Migrate from Hesk to Zendesk

Hesk tickets map to Zendesk tickets with subject, description, status, priority, and category preserved. Hesk's linear reply history in the ticket-track table transforms into Zendesk's Comment records, splitting each reply into a public or private Comment based on Hesk's iscustomer flag. Original Hesk ticket ID is stored in a Zendesk custom field zesk_original_id__c for cross-referencing. Status values (open, resolved, closed, pending) map to Zendesk ticket Status; custom Hesk statuses are re-created as Zendesk custom field values.

Hesk logs each ticket event (opened, replied, status change, assignment) as a separate row in the ticket-tracking table. We transform this into Zendesk Comment records ordered by timestamp. Agent replies become public comments; customer replies are imported as requester comments. Event-type entries (status changes, assignment changes) without body content are stored as private Comments with a system-generated note for audit purposes.

Hesk KB articles (title, HTML content, category association, attachments) map to Zendesk Guide articles inside Sections. We preserve article HTML as the body, map Hesk category to the corresponding Zendesk Section, and handle inline images by exporting from Hesk's file system and uploading to Zendesk's media service with URL re-mapping in the article HTML. Hesk's article draft/published flag maps to Zendesk's draft/published status.

Hesk's flat category structure maps to Zendesk Guide Sections. If the customer uses nested Hesk categories, we flatten them into a single section hierarchy during migration or create a top-level Category in Zendesk Guide as the container. We document the original Hesk category tree as metadata on each article for post-migration restructuring if needed.

Hesk end-user records (name, email, IP address, created date) map to Zendesk End User records. Email is the dedupe key. Hesk's IP address field is stored in a Zendesk custom field hesk_ip__c for GDPR audit purposes. Any Hesk user records without a valid email address are held in a reconciliation queue; Zendesk requires a valid email for End User accounts. GDPR anonymisation requests are processed before migration if the customer has a data-cleanup requirement.

Hesk staff accounts (name, email, role: administrator/manager/agent, password hash) map to Zendesk Agent profiles. Hesk's role hierarchy (admin > manager > agent) maps to Zendesk's agent, admin, and light agent roles. We do not migrate password hashes because Hesk uses bcrypt and Zendesk uses its own authentication; staff accounts are provisioned in Zendesk with temporary passwords set by the customer's admin. The customer's admin maps Hesk staff IDs to Zendesk Agents before migration to preserve assignment history.

Hesk per-ticket custom fields map to Zendesk custom ticket fields. Field types are matched: text to text, number to numeric, dropdown to dropdown, checkbox to checkbox. Hesk dropdown values become Zendesk dropdown options. We create the destination fields in Zendesk Admin Center before migration and map Hesk field values to the corresponding Zendesk field IDs. Multi-select checkboxes in Hesk map to Zendesk tag-based fields or multi-select picklists depending on the customer's reporting needs.

Hesk per-user custom fields map to Zendesk user fields in Admin Center under People > Configuration > User fields. The same type-matching logic applies (text, numeric, dropdown, checkbox). These fields appear in the Zendesk agent interface when viewing end-user profiles.

Hesk canned responses (title, HTML content) map to Zendesk Macros. Each canned response becomes a Zendesk macro with the title preserved and the HTML body set as the macro body. Macros are created at the account level so all agents can access them. Private versus public visibility is not a Hesk feature, so all migrated macros default to account-level visibility in Zendesk.

Hesk stores attachments on disk with paths (e.g., attachments/ticket_123/file.pdf) stored in MySQL. We export the entire attachments directory alongside the database, then upload each file to Zendesk's media service during the ticket import phase. Each ticket's MySQL attachment rows are matched to the corresponding Zendesk ticket ID post-upload, and the Zendesk attachment URLs are inserted as Comment attachments. If the destination Zendesk domain differs from the source Hesk domain, all attachment URLs are re-mapped in article HTML during KB import.

Hesk ticket categories (name, description) map to a Zendesk custom dropdown ticket field named Category. We create the Category field in Zendesk, import all category names as dropdown options, then update every ticket's category reference to use the Zendesk field option ID rather than the Hesk numeric category ID. The original Hesk category tree is documented for the customer to optionally restructure in Zendesk views.