Migrate from Desku.io to Intercom

Desku Tickets map to Intercom Conversations. The ticket subject becomes the conversation's first message body; description migrates as the opening customer message. Ticket status (Open, Pending, Resolved, Closed) maps to Intercom's state values (open, snoozed, closed). Priority maps to a custom Conversation attribute. Agent and customer messages are ingested as separate conversation parts with timestamps and author attribution preserved. Internal notes migrate as internal Conversation parts. Desku's per-ticket assignee resolves to an Intercom User by email match.

Desku Contacts map to Intercom Users (contacts). We preserve name, email, phone, company, and all custom contact properties as Intercom custom attributes. The company association maps to an Intercom Company record that we create from the contact's company field during the contact migration phase. Any Contact on Desku's Starter tier without CSAT data will not carry CSAT into Intercom since that feature is tier-gated at Desku.

Desku Shared Inboxes (capped at 5 on Startup tier) map to Intercom Inboxes, each associated with an Intercom Team. We resolve the inbox-to-team assignment from Desku's inbox configuration and create matching Intercom Teams before migration. Any inbox count on Desku that exceeds Intercom's inbox capacity for the selected plan is flagged during discovery. Agents assigned to each Desku inbox are mapped to the corresponding Intercom Team membership.

Each message within a Desku ticket (agent reply, customer message, internal note) migrates as a separate Intercom Conversation Part. Part type (comment, note, activity) is preserved from Desku's message type. Author attribution maps to the corresponding Intercom User by email. Timestamps carry over for accurate conversation timeline reconstruction. High-density threads (more than 50 parts) are chunked during import to stay within Intercom API write limits.

Desku Knowledge Base articles export with their body content, publication status, and category. We map articles to Intercom Collections and Sections. Desku's flat article structure may need restructuring to Intercom's enforced three-level Collection > Section > Article hierarchy. Articles without a Desku category are placed in a default Intercom Collection and Section. Language variants migrate as separate articles per Intercom's multilingual support.

Desku Ticket Tags migrate as Intercom Conversation Tags. Tags are preserved as key-value labels with their ticket association maintained. Intercom's tag API allows bulk application post-import, and we apply tags in the same import batch as the conversation records they annotate.

CSAT scores from Desku (available on Team and Business tiers) migrate to Intercom Conversation ratings. We preserve the numeric score and survey metadata as custom attributes on the migrated Conversation. Customers on Desku's Starter tier will have no CSAT data to migrate. The mapping is conditional on the source tier at time of export.

Desku Agent records (name, email, role, assignment settings) map to Intercom Users. Role (Admin, Agent) maps to Intercom's permission model. Round Robin and team assignments from Desku map to Intercom Team membership and assignment rules where the destination supports them. HubSpot Owner-to-User resolution by email is the primary matching strategy; any unmatched agents go to a reconciliation queue for admin provisioning.

Desku custom ticket and contact fields (name, type, options) map to Intercom custom attributes. Field types are translated: text fields become string attributes, dropdowns become select attributes, checkboxes become boolean attributes. All custom attributes must be created in Intercom before data import begins. Custom field values migrate as attribute data on the migrated Ticket (Conversation) or Contact (User).

Desku's chat widget configuration (branding, form fields, custom inputs) is exported as a JSON configuration bundle. The widget embed code itself cannot transfer because it is tied to Desku's infrastructure. We sequence the migration so that Intercom's Messenger installation script is deployed to the customer's website before Desku's widget code is removed, ensuring zero message loss during the overlap window. Widget reconfiguration in Intercom (branding, color, greeting) is a manual step the customer's admin performs using the exported Desku settings as a reference.

Desku Automation rules are stored as platform-specific JSON configuration, not as records in a transferable schema. We export the full automation logic (trigger events, conditions, actions) as a JSON bundle for the customer's reference. Intercom Workflows use a different trigger-and-action model (event-based, time-based, and manual triggers with branching conditions). We do not migrate automations as code; instead, we deliver a written automation inventory with each Desku rule mapped to a recommended Intercom Workflow equivalent, and the customer's admin rebuilds them post-migration. Typical rebuild time is 1-4 hours depending on automation complexity.