Migrate from Octadesk to Zendesk

Octadesk Tickets map directly to Zendesk Tickets. The primary challenge is Octadesk's customField array (each entry containing field type, label, and value) versus Zendesk's custom_fields keyed by field ID. We export the full field definition from Octadesk during discovery, map each customField entry to its Zendesk equivalent by field name or label match, and restructure the data as a {id: value} dictionary on import. Ticket status, priority, channel metadata, and owner assignment migrate 1:1. Historical timestamps (created_at, updated_at) preserve to maintain SLA audit trails.

Octadesk Chats represent real-time conversation sessions and are paginated at 100 items per GET /chat request. Each Chat has nested conversation events (messages, agent responses, customer replies) that we extract and flatten into Zendesk Ticket comments attached to a parent Ticket record. If the Chat is not linked to a Ticket, we create a standalone Zendesk Ticket and populate it with the conversation history as comments. Conversation author attribution maps to the Zendesk comment author (agent or end-user) by email lookup.

Octadesk Contacts migrate to Zendesk Users with role=end-user. The Contact email becomes the User email, and name, phone, custom properties, and tags transfer to corresponding Zendesk fields. Custom Contact properties follow the same array-to-flat-field transformation as Ticket custom fields. We deduplicate by email and flag any Contacts that share an email address with an existing Zendesk Agent (a separate User with role=agent) for manual resolution.

Octadesk Companies map to Zendesk Organizations. Company domain, name, and custom properties transfer. The Organization is created before any related Contact import so that the organization_id lookup is satisfied at Contact insert time. If Zendesk does not have a separate Organization object in the customer's tier, we map Companies to a custom field on the User record or skip the object with customer approval.

Octadesk Agents (users with agent role) map to Zendesk Users with role=agent. We resolve by email match. Any Octadesk Agent without a matching Zendesk User is held in a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before migration resumes. Agent group memberships map to Zendesk Groups; team routing maps to Zendesk Views and SLA Policies if configured.

Octadesk Teams group Agents for routing and SLA purposes. We preserve team membership by mapping each Team to a Zendesk Group. Agent-to-team assignments are resolved at migration time by looking up each Agent's team_id and creating the corresponding GroupMembership record in Zendesk.

Octadesk Ticket custom fields use a customField array with type metadata. We parse each customField entry, identify the field type (text, numeric, dropdown, date, checkbox), and map to the equivalent Zendesk field type. Dropdown and multi-select fields require value enumeration mapping between Octadesk option labels and Zendesk option IDs. Date fields stored as strings in Octadesk are normalized to ISO 8601 before import.

Attachments on Tickets and Chats are referenced by URL in Octadesk. We download each file during migration, validate file size (Zendesk caps at 1MB per attachment), and upload to the corresponding Zendesk Ticket comment. Files exceeding 1MB are flagged for the customer's admin to upload manually to the Zendesk interface or as a Zendesk Dropbox reference. Inline images embedded in conversation history migrate as separate ContentDocument records linked to the Ticket.

Tags applied across Tickets and Contacts export with the full tag assignment per record. We recreate tags on Zendesk, applying the same tag to each migrated record. Zendesk restricts tag characters and enforces a 30-character maximum; we normalize tags that exceed this limit by truncation with a suffix and flag the change in the reconciliation report.

Octadesk automation rules (triggers, routing logic, macros) reference internal identifiers that have no export API. We do not migrate automations programmatically. During discovery, we document every Octadesk automation rule, trigger condition, and action in a written automation audit inventory with field names, condition logic, and recommended Zendesk Trigger or Macro equivalent. The customer's admin rebuilds these in Zendesk Admin.

Octadesk's proprietary AI agents and chatbot flow configurations use internal schemas not exposed via public API. These cannot be migrated. We deliver a structured export of the chatbot flow logic as described by the customer during discovery, with recommended equivalents in Zendesk's native AI features (Intelligent Triage, Macros, and Bot Builder) for the customer's admin to evaluate.

Octadesk dashboards and performance reports reference internal metric definitions and aggregation logic. We export report configurations as structured metadata but cannot replay them on Zendesk because metric definitions differ between platforms. We deliver a report audit listing every Octadesk dashboard, its component metrics, and the equivalent Zendesk Explore report or built-in report to recreate. Zendesk Guide and reporting require activation before migration if the customer does not already hold those tiers.