Configure Virtual Numbers for Telephony

Configure Virtual Numbers for Telephony

Overview 

Organizations often use multiple business phone numbers (DID numbers) for different campuses, departments, marketing campaigns, admission teams, or business units. Using separate numbers helps institutions identify the source of incoming enquiries, route calls appropriately, and provide a consistent calling experience to applicants. 
Meritto's Virtual Numbers feature enables administrators to configure these business numbers within the Telephony module and associate them with meaningful aliases, making them easier to identify throughout the system. 
Depending on your telephony provider's capabilities, Virtual Numbers can also be used during outbound calling, allowing agents to select which business number should be used when placing a Click-to-Call. This ensures that calls are placed using the appropriate DID while maintaining complete visibility of the number used across reports, activity timelines, filters, and automations. 
Even if your telephony provider does not support DID selection during outbound calling, Virtual Numbers continue to provide significant value by improving reporting, campaign attribution, and call tracking across Meritto. 

Before You Begin

Before configuring Virtual Numbers, ensure the following prerequisites are completed.

Prerequisites 

  1. Your telephony vendor is already integrated with Meritto. 
  2. Outbound Click-to-Call is configured and working successfully. 
  3. If you want agents to choose a DID while placing outbound calls, verify that your telephony vendor's Click-to-Call API supports receiving a DID number (or campaign identifier) in the outbound API request. 

Info
Important 
  1. Virtual Number configuration and DID selection are two separate capabilities.
  2. You can configure Virtual Numbers even if your telephony provider does not support DID selection during outbound calling to track the calls made through a particular virtual number. 

Understanding the Feature

Before configuring Virtual Numbers, it is important to understand the terminology used throughout the feature. 

What is a Virtual Number? 

A Virtual Number represents the business phone number (DID) that your telephony provider uses for inbound or outbound calling. 
Depending on your telephony vendor, this value may be: 
  1. A DID number 
  2. A Virtual Number 
  3. A Campaign Name 
  4. A Routing Number 
  5. Any unique identifier that represents the outbound caller 
This is the actual value exchanged between Meritto and your telephony provider. 
Example
Virtual Number (Value) 
Used For
1800123456
Admissions Team
1800111222 
MBA Campaign
1800999888 
Counselling Team

What is an Alias? 

An Alias is a user-friendly name assigned to a Virtual Number. 
Instead of remembering multiple phone numbers, administrators and users can identify them using meaningful business names.
For example, rather than searching for: 1800123456, but users can simply search for: Admissions 
Aliases improve readability across - Activity Timeline, Lead Filters, Opportunity Filters, Automation Rules, Campaign Attribution 
Example 
Virtual Number
Alias
1800123456 
Admissions
1800111222 
MBA Campaign
1800999888 
Counselling

NotesNote : Alias values are optional but highly recommended, as they make reporting and filtering significantly easier. 

What is DID Selection? 

DID Selection allows an agent to choose which Virtual Number should be used before placing a Click-to-Call. 
Instead of always calling from a default business number, agents can select the most appropriate number based on the department, campaign, or institution they are representing. 
For example: 
  1. Admissions Team selects Admissions DID 
  2. MBA Counsellor selects MBA Campaign DID 
  3. Law Team selects Law Admissions DID 
The selected Virtual Number is then sent to the telephony vendor during Click-to-Call, allowing the call to originate from the chosen business number. 
This functionality is available only if the telephony provider supports receiving a DID or campaign identifier through its outbound Click-to-Call API. 

Understanding Configuration Capabilities

Virtual Numbers support two capabilities. 

