Migrate from eDesk to Zoho Desk

eDesk Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets with full conversation thread history, attachments, status, priority, and SLA metadata preserved. The eDesk channel assignment (Amazon, eBay, Shopify, email, social) is stored as a custom ticket field rather than a native routing mechanism since Zoho Desk routes to departments. We preserve the original channel value in a custom field edesk_channel__c and optionally apply a Zoho Desk tag matching the channel name for filtering.

eDesk customer contact records including name, email, phone, and marketplace identity map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Custom contact fields migrate field-by-field with type mapping (eDesk string, decimal, integer, currency, checkbox map to Zoho Desk equivalent field types). Zoho Desk Contacts can be linked to an Account; we create Account records from eDesk contact organisations during the accounts phase before Contact import.

eDesk Agent accounts and role assignments map to Zoho Desk Agents by email match. We verify that the Zoho Desk destination has a provisioned user account for each eDesk agent before migration begins. Agents without a matching Zoho Desk user go to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision. eDesk's per-agent pricing context means we flag the agent count at scoping so the customer confirms the correct Zoho Desk plan covers the team.

eDesk channels (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, email, social, and 200+ more) have no direct Zoho Desk equivalent because Zoho Desk routes tickets to departments rather than channels. We create a Zoho Desk Department per eDesk channel grouping, create a custom picklist field edesk_channel__c on the Ticket module, and assign tickets to the corresponding department while preserving the channel tag. For teams with fewer than 10 distinct active channels, department creation is straightforward; for teams with 50+ channel variations, we group by channel type (marketplace, D2C, social) to keep department count manageable.

eDesk Knowledge Base articles and their category assignments migrate to Zoho Desk Help Center articles. We preserve internal/external visibility flags (Zoho Desk supports public, internal, and login-required article visibility), article-to-category assignments, and article content including formatted text and embedded images. KB article attachments migrate as linked file attachments. Note: Zoho Desk Help Center articles are scoped to departments; we assign articles to the department corresponding to the original KB category's channel grouping.

eDesk Smart Rules (available on all plans) and Message Rules (Professional and Enterprise only) are eDesk-proprietary automation logic that has no direct equivalent in Zoho Desk. We export every Smart Rule and Message Rule as structured JSON metadata capturing the trigger condition, filter criteria, and actions. This export is delivered as a machine-readable configuration document that the customer's Zoho Desk admin uses to rebuild equivalent Workflows using Zoho Desk's Blueprint and Workflow modules. We do not migrate automation rules as functional code.

eDesk AI Classifications (the taxonomy used for auto-categorising tickets) are not a standalone exportable object — they are a classification schema applied at ticket-level. We capture the AI Classification value from each ticket as a custom picklist field edesk_ai_classification__c in Zoho Desk, preserving the classification history without attempting to recreate the AI taxonomy in Zoho Desk's native structure.

eDesk canned response templates migrate to Zoho Desk Macros as text content. Template variables such as {{customer_name}} or {{order_number}} are preserved as plain text strings in the macro body. Variable mapping between eDesk and Zoho Desk token syntax is documented in the migration deliverable for the customer's admin to finalise post-migration since token conventions differ between platforms.

eDesk ticket tags migrate as Zoho Desk Tags. Tag taxonomies differ between platforms, so we preserve the raw tag values and flag any tags that may need consolidation or renaming during post-migration tag management. Zoho Desk tags are cross-departmental, so tickets tagged across multiple eDesk channels carry all applicable tags in Zoho Desk.

eDesk SLA configurations (first-response and resolution time thresholds) migrate as Zoho Desk SLA Policy metadata where the destination plan supports SLA definitions. Zoho Desk SLA enforcement is scoped to departments, so we assign the migrated SLA policy to the department corresponding to the eDesk channel context. SLA breach notifications, escalation rules, and holiday calendars require separate configuration in Zoho Desk post-migration.

Historical reporting data from eDesk's Automated Report Extracts API (Agents, Tickets, Channels, Chats, AI metrics) is exported as a snapshot at migration cutover. We deliver these as CSV files archived in the customer's system as a read-only reference. Zoho Desk reporting rebuild is outside migration scope; we provide the historical data in portable format for the customer to import into a BI tool or Zoho Analytics if needed.

eDesk's live order context (Amazon order ID, eBay transaction ID, Shopify order number) attached to each marketplace ticket has no native Zoho Desk equivalent. We preserve the most recent order reference as a custom field edesk_order_id__c on the Ticket record, and the order platform as edesk_order_channel__c. Order detail history (product, quantity, value) is not transferred as a linked object; we document this as a gap for customers who rely on in-ticket order context during agent responses.