Significant improvements have been made to how DIDs are managed within Atlas. This article updates how DIDs should be managed going forward.
Changes
DID ordering within Atlas now provides direct access to our large number inventory. This helps ease your workload and put number acquisition directly within your control.
Going forward, you can simply acquire numbers on each order as you need them and no longer need to open a ticket to have numbers imported into your Atlas DID Management inventory.
Note that you may have your own number inventory as well, referred to as Bring Your Own DID (BYODID). Managing those numbers will still use the same process you use today. These numbers always stay in DID Management inventory.
Sales Orders
When entering a Sales Order, the ZIP code helps determine the default rate center used on an order. If you know numbers are not available in the rate center shown on the sales order, you can update the rate center to one you know has numbers (for example, if you have your own number inventory).
You can choose each number you want for each specific service directly on the sales order, though numbers must be in Atlas inventory already and in Available status.
It’s generally recommended that you just push a sales order through without worrying about choosing any numbers and then wait until you process the Service Order(s). This is usually the easiest way to get numbers assigned vs trying to do this at Sales Order entry time. It also provides much broader access to number inventory.
Service Orders
The first workflow step when processing a Service Order usually involves choosing DIDs for the services on the order. The DIDs could have been assigned on the Sales Order in which case they would already be populated when choosing to Assign DIDs.
It’s much easier and quicker to wait and assign them during Service Order processing, and this method also provides access to a much larger inventory of numbers.
Click on the Assign DID button on the associated workflow step to get started.
DID selection is easy. Simply click Auto-Assign if you want numbers from the shown rate center. If no numbers are available there, choose a different state/rate center and click Assign Numbers to pick numbers from the specified rate center. Or click the Edit button on each service and choose a number from the selections there on a per-number basis. For example, you could use Assign Numbers to assign all of the numbers, then use Edit numbers if you have a few services that you would like to use a different state or rate center for.
Previously, you could choose numbers on your Service Order as long as the numbers had been preloaded to your Atlas inventory. These could include your own numbers or numbers you have separately requested from us.
Now, when you choose to Assign Numbers from a rate center, we’ll first check if you have numbers already in those rate centers loaded in your inventory, which would include your own numbers. If no numbers are available, we’ll check our complete number inventory for that rate center. Since we have access to millions of numbers, completing DID assignments in Service Orders is now quick and easy. The UI remains the same to minimize any retraining of staff, but underneath, we can now instantly offer a large inventory of numbers. If you don’t find numbers in one rate center, there are numbers in another close rate center. This also lets you choose numbers that might be closer to your customer rather than maintaining numbers from a few rate centers for temporary use.
The changes in Service Orders mean you’ll always have access to number inventory and no longer need to request numbers to stock in specific rate centers to use with orders. This saves significantly on order turnaround time in that you no longer need to open a ticket with us to stock numbers!
DID Management
For Inteliquent numbers, DID Management has a number of changes:
- Swapped and Cancelled numbers will not go to an internal Aging state and marked with Aging status. Instead, they will be available in the new DID Restore section for up to 60 days. After 60 days, the numbers will be returned to global inventory.
- When a number ports out, you will use the Return Number option when cancelling the service or customer to remove the number from inventory vs leaving it forever in Ported Out status. This helps keep your number inventory clean. Ported out numbers will be removed when returned and not available to be restored.
- To find and restore returned numbers, choose the DID Restore section in Administration, then search for the number(s) you need to restore. Check the box next to the number(s) and click Restore to move this back to Available status so you can use it again. Note that if a number fails to restore, it might have ported out after being added to the restore list.
- Need a few numbers for swaps or other post-order activities? Use Add Numbers to grab some numbers from any rate center and add those to your inventory. You can add up to 50 numbers at a time.
Number Swaps
Number swaps work as before. Choose the service, then choose Change DID,, then enter the DID(s) of the numbers you want to swap in to replace the existing numbers on various services. If you want to use a number that was returned, go to DID Restore and restore the DID(s). This will add them back to your inventory as Available and ready to be swapped in. If you need a few numbers to swap in, you can use Add Numbers in DID Management to grab a few numbers from nearly any rate center.
