Migrate from Helpdesk 365 to Zendesk

Helpdesk 365 tickets map directly to Zendesk tickets. The Helpdesk 365 ticket ID becomes a custom field ticket_id_hdk365__c on the Zendesk ticket for audit traceability. Ticket status (Open, Pending, Resolved, Closed) maps to Zendesk ticket status with a custom field preserving the original Helpdesk 365 status name. Priority and assignee map directly. Thread history (comments, internal notes) migrates as Zendesk ticket comments with the author set to the mapped agent user and the public/private flag preserved from the Helpdesk 365 channel type.

Helpdesk 365 contacts map to Zendesk end-users. Email address is the primary dedupe key. Name, phone, and organization link migrate directly. The Helpdesk 365 contact ID becomes a custom field contact_id_hdk365__c on the Zendesk user record. Any contact without an email address receives a generated placeholder email using the pattern contact-{id}@migrated.local so that the Zendesk import accepts the record.

Helpdesk 365 companies map to Zendesk organizations. The company name becomes the organization name, domain becomes the organization domain (used for automatic user-to-org association), and the company ID becomes a custom field org_id_hdk365__c. Organization is created before end-user import so that the organization_id lookup is satisfied at the moment of end-user insert.

Helpdesk 365 agent profiles (name, email, role) map to Zendesk agent accounts. We extract agent records from Helpdesk 365 during ticket export or via a dedicated agent read if the endpoint is confirmed available during scoping. Agent email becomes the Zendesk user email, and role mapping (Admin, Agent) transfers to Zendesk's agent role model. Agents without email are flagged in the reconciliation report for manual provisioning before ticket import.

Helpdesk 365 teams map to Zendesk groups. Team name and team membership (list of agent IDs) translate to Zendesk group name and group membership. Groups are created before agent import so that the group assignment on tickets can reference a valid group_id. If Helpdesk 365 team export is not confirmed at scoping, we infer team membership from the assigned_agent_id on each ticket record.

Helpdesk 365 custom ticket fields map to Zendesk ticket custom fields. We inspect the Helpdesk 365 field schema during scoping to count active custom fields. If the source system uses Standard plan (capped at five), we map all five. If Enterprise plan, we map all active fields. Field types (dropdown, text, numeric, date, checkbox) map to equivalent Zendesk custom field types. Fields exceeding five on Standard plan are flagged in the scoping report for the customer to select which to migrate.

Helpdesk 365 tags stored on tickets migrate as Zendesk tags. We extract tags from ticket records during ticket extraction rather than from a standalone tag endpoint (not confirmed in Helpdesk 365 API). Tags migrate as flat strings on the Zendesk ticket. The customer chooses whether to migrate all tags or a filtered set during scoping.

Helpdesk 365 knowledge base articles have no documented export API, so we evaluate extraction via page scraping or admin-level data evaluation during scoping. Article title, HTML body, category, and publish status extract and write to Zendesk Help Center via the Help Center Articles API. Zendesk Help Center requires a parent Section and Category to exist before articles can be created, so we migrate categories and sections first, then articles in dependency order. Draft articles migrate as draft in Zendesk; published articles migrate as published.

Helpdesk 365 ticket attachments are stored as URLs pointing to SharePoint document libraries. We extract the attachment URL from each ticket record and evaluate whether to migrate the underlying file. If the target Zendesk plan supports attachment upload via API, we download the SharePoint file, upload to Zendesk as a ticket attachment, and replace the URL with a Zendesk-hosted attachment reference. If the SharePoint library is not accessible externally, we preserve the original URL as a custom field attachment_url_hdk365__c on the Zendesk ticket comment for manual resolution post-migration.

Helpdesk 365 SLA policies (first response time, next response time, resolution time) do not export as data. We inspect the Helpdesk 365 SLA configuration during scoping, document every active SLA policy with its name, business hours, and rule conditions, and deliver a written inventory mapping each to a Zendesk SLA Policy equivalent. The customer's Zendesk admin rebuilds SLA policies in Zendesk Admin Center post-migration. This is standard scope; we do not configure Zendesk SLA policies as part of the migration run.