Capability 1: Virtual Number Management

This is the core functionality available for all supported telephony integrations. 
Administrators configure Virtual Numbers and Aliases, allowing Meritto to recognise and use them across various modules. 
This capability is used for: 
  1. Lead Timeline 
  2. Opportunity Timeline 
  3. Caller ID Filters 
  4. Workflow Automation 
  5. Primary Registration Campaign Mapping 

Capability 2: DID Selection for Click-to-Call (Optional) 

Some telephony providers allow the calling number (DID) to be specified while initiating an outbound call. 
If your telephony provider supports this capability, Meritto allows agents to choose a Virtual Number before placing a Click-to-Call. 
The selected Virtual Number is then sent to your telephony provider through the outbound API.
This functionality requires additional configuration and is covered later in this article. 

Configure Virtual Numbers 

Virtual Numbers are configured individually for each telephony vendor integrated with your account. Each Virtual Number consists of two components: 
  1. Value – The actual number or identifier received from or sent to your telephony provider.
  2. Alias – A business-friendly name used throughout Meritto for reporting, filtering and activity tracking. 

Configuration : 

  1. Navigate to Extensions → Telephony → Configured Vendor → Virtual Numbers button 
  2. The Virtual Numbers button displays all Virtual Numbers configured for the selected telephony vendor. 
  3. Add the Number and its Alias (optional). 
  4. To add multiple numbers, click on ‘Add another number’ and add the numbers.
  5. Once all the numbers are added, click on ‘Save Changes’.

Once the virtual Numbers are configured - 

Once a Virtual Number is saved, Meritto automatically starts using it wherever applicable. 
Whenever Meritto receives a telephony event (such as an inbound call, outbound call, or campaign call), the telephony payload received from your vendor contains the Virtual Number (DID) used for that call. 
Meritto compares this value with the Virtual Numbers configured for the corresponding telephony vendor. 
If a matching Virtual Number is found: 
  1. The configured Virtual Number is associated with the activity. 
  2. The corresponding Alias is retrieved. 
  3. Both the Virtual Number and Alias become available across supported modules.
    1. Activity Timeline 
    2. Lead Manager Filters 
    3. Opportunity Manager Filters 
    4. Marketing Automations 
    5. Primary Registration Campaign - If the Lead is made through telephony, the Alias is captured in the campaign name. 
If no matching alias is found: 
  1. The Virtual Number received from the telephony vendor is still stored.
  2. Alias is displayed as NA. 
  3. The activity continues to be processed normally.
Notes
Note: 
Please ensure that the telephony vendor includes the virtual number in the callback payload. The virtual number configured in Meritto must exactly match the value received in the callback payload for the functionality to work as expected. 

Enable Virtual Number Selection for Click-to-Call 

Configuring Virtual Numbers allows Meritto to standardize telephony data and use it across reporting, filters, automation, and campaign attribution. 
If your telephony provider supports selecting the calling number (DID) during an outbound Click-to-Call request, you can further extend this functionality by enabling Virtual Number Selection. 
When enabled, agents can choose which configured Virtual Number should be used before placing an outbound call. 
The selected Virtual Number is then sent to your telephony provider as part of the Click-to-Call API request. 
Info
Important 
If your telephony provider does not support receiving a DID or Virtual Number in its outbound Click-to-Call API, you can continue using all Virtual Number features discussed in the previous sections without enabling DID Selection. 

Prerequisites 

  1. Virtual Numbers have been configured for the telephony vendor. 
  2. Outbound Click-to-Call is already configured and working. 
  3. Your telephony provider supports passing a Virtual Number, DID or Campaign Identifier in the outbound Click-to-Call API. 

How DID Selection Works 

When DID Selection is enabled, the outbound calling workflow changes slightly. 
Instead of placing the call immediately after clicking the Call button, Meritto first prompts the agent to choose the Virtual Number that should be used for the call.
The selected Virtual Number is then included in the outbound API request sent to your telephony provider. 

