Migrate from Seraph to Zendesk

Seraph tickets map to Zendesk tickets with the subject, description, status, priority, and created/updated timestamps preserved. Seraph's internal ticket IDs are stored in a custom field seraph_original_id__c for cross-reference. If Seraph uses MySQL datetime columns for timestamps, we convert to Unix epoch before writing to Zendesk's ISO 8601 fields.

Seraph agent accounts map to Zendesk agent profiles. We match by email address as the dedupe key. Any Seraph agent without a matching Zendesk user is placed in a reconciliation queue for the customer's Zendesk admin to provision before the agent import phase begins.

Seraph end-user accounts map to Zendesk end-user profiles in the users endpoint. Email address is the dedupe key. If Seraph stores user data across multiple tables (a common pattern in Laravel-based applications), we join on the user_id foreign key before writing to Zendesk.

Seraph organizations (company records tied to tickets) map to Zendesk Organizations. Organization name becomes the Organization name field, and domain-based matching is applied post-import if Seraph stores domain data in the organization record.

Seraph ticket comments map to Zendesk ticket comments. We identify public versus private comments using Seraph's visibility column and set the public boolean on the Zendesk Comment API payload accordingly. Comment ordering is preserved by timestamp.

File attachments stored in Seraph's file directory or database blob columns migrate as Zendesk ticket attachments via the Attachments API. We extract the file name, MIME type, and binary content and POST each to the Zendesk Attachments endpoint before linking to the target ticket comment.

Seraph tags attached to tickets migrate to Zendesk tags. Zendesk applies a tag limit policy (maximum tags per ticket varies by plan), so we flag any ticket with more than 50 Seraph tags for customer review before import.

Seraph MySQL columns with ENUM or VARCHAR-backed choice fields map to Zendesk dropdown custom fields. We pre-create the Zendesk custom field with the exact option labels from Seraph before importing any ticket records. Option ordering is preserved when Seraph stores ordinal position.

Seraph boolean columns or TINYINT(1) fields map to Zendesk checkbox custom fields. We map 1/true/yes to checked and 0/false/no to unchecked.

Seraph numeric columns used for billing rates, contract values, or hour tracking map to Zendesk numeric custom fields. Zendesk numeric fields have no length restriction, which accommodates billing and contract data without truncation.

Seraph onsite visit records (location, scheduled time, assigned technician, visit outcome, and billing hours) are Seraph-specific with no Zendesk native equivalent. We migrate these as structured data merged into the parent ticket as internal comments with a standard prefix (e.g., [ONSITE VISIT DATA]:) and a custom Zendesk field set capturing the key visit metadata. The customer's Zendesk admin decides whether to keep this structure or replace it with a Service Hub field service integration post-migration.

Seraph billing and contract tracking fields (hourly rate, contract type, billing status, invoice reference) are IT-company-specific and have no Zendesk standard object. We merge these into the Zendesk ticket as a structured internal comment and optionally create Zendesk custom fields for the customer's admin to configure. We do not create a separate billing module in Zendesk; this data is preserved as a structured handoff for the customer's admin to handle.