Migrate from Helpdesk 365 to Zoho Desk

Helpdesk 365 Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tickets. The mapping covers ticket number, subject, description, status (Open, Pending, Resolved, Closed), priority, assignee email, requester email, created time, modified time, and thread history. Thread entries migrate with direction preserved (customer vs agent) using Zoho Desk's Thread API. Custom fields require pre-creation in Zoho Desk; we evaluate each source custom field against Zoho's field types during scoping and flag any that cannot be mapped.

Helpdesk 365 Contacts (name, email, phone, organization link) map directly to Zoho Desk Contacts. The email address is the primary deduplication and lookup key. If a Contact with the same email already exists in Zoho Desk, the system maps to the existing record; we verify this behavior during sandbox migration. Contact-to-Account linking (via the organization field) resolves after Accounts are imported.

Helpdesk 365 Companies map to Zoho Desk Accounts. The Account must be imported before any Contact that references it so that the AccountId lookup field is populated on insert. Company name is the primary Account field; phone, website, address, and industry map to their Zoho Desk equivalents. We preserve the original Helpdesk 365 company record ID as an external ID field for reconciliation.

Helpdesk 365 agent profiles (name, email, role, team) map to Zoho Desk Agents. Zoho Desk requires agents to exist before ticket import because tickets assign to agents by email. We extract agent records from Helpdesk 365, verify that the email addresses are active, and provision them in Zoho Desk before any ticket phase begins. Role and team mapping uses Zoho Desk's department and role configuration.

Helpdesk 365 Teams (agent groupings for routing and SLA) map to Zoho Desk Teams. Team membership links agents to teams in Zoho Desk. We extract team assignments during the agent extraction phase and recreate team structures in Zoho Desk during the provisioning phase. Teams without a matching Zoho Desk structure are flagged for manual configuration.

Helpdesk 365 custom fields on tickets require pre-creation in Zoho Desk Layouts and Fields before ticket import. Standard tier users with more than five source custom fields must choose between dropping the extras, upgrading to Enterprise, or consolidating fields into multi-select or free-text types. We inspect the source schema during scoping, document the field-to-type mapping, and pre-create all migratable fields in Zoho Desk before the production migration window.

Helpdesk 365 stores ticket attachments as SharePoint document library URLs. We extract attachment URLs from ticket records during extraction and evaluate each one: if the URL is publicly accessible, we embed it as a link in the ticket thread with a note indicating the source file; if the file must be transferred, we download from SharePoint and re-upload to Zoho Desk subject to the 20 MB file limit. Attachments exceeding 20 MB are converted to secure hosted links embedded in the ticket thread. Zoho's own Zwitch tool does not migrate inline images, so we handle this case directly via API.

Helpdesk 365 tags on tickets map to Zoho Desk Tags. Tags are extracted from ticket records during ticket extraction and applied to the corresponding Zoho Desk Ticket via the Tag API after ticket insert. Tags used for ticket categorization and routing rules in Helpdesk 365 are preserved for admin reference even though the routing rules themselves do not migrate.

Helpdesk 365 knowledge base articles (title, HTML body, category, publish status) are evaluated for migration. Helpdesk 365's KB export API is not confirmed in the CSV, so we attempt extraction via the standard REST API and fall back to HTML scraping where necessary. Zoho Desk supports public and private knowledge bases; we import articles into the appropriate section based on the Helpdesk 365 category structure. Note that Zoho's Zwitch tool does not migrate KB attachments, so file-based assets in articles require separate handling.

Helpdesk 365 ticket conversation threads (customer replies and agent responses) map to Zoho Desk Ticket Threads. Thread entries preserve direction (customer vs agent), timestamp, and body content. We use Zoho Desk's Thread API to insert entries in chronological order. Private notes in Helpdesk 365 migrate as internal comments in Zoho Desk. Thread direction fidelity is validated during sandbox migration.

Helpdesk 365 ticket status values (Open, Pending, On Hold, Resolved, Closed) require mapping to Zoho Desk's default status values (Open, On Hold, Escalated, Closed). If the Helpdesk 365 instance uses custom status labels, we create custom status values in Zoho Desk during the configuration phase before ticket import begins. We verify that all source status values have a destination equivalent before committing to a status mapping plan.

Priority values (Low, Medium, High, Urgent) map directly from Helpdesk 365 to Zoho Desk. We verify that the source priority values match Zoho Desk's default priority set during scoping. If Helpdesk 365 uses a different priority scale, we create a custom priority field and map values accordingly.