Steps for Configuration 

Step 1: Enable DID Selection 
  1. Once the outbound mapping has been completed successfully, navigate to:
  2. Extension→ Telephony →Vendor → Outbound Configuration 
  3. Enable the toggle: Enable Virtual Number Filtering 
  4. Once enabled: 
    1. Virtual Number selection becomes available during Click-to-Call. 
    2. Users can be assigned the virtual numbers in the User Config. 
    3. Agents can select a Virtual Number before placing a call. 
    4. A placeholder is added in Outbound configuration to configure the key in which DID number or campaign name can be configured. 
Step 2 : Outbound Configuration 
  1. After enabling Virtual Number Selection, Meritto must know which parameter in your telephony provider's API should receive the selected Virtual Number.
  2. This parameter should be added in the Outbound Configuration and mapped with DID/Alias tokens 
  3. A placeholder is added in the Outbound Configuration named “Add Campaign Name Value”. The correct mapping depends on your vendor's API specification. 
Example – Vendor Expects the DID Number 
Lets say, the vendor API supports sending Virtual numbers in the payload. Vendor API :

{ 

"url": "http://api.vendor.com/Rest-api/outbound-calls", 

"requestMethod": "POST", 

"headers": { 

"Authorization": "Bearer <JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN>" 

}, 

"postData": { 

"custnumber": "**********", 

"refid": "6816681_16097853_0_0_0_1781802487", 

"gid": "ONCB", 

"agent_ number": "**********"

“did_no”: “12345678” 

} 

}


Lets say the vendor expects the DID number in the key ‘did_no’ key. The same can be configured in the ‘Add Campaign Name Value’. When the ‘did’ key is added, map the DID or Alias tokens to it, based on what should be sent in the C2C API 
The C2C API then sends the virtual number in the ‘did_no’ key in the payload. 


The Enable DID Selection for Click-to-Call toggle is available only when Meritto can successfully send the selected Virtual Number to your telephony provider. 
If your outbound Click-to-Call API does not contain a parameter to receive the Virtual Number or Alias, the toggle remains disabled. 
You can still capture and filter the DID number for calls if the vendor sends it back in the callback payload. 

Step 3: Assign Virtual Numbers to Users 
  1. Once DID Selection is enabled, Meritto allows administrators to control which Virtual Numbers are available to each user. 
  2. Navigate to: Extensions→ Telephony→ Vendor→ User Config 
  3. A new section named Virtual Numbers becomes available. 
  4. For each user, select the required Virtual Numbers and save the configuration.
    1. If no Virtual Numbers are assigned to a user, Meritto automatically makes all configured Virtual Numbers available during Click-to-Call. 

Agent Experience During Click-to-Call 

Once Virtual Number Selection has been enabled, the calling experience changes for agents. 
When the agent clicks the Call button from Lead Manager/ Opportunity Manager, Meritto displays a Virtual Number selection popup with Virtual Numbers and Alias before placing the call, allowing agents to identify the appropriate business number easily. 
The popup displays: 
  1. Applicant mobile number 
  2. Virtual Number list 
  3. Place Call button 
The agent may choose the Number they want to initiate the call from and initiate the call.
The call cannot be initiated until a Virtual Number is selected. 
The dropdown displays only the Virtual Numbers assigned to the user. 
If no assignments exist, all configured Virtual Numbers are displayed.

Summary 

The Virtual Numbers feature enables your organization to standardize and manage business phone numbers used across telephony operations in Meritto. By configuring Virtual Numbers and assigning meaningful Aliases, administrators can improve call tracking, simplify reporting, build automation based on specific business numbers, and enhance campaign attribution for cloud telephony calls. 
Once configured, Virtual Numbers are automatically available across various modules, including Activity Timeline, Lead Manager, Opportunity Manager, Workflow Automation, and Primary Registration Campaigns. These capabilities are available without any additional configuration. 
For organizations whose telephony provider supports passing a Virtual Number (DID) during outbound Click-to-Call requests, Meritto also provides the DID Selection capability. This allows administrators to assign Virtual Numbers to users and enables agents to select the appropriate business number before placing an outbound call. 
By configuring Virtual Numbers and, where supported, enabling DID Selection, organizations can maintain consistent telephony data, improve operational visibility, and provide a more flexible outbound calling experience while ensuring accurate reporting across the platform.