Migrate from Pega Customer Service to Zendesk

Pega Cases map directly to Zendesk Tickets. We export pxID (Pega's case ID), pxStatus, pxPriority, pxCreateDateTime, and pxResolvedDateTime as structured rows. Active SLA timers export as metadata but do not resume in Zendesk; SLA Policy definitions in Zendesk are set to apply from ticket creation or first assignee assignment. Case Type, workgroup assignment, and routing history are preserved as custom ticket fields for audit and reporting. Comment threads map to Zendesk Ticket Comments with requester and agent attribution preserved via the Pega pxCreateOperator field.

Pega Contact records map to Zendesk End-User records. We map Contact firstName, lastName, email, phone, and address fields directly. Organization association from Pega's Contact-to-Organization relationship maps to Zendesk's Organization lookup. Any Pega custom Contact properties are handled via field-level mapping with type translation (Pega picklists to Zendesk dropdowns, Pega date properties to Zendesk date fields). Contacts without email addresses are imported as users with a placeholder email flagged for admin review.

Pega Organizations map directly to Zendesk Organizations. The organization name, website, and address fields transfer without transformation. The Pega Organization ID is preserved in a custom Zendesk field for cross-referencing. Zendesk Organization fields (domain names, tags, default SLA policy) are configured during the schema phase so that Organization-level SLA inheritance applies correctly to imported tickets.

Pega Workgroups map to Zendesk Groups. Workgroup names and descriptions transfer as Group name and description. The Workgroup-to-Agent assignment relationship maps to Zendesk Group membership; each Pega agent's Workgroup assignment becomes a Zendesk group membership record. Zendesk Groups do not have routing rule inheritance like Pega Workgroups; routing rules are documented separately as Zendesk Views and SLA Policy assignments for the admin to configure post-migration.

Pega Agents export with role, skill, and authorization data. Agent email is the dedupe key for Zendesk user provisioning. Role (manager, supervisor, agent) maps to Zendesk Agent role assignments. Skill ratings from Pega become custom Agent fields in Zendesk because Zendesk Skills is an add-on feature (Zendesk Workforce Management bundle) rather than a standard attribute. Agents without a matching Zendesk user go to a reconciliation queue for the admin to provision before the user import phase.

Pega Knowledge articles export as Zendesk Help Center articles. Article title, body text, and category metadata map to Zendesk article title, body (as HTML), and section. Pega Knowledge HTML markup requires content cleaning before insertion because Pega's authoring environment generates markup that does not render cleanly in Zendesk's Help Center rendering environment. Internal Pega properties (revision history, approval workflow status, article author) do not map to Zendesk equivalents. Media embedded in Pega articles is downloaded and re-uploaded to Zendesk as attachments.

Pega SLA rules attach to Case Types as structured rule objects containing threshold times (first response, next update, resolution) and escalation triggers. We export SLA thresholds and escalation metadata as structured rows. SLA definitions are translated to Zendesk SLA Policy records, which apply to tickets based on trigger conditions (ticket form, requester organization, or tag). Note that Zendesk SLA Policies apply from ticket creation rather than Pega's more granular SLA timer model; we set expectations for this difference during scoping.

Pega Case Types define the workflow, stages, and assignment logic for categories of cases. We export stage definitions, routing rule names, and Microjourney configurations as structured metadata records. Pega's rule-based configurations do not export as flat row data that Zendesk can ingest; they must be reconstructed in Zendesk's Admin using Triggers, Macros, and ticket forms. We provide a written Case Type audit document listing every active Case Type with its stage map, routing rule references, and recommended Zendesk equivalent configuration.

File attachments linked to Pega Cases and Knowledge Articles are exported by reference. We download the binary files and associate them with the target Zendesk Ticket or Help Center article. Zendesk supports file uploads up to 50MB per file via API; Pega attachments exceeding 50MB require chunked upload handling or archival to a linked storage URL with the link stored in a custom Zendesk field. Attachments over 20MB are flagged in the migration inventory for explicit customer approval before transfer.

Custom fields on Pega Cases, Contacts, and Organizations are detected during the discovery audit. We generate a complete field map before migration specifying Pega property name, Pega data type, and equivalent Zendesk custom field type. Pega multi-value properties (arrays) do not map to Zendesk native fields; these require either a comma-separated string in a Zendesk text field or a custom Zendesk object with a relationship, depending on the complexity. Pega picklist properties map to Zendesk dropdown or tag fields with the same option set.

Pega Knowledge Categories map to Zendesk Help Center Sections and Categories. The category hierarchy (parent category, child category) maps to Zendesk's section nesting structure. Category names and descriptions transfer directly. If Pega Knowledge uses tagging for article organization, tags migrate to Zendesk article labels. The section-to-article assignment is preserved during article import so the Help Center navigation structure is intact.

Chat transcripts, email threads, and phone interaction notes stored in Pega case history export as structured text. Channel metadata (email, chat, phone) is preserved as a custom ticket field rather than mapped to a native Zendesk channel type because Pega's interaction channel labels do not align with Zendesk's channel_categorization taxonomy. Thread ordering is preserved by timestamp. Call recordings and chat file attachments are handled separately under the Attachment mapping.