should I use trunk groups to divide worlds

[turkeyrun]

I have 30 DID's coming into my PRI via a bonded T1. I have 4 different businesses sharing the ShoreTel system (os 8.1) all in the same building. The 30 DIDs are split up among the 4 businesses. I would like to divide the DID's into 4 unique worlds according to the company that uses them. I do not need the ability to transfer calls from company A to company B. Should I use trunk groups to do this?

[gandalf]

The issue is, for billing purposes do you care what lines are used for outgoing? If you don't, then I am not sure I see a benefit to splitting the PRI into different trunk groups. You can assign a DID to the AA for each company and you can create an extension list that keeps the companies seperate (see blog for description on this option).

[turkeyrun]

Yes, charges for LD calls and conference bridge use will be split out by each company according to their DIDs.

[jinxed]

Does the ISP have the cability to due diferent billing by DID?

[turkeyrun]

I am meeting with the telco tomorrow to discuss billing in more detail. I was told by the salesman that I am able to pull down detailed monthly billing that itemizes LD charges by DID. If the telco provides me the billing info I will not need the phone system software to keep track of it. Billing aside, are their other considerations for or against dividing each company into it's own trunk group? I am only using 7 DIDs this month, so making changes now would be easy. My goal is to do it right the first time. Are their reasons, other than billing, like privacy, security, etc. that would warrant trunk group divisions?

[gandalf]

IMHO I see no benefit to dividing a single physical T into multiple trunk groups. You can program each user to present their own DID on outbound CID; you can point a different DID for each company to its own AA; you can build "extension lists" that limit callers to accessing only the company's dial by name (assuming version 9) or extension list; and you have a teleco that is going to give you a phone bill by DID. So unless I am missing something, I really cant see any benefit, and only admin migraines for splitting a single PRI into multiple trunk groups.

[turkeyrun]

Thank you for your time and input. I like the idea of keeping it simple.