V20 Ability To Import a full Inbound Call Route

[jmatano]

I understand that in V20 ICR's are handled a bit differently, but the new process of importing the DID and then assigning each number a destination manually is really tough when dealing with 1000+ numbers getting imported, especially compared to how easy it was to do in V18.

Please bring back something to give the ability to import a number, assign the SIP trunk, and the destination of where that number should go in bulk.

 

[N_G]

Are you talking about routing a call from a particular caller ID or importing one thousand DIDs for systems with 1000+ extensions

 

[jmatano]

Are you talking about routing a call from a particular caller ID or importing one thousand DIDs for systems with 1000+ extensions

Each of our PBXs have well over 1000 DIDs which we have to assign inbound call routes to. The reason for this is we utilize local touch dialing and multiple TFN / DID’s to identify source traffic. In V18 and prior, it was a simple process of exporting the current ICRs, pasting the new ones, removing the existing ones, and importing them. In v20, that has been removed in favor of only being able to import the DIDs and then have to assign them one by one. This is a significant issue for us when adding new numbers or switching providers.

 

[N_G]

Its not clear to me what you are trying to do. Please let me know what you are doing without using abbreviations if you don't mind. I don't know what ICR or TFN is.

 

[Evolute IT]

Its not clear to me what you are trying to do. Please let me know what you are doing without using abbreviations if you don't mind. I don't know what ICR or TFN is.

Basically they want a way to import DIDs with their destination all at once, like inbound rules in v18. We can already import DIDs but only the number from what I know. Not the name, or destination. For 10-20 DIDs it's no big deal, but for 1000+, I can see why it's a slow process to manually assign them all.

As for their use-case, it seems to be they use many DIDs to view where calls are coming from. It's a common practice in marketing to advertise one phone number per media (one for newsletter, one on website, one on social media, etc.) and this way you know where the person found you without even asking them.

 

[jmatano]

Its not clear to me what you are trying to do. Please let me know what you are doing without using abbreviations if you don't mind. I don't know what ICR or TFN is.

Apologies. ICR = Inbound Call Route. The term from v18.

I'm looking to be able to take a bulk of numbers, whether 2 or 1000, and format a CSV that will allow us to import the number and its destination (in our case, these would almost always be a call flow designer destination), a name for the inbound rule, and what SIP trunk it should be assigned to. This would be similar functionality to V18's Import button under the Inbound Rules section.

Currently in V20, confirmed by a trouble ticket, only the ability to import numbers exist. Destinations and naming need to be assigned manually 1 by 1.

As a side note, everything we do has to be done in duplicate because we have redundant SIP trunks with the same numbers programmed, so 1000 new numbers are technically 2000 number entries.

 

[N_G]

Thanks @ConceptsWeb and @jmatano for further explanation

Looking into the export function.

However if the destination is a CFD, what is exactly this CFD doing? A 1000 inbound routes and CFDs would be very heavy on the system, the CFD generates code and this makes it much heavier on the system.

I am guessing you could consolidate all this into one good call script that merges the routing and CFD functions into one script - easier to maintain and much less taxing on the system......

 

[jmatano]

Thanks @ConceptsWeb and @jmatano for further explanation

Looking into the export function.

However if the destination is a CFD, what is exactly this CFD doing? A 1000 inbound routes and CFDs would be very heavy on the system, the CFD generates code and this makes it much heavier on the system.

I am guessing you could consolidate all this into one good call script that merges the routing and CFD functions into one script - easier to maintain and much less taxing on the system......

We utilize a few different CFD files for various functions. They are mainly used as menu-driven call prompts with hour checks that are then transferred to the correct queue. For our largest system (1024SC), with the custom settings provided by technical support years ago to open up additional ports and the switch to Linux, the performance has been excellent.

But to your point, we essentially route and handle the CFD portion in the call path. Our CFDs work with both V18 and V20 without issue. The request here is to maintain the ability to import multiple at once. Naming the routes is also important for us, as we use that for reporting.

Here are the steps to create a "inbound rule" in bulk.

V20:
Import a batch of DID numbers.
Go into one number.
Rename it.
Set the assignment/destination.
Go back. Select another number.
Repeat however many numbers there are.
In the best case scenario, this will take 1 minute or slightly less per number. For a large batch of numbers, this will take hours or days if large enough amount of numbers.

V18:
Create a CSV with all numbers and relevant information. Most columns are copied and pasted for each line.
Click import and select file. Done.
Total time: under 5 minutes total.

I've reached out to our 3CX-approved developer we have worked with since before we even went live with 3CX in production, and he said that an importer should not be a problem to create, but I can't imagine I am the only person/company that deals with a large quantity of numbers, especially with call centers. It would be a lot more convenient to have it put back into 3CX natively, especially since it has been there since, at the very earliest, V15.5 when we first started using the product.

 

[N_G]

OK thanks for the explanation. We will look into the import but from your description I think replacing the CFDs with a single call script that reads from the DIDs will make it much more performant.

If you are interested send us the CFDs and we will check them and when we have time make you a sample script how it can - probably - be replaced with a more flexible and easily manageable script that could be extended more easily with additional functions too

Alternatively we can create a script that can read the DID from the text file I believe we will check....

 

[jaywagener]

I have to agree that this seems like a major oversight. What if we decide to port to a different carrier? Currently in V20, we have to recreate each call route one by one, which is a massive waste of time. I'd like to see the import of the inbound call routes return in one way or another, and as soon as possible. We have quite a few clients we need to move from v18 to v20 and we need to setup a different carrier when we upgrade. As it stands, we will need to go through each route individually, so we are putting this conversion off until this feature returns.

 

[jmatano]

What if we decide to port to a different carrier?

This is the exact scenario that caused me to come here. We switched carriers, and each DID is located on 2 different redundant SIP trunks, which means 1000 x 2 individually inserted rules.

 

[jaywagener]

@jmatano We are planning on changing carriers setups when we upgrade to V20, but this is the sole reason why we have not upgraded any of our major clients over yet. I've actually been told by management to look to other PBX vendors since this will be such a time waster.

@N_G Please bring this option back or something that will allow us to update all inbound routes in a quick and easy way.

 

[N_G]

Import of DIDs and route to extensions is being added in update 5

 

[jaywagener]

@N_G That is amazing news! Thanks for being so involved in these forums and listening to the concerns of your customers.

 

[N_G]

HI Jay, Thank you for your nice words... It was indeed an oversight....

 

[ict7]

the new update 20.0.5 beta has been released, where the DID import function should be restored; but in the report section, on the incoming rules I only see the export to csv button and it doesn't import yet. Are they imported from another section?

 

[Evolute IT]

the new update 20.0.5 beta has been released, where the DID import function should be restored; but in the report section, on the incoming rules I only see the export to csv button and it doesn't import yet. Are they imported from another section?

Import in the trunk directly.