Migrate from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus MSP to Freshdesk

SDP MSP Accounts (customer organizations) map directly to Freshdesk Companies. The Account name becomes the Company name, and the primary contact's email or phone migrates as the Company phone. SDP's multi-account isolation (shared technician pools per account) has no Freshdesk equivalent; we flatten account boundaries and use Freshdesk Tags to preserve account groupings for filtering and reporting. The customer selects a tag strategy during scoping (tag by original Account name or by account tier).

SDP MSP Requesters (end-users who submit tickets within an Account) map to Freshdesk Contacts. The primary Account association is resolved by matching the Requester's account_id to the Account mapping created in the previous step, and the Contact is associated to the corresponding Freshdesk Company at import time. Requester email serves as the dedupe key. Requester phone, site, and custom fields migrate as Freshdesk Contact custom fields.

SDP MSP Requests map to Freshdesk Tickets. The SDP request priority, category, subcategory, and status map to Freshdesk ticket priority, type, and status respectively. The SDP technician assignment maps to a Freshdesk agent by email match. The SDP request description becomes the Freshdesk first conversation. We retrieve full conversation threads via the SDP REST API v3 before migration because the standard XLS export excludes conversations, notes, and attachments. Request creation and modification timestamps migrate as Freshdesk created_at and updated_at.

SDP Request conversations (threaded replies between technicians and requesters) map to Freshdesk Ticket conversations. We pre-fetch conversation threads via paginated SDP REST API calls using the Request Note endpoint, storing each thread entry with its author, timestamp, and HTML body. At Freshdesk import, each conversation entry is added as a reply to the corresponding Ticket in chronological order. SDP's internal notes and public replies are distinguished by the is_public flag and map to Freshdesk's public and private note distinction.

SDP Request attachments migrate to Freshdesk Ticket attachments. We pre-fetch attachment metadata (filename, MIME type, size) via the SDP REST API and download the binary content during the extraction phase. Freshdesk's API accepts attachments up to 30 MB per file. We chunk large attachment batches to avoid timeout and store attachment URLs as Freshdesk Ticket conversation attachments linked to the correct conversation entry.

SDP MSP IT and Non-IT Assets map to Freshdesk Assets (available on Professional and above plans). Asset type, name, serial number, purchase date, and state migrate. SDP's asset-to-Request associations are preserved as a lookup table and re-established at Freshdesk using the asset_name or serial_number as the dedupe key during CSV import. The customer should budget for post-migration verification of asset-linked tickets because the association requires a re-scan or manual confirmation in Freshdesk.

SDP MSP Contracts are billing instruments tied to Accounts. Freshdesk has no native contract object. We export Contract records and map them to Freshdesk Ticket custom fields (if the contract is ticket-specific) or to a Contact or Company note (if the contract covers the customer relationship broadly). Contract terms, billing rules, and expiration dates are preserved in a structured note for admin reference. Full contract management and billing automation require a third-party tool or manual process post-migration.

SDP MSP Solutions (Knowledge Base articles for known errors and resolutions) map to Freshdesk Knowledge Base articles. We export via the Solutions API endpoint, preserving article title, description (rich text), topic, and publish status. Article-to-category mapping uses SDP topic as the Freshdesk section. If the SDP Knowledge Base contains images embedded in article HTML, we extract and re-upload them as Freshdesk article assets. Approval status on SDP Solutions maps to Freshdesk article draft versus published state.

SDP MSP Change Management records (CAB approvals, change types, schedules) migrate as Freshdesk Tickets with a custom ticket type field set to 'Change'. The SDP change category, risk level, approval status, and scheduled date migrate as custom fields. SDP's Change-specific workflows and Approved Change Records have no Freshdesk equivalent and are not migrated; the customer rebuilds change approval workflows using Freshdesk's Automations if required.

SDP MSP Problem records (linking multiple Incidents) migrate as Freshdesk Tickets with a custom ticket type field set to 'Problem'. The problem description and linked Request IDs migrate as custom fields and ticket descriptions respectively. Problem workflows and closure rules are not migrated; the customer rebuilds problem-to-incident linking and escalation using Freshdesk ticket fields and Automations.