reserved.

Assigning DIDs to Users

As the company administrator, you can assign DIDs to existing users from the DIDs view. (You can also assign DIDs to users in the Users page):
  • From the DIDs page, under the Unused DIDs tab, click on the Assign link corresponding to the DID that you want to assign.
    An Assign DID window opens.
  • Select User in Type field, then select the name of the User to whom you want to assign the DID.
  • Click Submit to assign the DID to the User, or Cancel to close the window without assigning the DID.
If the system is out of Unused DID numbers, you need to add or import new DIDs into the system before completing this operation.

Assigning DIDs to Services

As the company administrator, you can assign DIDs to services such as the Virtual Receptionist (Auto-Attendant), the virtual assistant (Speech portal) or a custom IVR application from the DIDs view. (Note that you can also assign a DID to the Virtual Receptionist service from the Virtual Receptionist view):
  • From the DIDs view  , under the Unused DIDs tab, click on the Assign link corresponding to the DID that you want to assign.
    An Assign DID window opens.
  • Select Service in Type field, then select the Service to assign the DID to. You can select Virtual Receptionist or Virtual Assistant (Outlook-by-Phone) from the list of pre-defined services.
  • Click Submit to assign the DID to the service, or Cancel to close the window out assigning the DID.
If the system is out of Unused DID numbers, you need to add or import new DIDs into the system before completing this operation.

Changing a DID Assignment and Type

As the company administrator, you can edit the DID properties to change its assignment or type as follows:
  • From the DIDs  view, under the Active DIDs tab, click on any of the DID Number, User Name, Extension or Call Type corresponding to the DID that you want to edit.
    An DID Properties window opens.
  • Change the DID number, user name or call type as needed.
  • Click Submit to save the new DID properties, or Cancel to close the window without changing the DID.

Adding New DIDs Manually

As the company administrator, you can add a new DID to the list of Unused DIDs as follows:
  • From the DIDs  page, click the New DID button.
  • A window opens displaying a form to add a new DID.
  • In the DID number field, enter the new DID phone number in the ++TAPI format;
  • In the Reserved For field, select the intended use for this DID (a User or a Service).
  • In the E-mail to be reached field, enter the e-mail address of the user for whom you want to pre-assign (reserve) this DID.
  • In the DID Type field, specify the type of calls that will be processed on this DID number:
    • Voice calls
    • Fax calls
    • Voice & Fax calls with automatic call type detection.
  • Click Submit to add the new DID, or Cancel to close the window without creating the DID.

Importing New DID Lists

As the company administrator, you can import and add lists of new DIDs into the system as follows:
  • From the DIDs  page, click the Import DIDs button.
    A window opens displaying a form for you to specify the file containing the list of DIDs to import.
  • Click on Browse to look for the DID file in different locations on your computer or on the network.
The DID file is a text file that contains one DID telephone number definition per line, and each DID number must be formatted using the ++TAPI convention. 
Press OK to start importing the DIDs into the list of Unused DIDs on the system, or press Cancel to close the window without importing the DIDs. 

Unsubscribing DIDs from Users or Services

You can unsubscribe DIDs from users and services to make them available for other users and services in your company.  Note that you can do the same operation in the Users view. Go to Changing the DID Assigned to a User.
  • From the DIDs  page, under the Active DIDs tab, click on the Unsubscribe link corresponding to the DID that you want to detach from its user/service.
    A confirmation window opens.
  •  Click OK to confirm the removal of the DID assignment, or Cancel to keep the DID assigned to its current user/service.

Removing DIDs

As the company administrator, you can remove unused DIDs from the list of your company DIDs as follows:

From the DIDs view  , under the Unused DIDs tab, click on the Remove link corresponding to the DID that you want to remove/delete.
A confirmation window opens.

  • Click OK to confirm the removal of the DID, or Cancel to keep the DID.

Related Topics