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Overview of dial group entries

A dial group is a group of lines or channels that CIC uses for outbound calls. You can specify which dial groups CIC should use when it places a call.

Before you add a dial group entry, you can define dial groups in the Lines container. You can then select which dial groups to use for the dial group entry. If you do not define dial groups in the Lines container, CIC chooses which line to use to dial each call. For more information on how CIC chooses the line, see Line selection order.

Note: The lines included in a dial group should have a direction of outbound (rather than inbound or both) to avoid line contention.

You can specify multiple dial groups for each dial plan. This enables you to route different kinds of calls over the most cost-effective phone lines you may have. For example, you may have the best rate for international calls from one phone service vendor and the best rate for in-state long distance from another vendor. You can create a dial group for the lines from each of these vendors and route International calls over one dial group and In-state long distance calls over another dial group.

If you have long distance service from multiple vendors, you can specify multiple dial groups for each dial plan object. CIC attempts to dial the number on a line in the dial group listed first (at the top of the list) in this dialog box. If all the lines in that dial group are in use, CIC then attempts to dial the number on a line in the next dial group listed. This way you can specify the order of the dial groups CIC should use when placing a call. If the long distance rates from your vendors change, you can simply switch the order of the dial groups in this list box to change the priority of the dial groups CIC uses to dial long distance calls.

You can change the dial string if the dialing requirements for one dial group are different from the other dial group. For example, if the number dialed failed to go out on the first dial group, it may be dialed on the second dial group, which might require a prefix or other dialing requirement.

In most cases, you will not need to change the classification name from the original. This ability is available in case you want to differentiate between different identically dialed numbers based on the dial group and classifications used.

Note: All of the lines or channels in a dial group must have identical dialing requirements. In other words, you cannot have some lines that require a 9 prefix and other lines that don't within the same dial group.

Overview of dial group entries

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