Migrate from Octadesk to Zoho Desk

Octadesk Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. Octadesk's customField array (array of objects with name, value, type keys) is the primary transformation challenge — we parse each entry, match it to its field definition by name, and insert it as a flat custom field in Zoho Desk scoped to the target department. Octadesk status (open, pending, resolved, closed) maps to Zoho Desk Status (Open, Pending, On Hold, Closed) with a custom field preserving the original Octadesk status for audit. Priority and owner assignment migrate directly. Any Octadesk ticket apps (internal add-on data) are stored as JSON in a migration_notes__c text field if they cannot be decomposed.

Octadesk Chat sessions (retrieved via GET /chat with 100-item page cap) contain conversation events stored under /chat/{id}/events. We export all pages sequentially, preserving message content, author type (agent or contact), timestamp, and channel metadata. Each Chat session becomes a Zoho Desk Ticket with a Thread containing individual Comment records. The Octadesk channel source (WhatsApp, Instagram, email, webchat) is preserved in a custom field chat_channel__c on the Zoho Ticket. Accounts with high chat volumes will experience extended export windows due to the 100-item page cap.

Octadesk Contact records migrate 1:1 to Zoho Desk Contacts. Standard fields (name, email, phone, mobile, address properties) map directly. Custom Contact properties migrate as flat custom fields in Zoho Desk with type matching (text, numeric, date, picklist). If the customer uses Octadesk's lifecycle or social profile data, we create additional custom fields to preserve it. Contacts are imported before Tickets so that the Contact lookup on the Ticket record resolves correctly at insert time.

Octadesk Company records map directly to Zoho Desk Accounts. Company name, phone, website, industry, address fields migrate to the corresponding Zoho Account fields. Website is used as a dedupe key during import. Accounts are imported before Contacts so that the Account lookup on the Contact record is satisfied at insert time. If the destination Zoho Desk instance is part of a Zoho CRM org, we coordinate to ensure Account records are consistent across both products.

Octadesk Agent records (name, email, role, team membership) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We resolve Agents by email match against the Zoho Desk user table. If a Zoho Desk Agent with the matching email does not exist, we provision a placeholder user record with the correct profile so that OwnerId lookups on Tickets resolve correctly. Octadesk agent roles (admin, supervisor, agent) map to Zoho Desk profiles based on the customer's chosen department and permission structure.

Octadesk Teams group Agents for routing and SLA assignment. Zoho Desk uses a Department hierarchy as the top-level org unit, with agents assigned to departments. We map Octadesk Teams to Zoho Departments, preserving team membership by assigning the migrated agents to the corresponding department. If Octadesk tickets reference team-level routing rules, we flag these for manual configuration in Zoho Desk Blueprint or Workflow Rules post-migration. Ticket routing and SLA assignment are tied to departments in Zoho Desk and must be configured before ticket import begins.

Octadesk Ticket custom fields are array-based (customField objects with name, value, type keys). We parse each array entry, infer the field type (text, numeric, date, dropdown) from the value structure, and create the corresponding flat custom field in Zoho Desk under the target department's layout. Field data type mismatches (e.g., a date stored as a string in Octadesk) are flagged for manual review and corrected in the export transform before import. Zoho Desk custom fields are scoped to departments, so we must know the target department per ticket before creating field values.

Octadesk automation rules (triggers, routing logic, macros) are not exposed via public API. We cannot migrate them as data. During scoping, we produce a detailed automation audit report listing every Octadesk rule — its trigger, conditions, actions, and the Octadesk internal IDs it references — so that the customer's admin can manually rebuild each in Zoho Desk's Workflow Rules (time-based and event-based), Blueprint (process stage gates), or Macros modules. This is a rebuild scope, not a data migration scope.

Octadesk's proprietary AI agent configurations and chatbot flows are stored on internal schemas not exposed via public API. These cannot be migrated programmatically. We document the active AI agent configurations (intent definitions, response flows, routing logic) as structured JSON during scoping and deliver a Zia AI and Zoho Bot configuration guide as a separate handoff document. Any AI-assisted ticket classification or response suggestion rules in Octadesk must be re-implemented using Zoho Desk's Zia AI module post-migration.

Tags applied across Tickets and Contacts in Octadesk are exported per record. We recreate them as Zoho Desk Tags and apply the same associations during import. Zoho Desk has tag character and length restrictions that require normalisation — we strip non-compliant characters and truncate to Zoho's maximum tag length during the transform step. Tags used for internal classification that exceed Zoho's tag limits are converted to multi-select picklist custom fields.

Attachments on Octadesk Tickets and Chats are referenced by URL. We download each file during the migration window, store it in temporary storage, and upload it to Zoho Desk attached to the corresponding Ticket or Thread record. Zoho Desk's assisted migration enforces a 10 GB file upload limit per migration; we coordinate large attachment batches across multiple upload sessions if needed. Any inline images embedded in Chat messages are extracted, downloaded, and re-inserted as Ticket comment attachments to preserve message fidelity.

Octadesk dashboards and performance reports reference Octadesk-specific metric definitions and aggregation logic that cannot be replayed in Zoho Desk. We export dashboard configurations as structured metadata describing the metrics, filters, and visualisation types in use. Zoho Desk's Reports module rebuilds equivalent reports using Zoho Desk's metric definitions (response time, resolution time, CSAT, first contact resolution). We deliver a report mapping table pairing each Octadesk report to its recommended Zoho Desk report type and provide a rebuild guide for the customer's admin.

Octadesk Products (if configured in the source portal) map to Zoho Desk Products with name, SKU, description, and unit price migrated directly. Products are imported before any Ticket records that reference them so that the product lookup resolves at ticket insert time.

Octadesk Chat message events (retrieved from /chat/{id}/events) are imported as Zoho Desk Ticket Comments. Each Comment preserves the message body, author type, timestamp, and channel metadata as Comment custom fields. The Comment author (agent or contact) is resolved against the migrated Agent and Contact records by email match. Comments are imported after both the parent Ticket and the author Agent or Contact records are present in Zoho Desk to satisfy the lookup dependency.