Migrate from OpenText ZENworks Service Desk to Freshdesk

ZSD Incidents map to Freshdesk Tickets with a unified ticket type model. We map ZSD incident.status to Freshdesk ticket.status, incident.priority to Freshdesk ticket.priority, incident.category to Freshdesk ticket.type or a custom ticket field, and incident.assigned_technician to Freshdesk ticket.agent_id via owner email resolution. SLA breach flags migrate as a custom ticket field sla_breached__c since Freshdesk evaluates SLA timers against its own calendar configuration post-migration.

ZSD Service Requests use the same schema as Incidents but with a distinct workflow type flag (request_type = 'Service Request'). We map all ZSD requests to Freshdesk Tickets with a custom field request_type__c set to 'Service Request', preserving the distinction between incident and request workflows. Request definitions linked to Catalog Categories migrate as a separate metadata export for the customer's Freshdesk admin to rebuild in Freshdesk's solution articles or product catalog.

ZSD Changes (RFCs) store full ITIL change management fields: Change Owner, CAB status, Risk/Impact/Urgent flags, and Scheduled Start/End dates. Freshdesk does not have a native Change object. We map ZSD Changes to Freshdesk Tickets with custom fields change_owner__c, cab_status__c, risk_rating__c, scheduled_start__c, and scheduled_end__c to preserve the operational context. The CAB workflow does not migrate as active configuration; we document it as a recommended Freshdesk Scenario Automation rebuild.

ZSD Problem records store root cause analysis, linked Known Errors, and associated Incidents. We map Problem records to Freshdesk Tickets with a custom field problem_root_cause__c and link the associated ZSD Incident IDs as a text field linked_incidents__c (comma-separated). Known Error associations migrate as a separate metadata table for the admin to rebuild as Freshdesk tags or linked solution articles.

ZSD Knowledge Articles store HTML-rich content with embedded links, tables, and images. We export the article body and re-encode HTML entities to ensure correct rendering in Freshdesk's rich-text editor. Keywords and visibility flags migrate as Freshdesk tags and article visibility settings. We flag articles exceeding 32 KB for pre-migration review, as Freshdesk's article size limits can cause import failures. A content diff report is delivered post-migration for editors to verify article integrity.

ZSD CIs store CI Class (Hardware, Software, Service), Name, Serial Number, Status, and linked owner. We map ZSD CIs to Freshdesk Assets, preserving the CI Class hierarchy as Freshdesk asset type values, serial_number as asset_tag, and the relationship map as a structured metadata export. CI-to-Incident linkages migrate as Freshdesk ticket custom fields linking to the corresponding asset record via Freshdesk's asset-ticket association.

ZSD User records include login name, email, full name, phone, location, department, and manager hierarchy. We bypass ZSD's broken Entra ID import module by querying the source Active Directory or Entra ID directly by UPN or objectGUID, then mapping user records to Freshdesk Contacts with department as a custom field and manager as a lookup field. Active users migrate as Freshdesk agents if they hold a technician role; inactive users migrate as contacts only.

ZSD Attachments are file blobs linked to Incidents, Requests, Changes, or Knowledge Articles. We export file blobs alongside their association metadata (parent object type and ID) and re-associate them to the corresponding Freshdesk Ticket or Solution Article via the Freshdesk API attachment endpoint. Large attachment volumes (over 5 GB total) may require chunked upload with retry logic due to Freshdesk API file size limits.