Migrate from Deskhero to Zoho Desk

Deskhero Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. We preserve ticket status, priority, subject, description, created time, modified time, and assignee. Deskhero custom fields (up to 250 on Large plan) map to Zoho Desk custom fields, which are department-scoped — we create fields within the target department before import and map by field API name. Parent-child thread ordering is preserved by sequencing Ticket Threads in the order of the original timestamp.

Deskhero conversation messages map to Zoho Desk Ticket Threads. We preserve message authorship (agent vs customer), message body, timestamp, attachment references, and internal/external flag. Zoho Desk does not preserve thread direction (incoming vs outgoing) as a first-class field through all import paths — we flag this and document it as a post-migration reconciliation item. Inline images in message bodies are preserved as text references but may require re-uploading as Zoho Desk attachments.

Deskhero Knowledge Base articles migrate to Zoho Desk Articles within the corresponding Help Center section. Article title, body text, category, status (published/draft), and created/modified timestamps transfer. Attachments embedded in articles (PDF, DOCX, PPTX) do not migrate through Zwitch or the assisted import — we upload them separately via the Zoho Desk API as ContentDocument records linked to the article. Article URLs change at migration time; we document all original URLs for manual redirect setup.

Deskhero mailboxes (connected Gmail or Outlook with two-way sync) map to Zoho Desk Email Channels. We migrate the mailbox address, display name, and folder mapping configuration as documentation. IMAP credentials and OAuth tokens cannot be exported — they are tied to Deskhero's session and must be re-authenticated in Zoho Desk manually. We recommend scheduling mailbox reconnection during a low-traffic window to avoid sync conflicts.

Deskhero Groups define team routing and agent permissions across all tickets. Zoho Desk uses a Department hierarchy where each department owns its own tickets, agents, and custom fields. We map Deskhero Groups to Zoho Desk Departments — Group membership lists map to Department agent rosters. If the customer has one flat Group structure in Deskhero, we create one Department; if Groups map to distinct business units, we create multiple Zoho Desk Departments and assign agents accordingly. This is a design decision made during scoping.

Deskhero supports up to 100 (Small) or 250 (Large) global custom fields across tickets and contacts. Zoho Desk custom fields are scoped per department. We map each Deskhero custom field to a Zoho Desk custom field created within the target department, preserving field type (text, number, date, picklist, checkbox) and current values per ticket. Field API names in Zoho follow the cf_ prefix convention (e.g., cf_ticket_origin). We pre-create all fields in the target department before record import to avoid import-time field-not-found errors.

Deskhero contacts migrate to Zoho Desk Contacts. We preserve first name, last name, email, phone, company name, and any contact-level custom field values. Zoho Desk links Contacts to Accounts (Organizations); if Deskhero stores company data on the contact record, we split it into Contact plus Account in Zoho Desk. Contact created and modified timestamps migrate directly.

Deskhero queries live Shopify product prices and stock via the Shopify API at reply time — it never stores pricing or stock in its own database. We migrate Shopify store references, product ID mappings, and customer-to-product associations as documented records. The destination Zoho Desk must establish its own Shopify connection to restore live product context. We preserve the Shopify product ID in a Zoho Desk custom field on the Product record so that the integration reconnects to the correct Shopify product catalog.

Deskhero Automation Rules trigger on language, tone, or subject conditions to assign, tag, or triage tickets. Zoho Desk has Workflow Rules, Business Rules, and time-based Rules as separate features. We do not migrate Automation Rules as code because the trigger models differ. We deliver a written inventory of every active Deskhero Automation Rule including its trigger condition, actions, and target (agent, group, tag), with a recommended Zoho Desk Workflow Rule equivalent. The customer's admin rebuilds them in Zoho Desk's workflow builder post-migration.

Deskhero Forms generate tickets from web submissions. We migrate Form definitions (field structure and routing rules) as documentation. Submitted form records that generated tickets are already captured as Tickets in Deskhero and migrate with the ticket migration. Zoho Desk Forms are separate objects with their own routing logic that must be recreated in the Zoho Desk Forms builder. We deliver a form-by-form inventory document for the admin to rebuild.

Deskhero Lists with up to 5,000 or 10,000 entries (depending on tier) segment customer records by email or customer ID. Zoho Desk does not have a native List object equivalent. We migrate List definitions as documented records and map List entries to Contact records with a tag or a custom multi-select field. If the Lists represent static audience segments for outreach, we recommend rebuilding them in Zoho CRM or as Zoho Desk Tags depending on their use case.

Deskhero scrapes website pages to enrich knowledge base context for AI drafting. We migrate the scraped page URLs and extracted content as a written inventory. Zoho Desk does not have a web scraping feature. The content migrates as article text if it was used in the knowledge base; otherwise it remains as documented source URLs for the customer to either re-scrape manually or recreate as static article content in Zoho Desk's Help Center builder.