Migrate from Agile CRM to Zoho Desk

Agile CRM Contacts map directly to Zoho Desk Contacts. We use email as the dedupe key. First Name, Last Name, Phone, Mobile, and social links (Facebook, Twitter) migrate as standard fields. Any custom fields on the Contact object in Agile CRM are discovered during the pre-migration audit and converted to the equivalent Zoho Desk Contact custom field type (text, picklist, date, number, lookup). If a Contact in Agile CRM is linked to a Company, we create the Account in Zoho Desk first so that the Contact-Account association is satisfied at the moment of insert.

Agile CRM Companies map to Zoho Desk Accounts (called Organizations in some Zoho Desk views). Account Name, Phone, Email, Website, Industry, Street, City, State, Country, and Zip migrate as standard fields. Created Time and Modified Time are optional; Zoho Desk defaults to the import timestamp if null. Custom fields on Companies migrate as custom fields on Accounts with equivalent types. The Account is created before any linked Contact import so that the Account lookup is satisfied.

Agile CRM Helpdesk Cases map to Zoho Desk Tickets as the primary migration object. Case Subject becomes Ticket Subject, Case Description becomes the initial Ticket thread entry, and Case Status maps to Zoho Desk Ticket Status (Open, Pending, On Hold, Resolved, Closed). Case Priority maps to Priority (Low, Medium, High, Urgent). Case Type (Question, Incident, Problem, Feature Request) maps to Ticket Type. Resolution notes from Agile CRM become an internal Zoho Desk note on the Ticket. Custom fields on Cases migrate as Ticket custom fields.

Agile CRM Case conversation threads (including customer replies, agent responses, and internal notes) migrate as Zoho Desk Ticket Comments. We preserve the author email, timestamp, and direction (Inbound/Outbound) from the Agile CRM thread. Note that Zoho Desk's Migration Wizard cannot transfer Comment Author as Contact or Agent — we handle this via direct API migration, creating the author as a Contact in Zoho Desk if they do not already exist. Inline images in threads require special handling: Zoho Desk does not support inline image migration via Zwitch Wizard, and we extract and re-attach images as Ticket attachments with a reference note in the thread.

Agile CRM Groups function as team-based access partitions and helpdesk queues. We map Groups to Zoho Desk Departments, which control ticket routing, SLAs, and agent visibility. If an Agile CRM Group has no direct Zoho Desk Department equivalent, we create a Department with the same name and assign the mapped Agents to it. Note that CC users and Group-level CC assignments do not transfer via Zoho Desk's Zwitch Wizard — we handle these via direct API migration, adding CC users as Contact followers on the migrated Ticket.

Agile CRM Owners (the user assigned to a Case, Contact, or Company) map to Zoho Desk Agents by email address match. We extract every distinct Owner email referenced on migrating Case, Contact, and Company records and match against the Zoho Desk Agent table in the destination account. Any Owner without a matching Agent record goes to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision the Agent before ticket import begins. Migration cannot complete past Case import without resolved Agent assignments because Zoho Desk requires a valid Agent ID on each Ticket.

Agile CRM Labels (used to tag and categorize Contacts, Cases, and Deals) migrate to Zoho Desk Tags. Tags are applied at the Ticket level in Zoho Desk and can be used for filtering, reporting, and workflow triggers. We preserve the per-object label associations by applying the equivalent Tags to each migrated Ticket. Labels that exist on Contacts but have no Case-level equivalent are documented separately for the admin to apply post-migration if needed.

Agile CRM Canned Responses (pre-written reply templates used in helpdesk) map to Zoho Desk Macros. We extract Canned Response title, subject, and body text during the pre-migration audit. Macros in Zoho Desk can include ticket subject, email body, Cc, Bcc, and field updates — we map the Agile CRM body to the Zoho Desk Macro response body. Note that Canned Responses with merge fields require manual reconfiguration in Zoho Desk's Macro editor because merge field syntax differs between platforms.

Agile CRM Tasks (unlimited on all paid tiers, linked to Contacts, Companies, or Deals) migrate to Zoho Desk Tasks. Task Subject, Description, Due Date, Priority, Status, and linked Contact/Company association migrate. Task assignment resolves the Agile CRM Owner to a Zoho Desk Agent by email. Tasks without a valid Agent assignment are held in a reconciliation queue. Note that Zoho Desk Tasks are scoped to the helpdesk context and are separate from Zoho CRM Tasks — if the customer uses Zoho Desk standalone without Zoho CRM, Tasks migrate as standalone Zoho Desk Tasks.

Agile CRM Activities logged against a Case (calls, emails, meetings, notes) merge into the Zoho Desk Ticket conversation thread. Call activities migrate as Comments with call duration and disposition preserved in a custom field. Email activities migrate as Comments with the email body preserved. Meeting activities migrate as Comments with location and attendee information. Notes migrate as internal Comments visible only to agents. We preserve the original timestamp and author information. This differs from Zoho Desk's standard thread model, where all interactions are Comments — we do not split Activities into separate Zoho Desk objects because no equivalent exists for standalone Activity records in Zoho Desk.

Agile CRM Documents (file attachments on Cases, Contacts, or Companies) migrate as Ticket attachments in Zoho Desk. We export binary attachments via the Agile CRM file endpoint, re-associate them to the correct Ticket using the Ticket's external ID, and upload via the Zoho Desk attachment API. Knowledge Base attachments are a known limitation: Zoho Desk's Zwitch Wizard cannot transfer Knowledge Base attachments, and Agile CRM does not expose Knowledge Base article attachments via a public API endpoint. We document Knowledge Base articles and their content separately for manual re-publishing in Zoho Desk's Help Center.

Agile CRM custom fields on Contacts, Companies, Cases, and Tasks are discovered during the pre-migration audit and pre-created in Zoho Desk before any data import. Field type conversion follows standard mapping: Agile CRM text fields become Zoho Desk Text fields, picklist fields become Picklist fields, date fields become Date fields, and number fields become Number fields. Multi-select picklist fields in Agile CRM require manual review because Zoho Desk supports multi-select picklist but with a different maximum option count. We flag any Agile custom field type (e.g., formula, rollup summary) that has no Zoho Desk equivalent during scoping for manual disposition.

Agile CRM workflow automations are not exposed via the REST API — the platform stores trigger conditions and action sequences internally without a machine-readable export. We do not migrate workflows. We deliver a written inventory of every active Agile CRM automation during the pre-migration audit, documenting its trigger type, conditions, actions, and estimated Zoho Desk Workflow Rule equivalent. The customer's admin rebuilds these in Zoho Desk's workflow engine post-migration. We estimate 1-2 hours per complex workflow for manual rebuild.

Agile CRM Marketing Campaigns (email sequences, drip campaigns, landing pages) have no equivalent in Zoho Desk, which is a helpdesk platform. Campaign metadata (name, status, node count) is documented separately for the customer's marketing team to evaluate whether Zoho Campaigns or a separate email marketing platform will replace the campaign automation layer. We do not migrate campaign content, email templates, or drip sequence logic.