Migrate from Service Desk Panel to Intercom

Source Tickets map to Intercom Conversations. The ticket subject becomes the Conversation title, ticket description becomes the opening message, and all reply messages in the ticket thread map to Intercom message objects ordered by timestamp. Conversation source attribution (email, chat, phone) maps to Intercom's source field. We preserve the original ticket ID as a custom attribute intercom_source_id__c for audit and cross-reference.

Service Desk Panel Customers map to Intercom Contacts by email as the dedupe key. The customer name splits into first_name and last_name fields in Intercom. Any custom fields on the source Customer (phone, address, company association) map to Intercom Contact custom attributes, which must be pre-created in Intercom Settings > Data > Contact Attributes before import begins.

Source Customers associated with a company map to Intercom Companies. We use the company name as the Company name field and resolve the Contact-to-Company relationship by matching the source customer_email against the Contact email already imported. Intercom Company also captures monthly_spend and plan attributes if present in the source data.

Service Desk Panel Agents map to Intercom Admins (full workspace access) or Operators (inbox access only). We map by email match against the Intercom workspace User list. Agents without a matching Intercom account go to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before record import resumes. Agent role metadata from Service Desk Panel maps to a custom attribute agent_role__c for reporting purposes.

Source Teams map to Intercom Teams if the destination is on the Advanced plan or above, which unlocks team inboxes and routing rules. Teams are not available on Intercom Essential. We document the team roster during discovery and configure Inbox routing rules to assign Conversations to the correct team based on source Team assignment. If the destination is on Essential, team names migrate as a custom attribute team_name__c on the Conversation.

Source ticket tags migrate as Intercom Conversation tags. Tags are string arrays attached to the conversation record. Intercom handles tag deduplication automatically on import. We preserve the tag list as-is and recommend a post-migration tag consolidation review if the source used inconsistent naming.

File attachments on tickets migrate to Intercom as file attachments on the Conversation. Intercom restricts certain file types (.exe, .sys, .scr, .shb, .wsf) for security reasons and does not allow them as imports. We flag unsupported file types during scoping and exclude them from the migration with a record in the gotcha report. Inline images in message bodies migrate as separate file attachments.

SLA policies from Service Desk Panel do not migrate. Intercom's SLA functionality is available only on the Service subscription layer, which is an additional paid product on top of the Support subscription. We document every source SLA rule (first response time, resolution time, business hours, escalation recipients) in the migration package so the customer can manually configure equivalent policies in Intercom Service before go-live.

Source knowledge base articles map to Intercom Help Center articles within Collections and Sections. Article title, body content, author, and publish status carry forward. Formatting differences between platforms may require post-migration review of article layout, especially for articles containing tables, code blocks, or embedded media. Internal-only articles from Service Desk Panel map to Intercom articles with visibility set to Internal.

Automated rules, ticket routing logic, trigger actions, and escalation rules from Service Desk Panel do not migrate. Intercom's workflow model uses step-based bots and Inbox assignment rules that are not directly equivalent to source trigger conditions. We deliver a written inventory of every active Workflow with its trigger, conditions, and actions during discovery. The customer's admin rebuilds these in Intercom's workflow builder post-migration.

Source ticket custom fields require pre-creation in Intercom Settings > Data > Conversation Attributes before migration. We match by field label and data type, but the customer must confirm that a source dropdown field lands in an Intercom dropdown (select) rather than a text field. Unmapped custom fields are flagged in the mapping review step for customer approval before import begins.

Reporting and dashboard configurations do not migrate. Intercom's Reports hub provides conversation trends, CSAT, team performance, and bot resolution metrics natively. We note that historical Service Desk Panel ticket metrics (average resolution time, first response time by agent, ticket volume by category) are not transferable as pre-built reports; these metrics must be sourced from raw data exports if needed for trend continuity.