Migrate from Halo Service Desk to Zoho Desk

Halo Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tickets with full lifecycle preservation. We map ticket status, priority, type, and the original created timestamp (via Zoho's API timestamp override) so that ticket age and SLA elapsed time carry over. Halo's SLA Policy associations are preserved as Zoho Desk ticket fields and noted for department-level SLA reconfiguration. The ticket's linked Customer and Company references resolve to Zoho Contact and Account lookups via email dedupe.

Each Halo Ticket carries one or more Conversation records representing internal notes and customer-facing replies. We map Conversations to Zoho Desk Threads with author attribution (agent vs contact), timestamp, and the is_public flag that determines whether the thread is customer-visible or internal. Thread ordering is preserved by sequential insertion. Zoho Desk does not preserve thread direction (incoming/outgoing) in the same schema; we set thread visibility and author type to match the original Halo privacy flag.

Halo Customers (individual persons) map to Zoho Desk Contacts. We map name, email address, phone, mobile, and site association. Custom field values on the Customer record map to Zoho Desk custom fields on Contact, with type translation (Halo multiselect becomes Zoho multi-select picklist, Halo dropdown becomes Zoho picklist). The customer's Account link resolves from the linked Halo Company to the Zoho Account record.

Halo Companies (organizational-level records) map to Zoho Desk Accounts. We map Account Name, website, phone, industry, address fields, and description. Custom fields on Company records migrate to Zoho Account custom fields. Accounts are created before Contact import so that the AccountId lookup is satisfied at the moment of Contact insert.

Halo Agents (technicians and staff) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We map display name, email address, and role. Halo's team assignments map to Zoho Desk departments, which are the primary routing dimension in Zoho Desk. We recommend establishing departments during Zoho Desk setup before migration so that agents are associated with the correct department during import. Halo role configurations have no direct Zoho equivalent; we document the mapping in the pre-flight inventory and the customer rebuilds permissions in Zoho's role management.

Halo Teams group Agents for queue management and routing. Zoho Desk uses Departments as the primary routing layer, with agents assigned to one or more departments. We map each Halo Team to a corresponding Zoho Desk Department during scoping. Teams with overlapping membership may require multiple department assignments per agent, which is supported in Zoho Desk but requires configuration before agent import.

Halo KB articles with title, body content, category assignments, and publish status migrate to Zoho Desk Knowledge Base articles. We preserve article content and category hierarchy. Zoho Desk does not migrate KB attachments as binary files (they are imported as linked URLs); we flag any attachment-heavy KB accounts during scoping so teams can upload attachments manually post-migration or use Zoho WorkDrive for file management.

Halo's extensive custom field system requires field-level mapping to Zoho Desk equivalents. Text, number, date, and URL custom fields map directly. Halo multiselect fields become Zoho multi-select picklists. Halo dropdown fields become Zoho picklists. Dynamic SQL lookup fields (Halo's unique feature) have no Zoho Desk equivalent; we convert these to read-only text fields containing the resolved value at migration time. Password custom fields are not migrated per security policy.

Halo SLA Policies define response and resolution timeframes tied to ticket types and priorities with calendar and holiday configuration. Zoho Desk implements SLAs per Department with separate business hours configuration. We map SLA names and timeframes from Halo to Zoho Desk department SLAs, and note that the calendar and holiday configuration must be rebuilt in Zoho Desk's Setup > SLAs section. This is a configuration step the customer's admin completes post-migration using our written mapping document.

Halo Assets linked to Customers and Sites migrate to Zoho Desk Assets. We map asset type, serial number, and linked software and license data. Asset-to-Ticket relationships are preserved where the destination Zoho Desk instance has the Assets module enabled (available on Professional and Enterprise tiers). We confirm asset module availability during scoping.

File attachments on Halo Tickets and KB articles are migrated as binary blobs via Zoho Desk's API. Large attachment volumes (over 5 GB total) can slow migration runs due to Zoho's file size limits (10 GB maximum per migration batch in Zwitch; our API approach uses chunked upload). We flag attachment-heavy accounts during scoping so teams can decide whether to migrate all attachments or prioritize ticket and KB content first.

Halo supports storing customer and user passwords in protected custom field types encrypted at rest. We do not migrate password custom fields as a security practice. We skip these fields during migration and recommend the customer communicate a credential reset process to affected users post-go-live. This is documented in the pre-flight checklist and requires explicit sign-off before migration proceeds.