DID Groups allows you to create groups wherein you can place one or many DIDs for organizational purposes. The purpose of this is so that you can keep specific categories of your choosing to add structure to your DIDs and the data associated with them. For example, if you have 100 DIDs spread out over 20 customers, you can create 20 DID Groups, name them according to your customers and place the correlating DIDs into the appropriate groups. Each group you create offers statistics on usage including Origination Cost, Termination Cost, International Cost, Monthly Recurring Cost (MRC), and Total Cost. Also included are cost statistics for E911, CNAM, and Fax-to-Email. Finally, a Month-to-Date (MTD) tally is kept for both Origination, Termination and International minutes associated for each group. Moreover, this feature also totals all categories for all groups. Lastly, you can click on an existing group and see totals for individual DIDs within the group, giving you even more useful data.
By fully utilizing the DID Groups feature, VoIP Innovations gives you a fantastic snapshot of what a group of DIDs is costing you and the usage associated with those DIDs. You are then able to take this information and apply it to your business model to better manage your customers. One of best aspects of this feature is that it allows you to enter your revenue for each group. Based on the data you input, the feature calculates your Gross Profit and Gross Profit Margin for the date range you specify. The information returned can therefore assist you in making customer affecting business decisions. This *portion of DID Groups is entirely optional and not required to create groups on your account. *We also caution you to be aware of the date range you choose to use to compare data as this can greatly affect the results. ** You are only able to select date ranges on a full month basis (for instance, 1/1/18-1/31/18, 1/1/18-3/31/18, 2/1/18-2/28/18, and so forth). If you are therefore viewing data at the beginning of the month your profit statistics will be skewed as the usage will likely increase as the month goes on.
All the functionality described within this article applies to Local, Toll-Free, and International DIDs.
While the DID Groups, feature was created with the intent of placing your customer specific DIDs into matching groups, you are certainly able to use the feature any way you see fit. Feel free to offer feedback on this feature and share how you are utilizing it. To submit feedback, from the Back Office, click the Help Tab and select 'Submit Feedback'.
To begin utilizing the DID Groups feature, start by adding a Group. Go to the Groups Tab -> DID Groups. Next click the '+' to the left of Add Group. You will be presented with a popup window containing three text boxes (Name, Note, and Revenue). The Name is just an identifier for the group and can be anything of your choosing. You may want to consider your customer names for this option; for example, XYZ Company. The note section is a place where you can put pertinent notes in relation to the group. This again is left up to you to decide and can be any text you choose. For example, "This group services XYZ Company and is set to Endpoint Group 'Main Server'". There is no limit on the amount of text you can enter. You can choose to leave the Note section blank, but you must choose a Name for the group. The
Revenue field is also optional but can be used to enter the known or expected revenue for the group of DIDs you are creating. Once a group has been created you will see it listed in the DID Groups section in the Back Office. You may edit the Group Name, Group Notes, and Revenue by clicking the pencil icon to the left of the Group. Any DIDs that are part of a Group will be also be categorized as such from the DID Management Page.
**It is important to note that DID Groups have no effect on routing. This feature is for managing data only. Creating or editing groups and adding DIDs to or removing DIDs from existing groups has no effect on calls. Please see other sections of this wiki for more information on which Back Office functions affect routing. **
Once a Group has been created you can begin adding DIDs to it. To do so, click the DIDs tab and navigate to the desired DIDs you wish to add to the group (international, local and toll-free DIDs can be put in a group). Let's assume you have 10 DIDs in the 205419 NPANXX that you want to add to the XYZ Company Group you just created. Click DIDs -> Manage DIDs and enter 205419 in the TN search filter. Place checks in the boxes to the left of the desired numbers (or if you want all numbers on the page in the group check the box to the left of the TN heading to select all). Once you are satisfied with your selection, use the drop down on the bottom right of the page to choose the desired group and click the Assign DID Group: button. The DID Management page will always show which DIDs belong to which group under the DID Group column name.
If you have DIDs in one group and wish to move them to a different group, you must do this from the DID Management page as outlined above.
To delete a DID Group, place a check mark in the box to the left of the Group on the DID groups page you wish to remove and click the Remove Select Groups button. While it is true that the DID Groups feature has no effect on routing of calls, you may still want to create copies of your group configurations before deleting them. You can export both your overall Groups page results as well as individual DIDs within the Groups in both Excel and CSV formats. To export the results on the DID Groups page, you will want to go to the Groups Tab -> DID Groups and use the drop down on the bottom right of the page to choose the desired format. Once you have made your choice, click the Export as: button to create the file. To save a file of the individual DIDs within a group simply click the Group Name and follow the same procedure as exporting the group data. If you inadvertently delete a group, there is no way to retrieve it. It must be recreated so be careful when deleting groups. We suggest exporting the data as a file before deleting in case you want to recreate the group exactly as you had it before deleting it.
Clicking any Group name from the DID Groups page will take you inside that specific group for more detailed analysis. From here you can view Gross Profit/Gross Profit Margin if you entered a number in the Revenue field when creating the group. If you did not enter a revenue number when creating the group, this section will show N/A. If you determine you want to utilize this aspect of DID Groups, simply return to the DID Groups section and click the pencil icon to edit the group and enter this information.
*You can add a DID to a DID Groups as soon as you purchase the DID
You will have the ability to add a DID group as soon as you purchase it. That way you can add it to the group while you are setting up the other configurations for the DID such as outbound caller ID or what endpoint group that DID will be assigned to. Once you purchase a DID, the number will be automatically stored in Unconfigured DIDs. You can reach the number by clicking the DIDs tab and then Unconfigured DIDs. Once here, you will see any DID that you have either purchased and not configured to an endpoint group yet. Each number will have the orange Link labeled "Configure DID". This is what you will click to set up various features like what endpoint group you will want to set up, outbound caller ID, fax to email, etc. You can also set up what DID group you will want your DID in as well. Please keep in mind: that the DID group will first need to be created before you can assign it to the DID in this way. Once you click on the Configure link, you will be in the wizard. You will be prompted to select the endpoint group and any other features as well as choosing the Reporting Group to assign the DID to a DID Group. Once you make your changes, you will get conformation on your changes as well as a message saying Successfully configured 1 DID.
Below are detailed screenshots for utilizing DID Groups. While these screenshots are specific to Local DIDs, these same steps vary only slightly for creating Toll-Free or International Groups as well.
In the resulting popup window, enter Name, Notes, and your customer Revenue and click the 'Add Group' button (Notes and Revenue are optional)
Add DIDs to created groups from the Manage DIDs page:
Check the desired DIDs, select the desired group from the drop-down list, and click the 'Assign
DID Group:' button.
To edit an existing group's settings, from the DID Groups page, simply click the pencil icon and to view specific group information, all you must do is click the Name of the Group.
The Group Name and Notes are viewable within the Group. Once you are ready to remove the selected DIDs, click the "Remove Selected DIDs" button to remove them at the bottom left.
You can also move DIDs to another endpoint group as well as assigning DIDs to another DID group, all from this DID Groups Page. Those options are below your list of DIDs.
The DID Groups page shows cost and usage information both individually and a total.
One of the best aspects of DID Groups is the ability to compare your customers' revenue against your costs with VoIP Innovations