As the title says it’s PBX DIDs in this highlight and sounds simple enough as you have a DID and you point it at an extension, IVR, or auto-attendant correct? Yes, but they can be used for much more.
Within the Q-Suite we have many options to link a DID:
As seen we have the DID number followed by features available. These include the ability to record all incoming calls, ignore any callers matching a list of given Caller IDs to filter out unwanted callers, and the last is to email as calls arrive at the DID.
With a bit more detail the destinations are:
- Agent – directly to an agent’s personal queue. This is useful if the agent does not have a personal extension but still needs to take direct calls.
- Auto-Attendant – sends the caller to an auto attendant menu.
- Asterisk Script – a custom asterisk dialplan, which can be used for ultimate lowlevel control over the call. This is usually reserved for some custom work due to the knowledge needed to setup properly.
- Conference Room – directly into a conference room.
- Dialplan – into our dialplan which can do anything a dialplan can do and setup with ease with our dialplan builder.
- Direct to Voicemail – goes directly into a voicemail box of any PBX user’s extension skipping ringing the devices on the extension.
- Extension – to a PBX user’s extension on the system. For a 1:1 DID to Extension mapping.
- Ring Group – directly to a ring group of PBX extensions.
- Routing Rule – to a routing rule which can route on time of day or a specific day. This is often used to automatically open or send callers to the normal working hours IVR/auto-attendant then afterhours a closed/list
- Trunk / Number – dial out over another Trunk to a specific number. Often used to forward to another system and can be useful when moving from an old system in stages when the incoming trunks/DIDs are all grouped together from a SIP provider, PRI, etc.
With the Q-Suite all the common options for destinations are provided given as seen. If a DID is to reach something not listed above then a Dialplan can direct it anywhere using the dialplan builder interface. One example would be the ability to listen or coach agents remotely. Instead of having a hidden or silent option in a menu, one could configure the dialplan to limit the functionality to specific Caller IDs or ask for a PIN prior to allowing access.